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Hazel

Sophisticated spot for killer cocktails and people-watching.

Sustainable produce is cooked over the flames.
1 / 9Sustainable produce is cooked over the flames.Supplied
Inside Hazel.
2 / 9Inside Hazel.Elika Rowell
Fresh ingredients.
3 / 9Fresh ingredients.Supplied
Cherry tomatoes, whipped cod roe and salmon pearls.
4 / 9Cherry tomatoes, whipped cod roe and salmon pearls.Wayne Taylor
Cookies and cream soft serve with caramel.
5 / 9Cookies and cream soft serve with caramel.Pete Dillon
A Melbourne classic.
6 / 9A Melbourne classic.Supplied
Dark chocolate mousse.
7 / 9Dark chocolate mousse.Joe Armao
Fettuccine with wilted greens and chilli.
8 / 9Fettuccine with wilted greens and chilli.Joe Armao
Brie platter.
9 / 9Brie platter.Joe Armao

Good Food hat15/20

Contemporary$$$

If there’s a seat available at one of the long peach marble bars, take it. Upstairs, watch embers transform pork belly into rosy, crunchy-skinned slabs. Downstairs, preppy bartenders pour vodka martinis with pickled green tomatoes, destined to match with one of Melbourne’s best bar snacks: golden brioche batons under plump squiggles of manchego custard.

You wouldn’t pick it, but the creators of this polished room, the ever-expanding Mulberry Group, also run a regenerative farm growing unconventional produce. The smoky sweetness of blackened friggitello peppers is offset by salty chevrano, the hard Dutch goat’s cheese. Finely diced raw trout is jolted by horseradish and blanketed under cucumber. And that wood-roasted pork? It’s accompanied by an intensely green charred leek and tomatillo broth.

Before relinquishing your bar stool, make sure you order a wedge of glossy honey tart. Its custard filling is so satiny, it’s gravity defying.

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Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/goodfood/vic-good-food-guide/hazel-20240222-p5f76k.html