Pei Modern: Collins Place, 45 Collins Street, Melbourne, 9654 8545
My score: 4/5
Just named Best New Restaurant in The Age Good Food Guide 2013, Pei Modern melds the casual buzz and accessible pricing of the bistro with the clever food ideas and seriously good cooking you’d expect in gastronomic temples – hence the ‘bistronomy’ tag. The owner is chef Mark Best: his Sydney restaurant Marque is one of those gastrotemples, though it’s a witty and savvy example of the breed. Best’s Melbourne incursion stars local chef Matt Germanchis (Pandora’s Box); the team of waiters is led by Ainslie Lubbock (Attica, Royal Mail), awarded the Good Food Guide’s gong for service excellence. Crack team, cracking experience.
As befits the modern bistro, there are lots of ways to slice and dice a visit here. Grab a bacon and mustard sandwich on the way to work. Pop in at lunchtime for hanger steak. Hit the bar for an interesting glass of wine and anchovy shortbreads before a film at the Kino. Or, my favourite, come for dinner and spend the whole night here, eating as much as possible.
There’s plenty to love. Lovely moist sourdough is delivered in an origami napkin. Diners retain an evil dagger throughout the meal. The waiter announces the specials along with their prices (a too, too rare phenomenon). I reckon you can taste the smiles in this food: the produce is so good and there’s rigor and system to the cooking. A dish of roasted rabbit, saltbush and turned Jerusalem artichokes offers flashes of dusty plains; a light but sticky brown jus holds the dish together and adds extra depth. The seductive sweetness of carrots and sweetbreads is set free by a glorious acidic sauce with a peppery spike. A massive rib-eye to share comes with a dark gravy of immense integrity, though the beef itself was unevenly cooked.
Playful diffusion versions of Marque classics are among the winning dishes. I really like the riff on Best’s crab and almond gazpacho, dressed down with grapes and casual sprigs of parsley, but I totally swoon for his potato ‘cappuccino’ with sprinkles of coffee and shaved dried tuna. This dish is coming with me to the desert island and I don’t care if I ever get rescued. There’s also a spiced tomato dessert that offers a fun game of ‘what’s that spice?’ but the pick of the sweets, for my money, is the fresh, savoury sorrel sorbet with white chocolate and mandarin. Pei Modern is spry, noisy and fun: if this is bistronomy, I am a fan.
See their website.
More bistronomy:
Estelle Bar & Kitchen, 243 High Street, Northcote, 9489 4609
Chefs Ryan Flaherty and Scott Pickett design the north’s most interesting tasting menus; choose three courses for $50 or settle in for nine courses at $110.
Cumulus Inc, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, 9650 1445
From early morning to late night, this no-bookings dining parlour delivers stylish, thoughtful, confident and tasty food and drink.
Trocadero, Arts Centre, St Kilda Road, Melbourne, 8698 8888
Okay, this is probably more a brasserie than a bistro, but it’s worth a guernsey because it brings serious hospitality smarts to the relaunched Hamer Hall and opens up a part of the river that has been more wind tunnel than gastronomic destination.
First published in The Age, September 16, 2012
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