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A disciple of Thai food luminary David Thompson, Damien Jones combines that experience with home-town pride at his backstreet Ballarat restaurant. He fills the walls with local art, the wine list with local juice and the menu with local produce (perhaps Sher wagyu), cooked mostly in the key of Thailand.

A clever opener of green star fruit pressed with cashew nuts and dried prawns plays like crustaceous taffy. Snapper is poached to tenderness in coconut milk humming with red curry. The menu swerves to Hong Kong for a delicate calamari, pork and chicken dumpling suspended within a pure chicken broth possessing the depth of superior stock.

Heady mandarin sorbet is a bright complement to fudgy chocolate cake. Career waiters handle pacing, napkin-draping and curly questions with just the right amount of aplomb, making any visit feel special, not stuffy.