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Sit in Holy Basil, maybe under the gleaming golden rice sheaf wall feature, perhaps opposite the thrumming kitchen on a cushioned bench. You’ll hear the clatter of woks, smell coconut and sizzling shallots and see a friendly, efficient restaurant that’s delivering for the outer east.

More than likely you’ll have dodged a couple of people picking up takeaway as you make your way through the entrance porch: this is a restaurant that looks after its community, and that includes diners who want to stay home, and definitely those avoiding gluten, dairy and animal products.

The seven-year-old venue is owned by Thai chef Julia Phahonvanich and her chef husband Duncan Robertson. Experienced operators with a history in suburban Thai dining, this energetic restaurant feels like the place they’ve consolidated all their experience, plus enacted new ideas such as a focus on reducing energy consumption and food waste. I bet locals are mighty delighted to have Holy Basil in their vicinity.

Melbourne-style Thai fusion is presented in colourful, balanced dishes that are modestly spiced and eat well. The rice ball salad is a vegan spin on yum khao tod, a fried rice ball street snack from northern Thailand and Laos. Traditionally, rice cakes are broken apart and tossed with pork crackling and salad ingredients.

Here they’re left whole and described as “red curry arancini”. Coral mushrooms sub in for the crackling, offering their own wet crunch, and herbs are scattered on top. It’s a bright, tasty dish and speaks to the Holy Basil project: sensitive to dietaries as it boldly but respectfully refashions classics.

Some dishes are more straightforward. Prawns are curry-battered, crisp-fried and tossed with excellent sticky tamarind dressing. Curry pastes are made here (and packaged to take home, too). They’re seen to great effect in the silky Massaman mains: there’s a signature fall-apart duck Maryland, and a riotous vegan version jaunty with pineapple.

The pork belly stir-fry is as much about its vegetable components: snake beans, capsicum, bean shoots and Thai basil give the dish fragrance and energy. The tea leaf salad has been on the menu since day one and is a go to for me: slightly funky from the lahpet, there’s also crunch from soy-fried legumes and purple cabbage.

Cocktails, mocktails, tap beer and a decent wine list set Holy Basil apart. The desserts are good, too. Date and longan pudding is doused in lemongrass-spiked caramel, illustrating the kitchen’s facility in balancing Euro techniques with Thai flavours. If it’s starting to feel more like spring, the lime creme brulee with lychee marshmallow is a great choice, presented with the care and pride that infuses everything at this lovely little restaurant.