From the new The Age Good Food Guide 2011, our countdown of the 10 most iconic Melbourne dining experiences.
They’re the places you’d send an out of towner, the places you’re happy to go to again and again. Some have been around for decades, some are fresh new arrivals on the dining scene. But they’re all quintessentially Melbourne. On August 30, The Age Good Food Guide 2011 will be launched at a gala awards night at Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria. In the lead up, we'll bring you a sneak preview, day by day, of Ten Top restaurants that the new guide considers “Essential Melbourne”. Chosen by the panel of five who decide the Guide’s annual awards, they’re the restaurants that help make Melbourne dining unique.
#8.
Cookie
Level 1, 252 Swanston Street, City, 9663 7660
The lofty-ceilinged retro/Euro room is classic Melbourne, dripping with the colourful history of Swanston Street, on which it sits at tree level, the former home of Tattersalls, and the communist party, its building a 1920s charmer that’s been renovated but retains rakish charm. The modern Thai food ranges from solid to sublime, sometimes stridently salty or spicy, at others alluringly fragrant. Talking about its floral crockery, plastic doily settings and old children’s Golden Books as bill folders doesn’t do justice to the place’s style, it’s long bar and buzzy dining room are effortlessly at home in a building which bears the name of the wartime PM. You might start with banana chillies, stuffed with chicken and kaffir lime, or a punchy fish and coconut custard, then follow with fried snapper garlanded with peppercorns, or baby squid stuffed with mince pork in a feisty hot, sour and salty sauce. Chef Karen Batson has made eating Thai exciting again, and Cookie makes it fun, too.
Tomorrow: Essential Melbourne dining # 7
Yesterday: #9 Taxi Dining Room
Compiled from The Age Good Food Guide 2011, on sale at bookstores from 31 August. Available to pre-order New edition available soon online or as an App for the Blackberry or iPhone.
Been there? Tell us what you think...
Classic Melbourne ... Cookie on Swanston Street.