Os Kitchen & Wine Bar – Dani Valent

Back to Restaurant Reviews
Os Kitchen & Wine Bar: 531 Hampton Street, Hampton, 9533 1922

My score: 4/5

Hampton has long been one of those ‘should be’ suburbs: the neighbourhood is fairly affluent and the shopping strip is long and varied so it feels like there should be more and better restaurants beyond the serviceable mid-range Japanese, Indian, Greek and ‘cup of cino’ places. The problem is that the people you think should come to restaurants to spend money often don’t do so. They’re home looking at their school fee statements, eating tuna pasta, opening a bottle of Koonunga Hill.

It’s changing, slowly, thanks in part to Os (it’s Latin for ‘mouth’), a refined and warm new 35-seat restaurant, owned by a local couple, hospitality lifers Marie and Alastair Dobbs. Alastair’s most recent gig was managing Richmond’s Church St Enoteca. Os is aimed realistically at the market, with a petite bistro-style menu, mains under $35, and a wine list that answers the BYO leanings of the territory with unusual varieties and back vintages of more famililar wines – you won’t find any of them at local Dan Murphy’s, and you’re unlikely to see wine served in varietal-specific Riedel glassware elsewhere in Hampton. Clever wine flights are a fun way to venture forth.

The meat slicer is kept busy creating no-frills charcuterie platters: you might eat Spanish jamon, excellent Adam Foster shiraz-spiked salami, and artisan lonza (cured pork loin). Chef Rachel Ginty’s classical technique is rock solid, demonstrated in dishes with Italian leanings, lovely sauces and bang-on seasoning. Ginty has cooked at Cicciolina and the St Kilda and Windsor Delis but the Dobbs noticed her when she did shifts at Enoteca. I loved the trofie pasta twirls tossed with asparagus, zucchini and pesto, and the barramundi fillet, perfectly cooked with lightly crisped skin, and served with a chive veloute as smooth as an auctioneer. There’s a flame-grilled dish of the day: we lucked onto a monumental T-bone; spatchcock is the current sacrificial offering. Desserts – chocolate torte, pannacotta (bland and overset in the night’s only misfire) – are further evidence that the menu is safe rather than striving, but there’s nothing wrong with good food in tried and true combinations.

Os has a smart pitch and a nice feel, as though the main point of this welcoming venue isn’t to make money but to service the neighbourhood, to say respectfully, ‘Hampton, we think you’re ready for this’. I suspect Hampton will be in furious agreement.

See their website.

More Hampton:

Pinocchio, 358 Hampton Street, Hampton, 9598 4188
The large room has a hint of Giuseppe Arnaldo & Sons and there’s a big menu to match. You might start with sardine sandwiches and continue with pappardelle with lamb ragu and crumbed veal rib eye.

Zipang, 1 Service Street, Hampton, 9521 8338
You wouldn’t come for the atmosphere but this no-frills Japanese eatery is popular for eat-in and take-away at keen prices. Try the special beef yakiniku don.

The Spare Room, 545 Hampton Street, Hampton, 9598 2341
Super kid friendly and with a spacious courtyard, this is one spare room that’s nice to hang around in.

First published in The Age, October 23, 2011

Back to Restaurant Reviews

2017-09-18T18:11:01+10:00

Leave A Comment

© Dani Valent 2024