Restaurant review: Midnight Starling

Midnight Starling, a traditional bistro in Kyneton, Victoria, is a reminder that ‘delicious’ will always trump ‘new’.

Midnight Starling. Picture: Jesse Marlow

“Johnny," says The Plumber, tone switching from fireside chat to matters of concern. "I'm not eating out nearly as much as I used to. It's just all too hard." The Plumber is a brilliant sounding board for people like me; interested in the industry and its characters but, obviously, not of it. He rubs his chin and vents ...

"Booking's a nightmare if a place takes bookings at all, and when you can, it's either 5.30 or 8.30. And you know, I'm a tradie, I don't spend a lot of time on computers, I like to ring up and make a booking. Then you get there and it's chefs in love with themselves, telling you what you can and can't do, tattoos everywhere, and I just want to have dinner with my wife, you know. I just can't be bothered with it all."

Raw nerves touched, I tell him he'd like this place in Kyneton called Midnight Starling. He's all ears.

It's a warm little bistro in the traditional, not contemporary "bistronomique" sense. Not flash, but comfortable. You phone to make a reservation and they don't dictate sittings, just sound glad to get the call. You arrive to a simple space with bentwood chairs, timber tables set with linen napkins, a chalkboard with daily specials and, on one wall, that famous Hogarth print called Gin Lane. Beneath it, a row of Four Pillars gin bottles.

A woman behind the bar smiles as you step in from the cold; a host/ waiter/sommelier comes out to greet you and light a metaphorical fire of hospitality, and the tone is set for the night, really. It's just ... easy.

Midnight Starling is operated by chef Steve Rogers, an alumni of restaurant Jacques Reymond, and is pleasantly French in its identity, from aperitifs to wine, general cosiness to menu. Especially the menu.

Starling is not about gastro revelation; it's about familiar dishes, cooked well with fine produce, tapping into a French tradition of flavoursome, rewarding, timehonoured food, not austere plating of contrasting tastes designed to challenge. Harmony.

And I think it's what people are coming back to. Where the modern bistro movement delivers "new", the traditional - done properly delivers "delicious".

Excellent baguette with salted butter precedes a shared truffled mushroom and silverbeet risotto (pictured). It's truffle season and the dish is completely uncompromised, smelling the biz with a heady layer of good fresh shavings of quality funghi, not woody nonsense. There's a savoury bite of parmesan, a clean finish rather than the creamy gloop of some ... Delicious.

Volaille demi-deuil - the name means "chicken in half-mourning", referring to the veil-like appearance of the black truffles tucked under the skin - is poached and served with an intense jus and baby veg. It's perfectly cooked, with a decent dash of luxury.

Pan-roasted hapuku fillet is served with a very impressive champagne sauce, seared and intensely sweet Port Phillip scallops and little gnocchi Parisienne. Plus a side of petits pois with particularly smoky bacon. Everything promised.

The desserts follow the very same path: crisp-shelled, toasted pain d'epices with lovely vanilla ice cream and poached quince - about as close to my perfect dessert as possible - and a fair old crack at creme caramel with pistachiodusted poached rhubarb.

The whole experience is an unbridled pleasure. And I know I'm not alone when I say this is what eating out should be. I'm going back with The Plumber. He'll be happy.

Truffled mushroom and silverbeet risotto. Picture: Jesse Marlow

AT A GLANCE

MIDNIGHT STARLING

Address: 60 Piper Street, Kyneton, Vic

Contact: 03 5422 3884 midnightstarling.com.au

Hours: Lunch Thu-Sun; dinner Wed-Sun

Typical prices: Entrees $18; larger dishes $35; desserts $16

Like this? Try ... Du Fermier, Trentham, Victoria; Le Mistral, Willunga, SA

Summary: Flying high

Rating: 3½ stars