Range
Contemporary
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It might start with ‘an anchovy and its fried bones’: a meal both strikingly contemporary yet very much a relaxed country dining experience reflecting diverse culinary inspiration. And if it then moves on to a salad of cold-poached chicken with spring onion and soy dressing (with a Japanese steamed corn custard), or a zucchini carpaccio with black-olive sauce and tomato jelly, or even a buttery braise of toasted orzo, peas and wild rabbit, so much the better.
What Range lacks in rustic charm (it is, after all, a modern dining room in a simple location) it makes up for with special, regionally focused modern cooking. It’s a chef’s restaurant, and it shows in everything from the quirky menu to the excellent produce on the plate. Beef is usually brilliant, whether a Japanese-style tataki with pickled vegetables, mushrooms and a miso custard, or ‘merely’ a steak: superb local porterhouse with blue-cheese butter, balsamic-roasted radicchio and a kipfler and tomato salsa ‘salad’.
Even dessert – say a whole fig in salted-butter pinenut praline with local fig icecream and ‘whipped raspberry juice’ mousse – reflects serious creativity. The district is very lucky to have Michael Ryan and his restaurant.
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Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/goodfood/melbourne-eating-out/range-20100216-2akgn.html