Saint Peters – Dani Valent

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6 Melbourne Place, Melbourne, 9663 9882

My score: 4/5

Sometimes one dish is all it takes to remind me why I love restaurants. Right now Maurice Esposito’s fabulous flathead is it. It’s not often I order flathead in a restaurant – what can a chef do with a fine piece of fish that I can’t do at home? So long as I don’t trash it, it’s going to be good. But Esposito elevates great produce with smart ideas and superb cooking.

For a start, he’s got the connections to score better fish (gently trawled, tipped into ice slurry, brain spiked) than I’ll find at my fisho (most likely indiscriminately trawled and suffocated). He fillets this magnificent fish, sprinkles it with coriander and mustard seeds, then grills it. The flesh is firm and distinct, the flavour lively. It’s served with excellent slow-cooked calamari, oyster mushrooms, sweet parsnip puree and spiced Vin Santo reduction to create a dish that’s brimful with respect, showstoppingly elegant and shockingly tasty.

Esposito owns an eponymous Carlton restaurant where sustainable, superfresh seafood is also the focus (non-fish dishes are available). His new city restaurant, in the old Canary Club, finds a nice balance between refined and relaxed. Kitchen and bar are at ground level and bar snacks come at keen prices. Prosciutto-wrapped fried sardines are hot, crunchy and totally summer. Semolina-crumbed oysters are the culinary equivalent of getting in the green room: a clean break is followed by a sea-salty rush. Terrific zucchini flowers are stuffed with smoked eel mousse and beer battered. I love summer veg.

Not everything rocked my world. A pretty, cylindrical mudcrab and shredded apple salad tasted good but shell residue in the dish made for clunky eating. Likewise with the shell-marred yabby gyoza, one of five pasta dishes that point to the Italian heart of this largely French-leaning food. The stark white yabby parcels interspersed with roasted beetroot make for arresting presentation but the flavours and textures of the dish didn’t quite meld.

Service is polished under longtime Stokehouse manager Mariano Massara, one of few Melbourne waiters who can silver serve a dish without making it feel like a naff historical flourish. However, there are some signs of strain at busy times, and not just from the stair-tromping staff. At least it’s a comfortable place for diners: the unmatched but gorgeous dining chairs are stylish eye candy and just one more reason why Saint Peter’s should reel them in.

First published in The Age, December 12, 2010

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2017-09-18T18:33:41+10:00

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