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Is it odd that a restaurant inside a former church minister’s manse feels like coming home? Not once you try the Welsh rarebit. Served on a sproingy crumpet with nooks and crannies for the cheese sauce to soak into, it comes with a bottle of Worcestershire sauce and an urging to use it liberally.

Then there’s the welcome from co-owner Rebecca Baker, who holds open the door of the bluestone building when you arrive – and again when you leave. Whole John dory displays the elemental cooking of her partner Mark Hannell: its flesh imbued with subtle oceanic flavour.

Rhubarb and chocolate tart is as straightforwardly delicious as good fruit meets good chocolate and good pastry. Sunlight streams through arched windows, and across the courtyard sits celebrated bar Caretaker’s Cottage. Like its neighbour, Reed House is shaping up to be a new Melbourne essential.