Chancery Lane Melbourne review: Safe, comforting, indulgent new restaurant from chef Scott Pickett
If you’d told me 14 years ago that this man would be the brains behind some of Melbourne’s hottest restaurants, I’d have choked on my bone marrow.
Scott Pickett came home from London in 2002 and, after several cooking jobs he regarded as “finishing school”, landed the role of head chef – his first as such – at a now defunct Albert Park restaurant.
I probably met him around then and if you’d told me that 14 years later he’d be “CEO – Scott Pickett Group” (Matilda 159, Estelle, Lupo, Pickett’s Deli, Pastore, Longrain and Chancery Lane), I’d have choked on my bone marrow. He was a rough diamond, and in some ways still is.
Pickett came over to say hello while we had a drink at the big, solid bar of Chancery Lane – his newest restaurant in the unrecognisable shell of the old Iki Jimi/Vue de Monde – and that same affable country boy who bought himself a Harley as soon as he could afford the spoil is still there.
But he is also now a major player in the Melbourne restaurant scene. During Covid-19 his company acquired Longrain and built this new place from scratch. And yet here he is on a Saturday night, when he might be home with the wife and kids, or at the footy, working the pass alongside the head chef. Remember that Molly Meldrum phrase from the Countdown years “the hardest-working man in rock’n’roll”? Yeah, that’s Pickett.
Does this matter? Well, yes. The guy has a following; his customers may not quite be able to put a finger on exactly what kind of food it is (modern bistro?) but they like his restaurants. They’re inevitably well run, friendly, elegant and offer lots of good old fashioned service, and moody Chancery Lane, in the legal district, is no different. This part of the city is a hard sell even when the community isn’t reeling from Covid, and yet the restaurant is full, bubbling. Where are they all from?
From that big, solid central bar and over to the unclothed table at our booth, it becomes clear that French-based, classic cooking continues to be the foundation of his approach: a nice protein with a good sauce; plenty of butter and cheese; good pastries. It isn’t edgy, but is the market for edgy quite so big any more? People want comfort, reassurance, not reinvention, and Chancery Lane delivers.
The menu is particularly flexible, too, with a stack of “departments”, from “Caviar” to an excellent “Cheese” bracket. Bravo. But go trad and you might find yourself with a lovely entree of Wagyu tartare tossed with tomato jelly, celery, capers and smoked egg yolk, crowned with a potato wafer, creme fraiche and Uruguayan caviar. Familiar and luxe, I’ll bet it will sell very, very well.
Ditto, for different reasons, a thin and very well made pastry tart filled with aromatic beetroot puree, exceptional fresh goat curd and a variety of baby beets prepared in different ways, some in fats, some in acid. It’s pretty and successful.
The menu offers four “Main” dishes, another eight from the “Grill” either for one or two. From the former, we’re talking blanquette de veau and dory with Beaujolais sauce. Everything old…
From, I’m told, a Josper charcoal oven, a whole New Zealand flounder with a Cafe de Paris butter (a complex compound) is little short of perfect. Exactly what it promises. Great fish, cooked right with a delicious “sauce”, lemon, baby peas and cos to the side.
A pork cutlet, sliced for plating and tossed with buttery Vichy carrots, served with a barbecue sauce, is a good dish but the pork itself is a bit tough and sinewy. Sides – you may want them – include a glazed/stuffed onion “farci” and an alpine potato dish, tartiflette, consisting of cheese, onion and pancetta, which my medically inclined companion deemed delicious but dangerous.
We had some interesting wines, because the sommelier is extremely good at her job, and a peach Melba that left me sitting on the fence; needs more acid. A chocolate, sultana and Pedro Ximinez tart with vanilla ice cream made with fennel bread is a bit like the flounder: exactly what it promises, textbook.
It, like the restaurant, hits the emotional bullseye of our times. Safe, comforting, indulgent. Another Pickett success story, or so it would seem.
ADDRESS: 430 Little Collins St, Melbourne
CONTACT: (03) 9759 8089 chancerylane.com.au
HOURS: Lunch Thu-Fri; dinner Tue-Sat
TYPICAL PRICES: Entrees $27; mains $40; desserts $19
LIKE THIS? TRY… Matilda, Melbourne; Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sydney
SUMMARY: All grown up
STARS (out of 5): Three and a half stars
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