THE SERVE
The Sunday Age
Sunday December 6, 2009
Rating: 4/5Middle Park Hotel102 Canterbury Road, Middle Park, 9690 1958Licensed AE DC MC V EftposDaily, noon-1am (kitchen noon-3pm; 6pm-10pm)Entrees: $12-$18; Mains: $26-$68; Desserts: $12-$16Our table of double-daters is debating the menu at the Middle Park Hotel, recently massaged to marvellousness by restaurateur Julian Gerner, the Six Degrees design dandies and superchef Paul Wilson. We've already talked about the canny blend of pub raunch, sporty savvy and recycled chic. We ballooned with pride over the all-Victorian wine list. Now, we're salivating over menu items such as posh prawn cocktail, lamb chop and wood-barbecued fish. There's not much room for a word edgewise, but the gentleman at the next table has a go. He leans over, eyes glistening. "You must have the offal," he says, poking a sweetbread morsel into the cone of silence that descends. Not everyone in our party rolled up in keen anticipation of calf head, lamb kidney and pig tongue, but there's consensus about validating the adjacent diner's passion. Offal it is and it's fantastic, built on a gelatinous disc of brawn and cut with mustard remoulade and apple salad. The offal's crowning glory is a streaky wagyu heart wafer; it's been brined, cold-smoked and grilled. The dish won't be for everyone but it's indicative of a celebratory approach to produce, evident in the superb steaks (try the tasty hanger), the exemplary roast chicken and a delicious salad of devilled egg, tuna sashimi and black Russian tomatoes.Head chef David Marshall cooked with Paul Wilson at the Botanical. Both Brits, they have a passion for ballsy Euro food that turns retro at times. Those posh prawns come with disco-era Mary Rose sauce (mayo and ketchup, spiked with brandy and Tabasco), and desserts such as apricot bread-and-butter pudding would be comfort food supreme if, by some miracle of restraint, you're not uncomfortably full by dinner's end. Overall, this is food as food, nor art or science, and cheffing as enthusiastic effort not cleverpants grandstanding. Tips and pans to theserve@theage.com.auaAlso tryRoyal Saxon, 545 Church Street, Richmond, 9429 5277. Daily, lunch and dinner.An old stager has morphed into a modern Italian eatery with a focus on thin-crust pizza.Carringbush Hotel, 228 Langridge Street, Abbotsford, 9417 2918. Daily, lunch and dinner (dining room closed Sat lunch and Sun).There are two ways to go here: the bar menu, where snags and steak sangers are the go, or the dining room, for dishes such as chorizo-stuffed roasted quail.Terminus Hotel, 492 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill, 9481 3182. Daily, dinner.Fancy dishes such as crab souffle and spiced cuttlefish share billing with beer-battered fish and classic chicken parma.
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