Taxi Dining Room: Level 1, Transport Hotel, Federation Square, Melbourne, 9654 8808
My score: 4/5
A full-immersion Melbourne experience can mean many things. Leaping to catch a hoiked six at the MCG is one definition. Explaining to visitors that our cobbled laneways outgun our so-called tourist attractions is definitely Melbs. And, on recent experience, I’d rank Taxi as essential Melbourne too. It doesn’t have the magnetic qualities of newer restaurants but it’s on song and, unlike most, it isn’t taking a summer sabbatical, but is forging straight into 2012.
The Federation Square perch makes the most of our city’s modest sights, miraculously rendering Flinders Street Station as picturesque as Grand Central, and the Yarra as fetching as the Danube. The plush but unstuffy dining room is anchored by an open kitchen. Service has shrugged off some formalities too. It’s good overall, though the excellent waiters on the large team highlight the lack of experience and nous of some others. Call me a grump, but I didn’t appreciate being asked ‘How are we travelling?’ half a dozen times.
As it happened, we were travelling well because the food is outstanding. Executive chef Tony Twitchett, a long-time lieutenant to previous kitchen commander Michael Lambie, has been in the role for a year, backed by head chef Perry Schagen. The food is contemporary Australian and Japanese, as it has been since the restaurant opened in 2004, and there’s a dedicated sushi chef Kenji Ito. Vegetarian and gluten-free degustations are available.
None of us should be eating endangered yellowfin tuna but I can’t deny the extreme succulence of the scrolled sashimi, ruby red and brushed with a konbu (seaweed) dressing so perfectly balanced that it should double as a highwire act. The meat cooking is the best I’ve tasted for a while. In the case of both seared kingfish and five-spice duck the skin is crunchy and the flesh evenly cooked and ridiculously moist. The fish comes with creamy fennel puree and a perfectly judged aromatic dressing of Madeira, raspberry vinegar and shellfish oil. The duck demonstrates a facility with Chinese flavours; its five-spice dressing is a secret house blend.
Taxi’s food isn’t perhaps as adventurous as it has been but the flavours are nicely poised and the cooking is expert. It’s the right pitch for a restaurant that’s popular with out-of-towners, deal-sealers and special occasion celebrators. Finding the middle ground between fancy and approachable will ensure people keep calling Taxi quintessential Melbourne.
See their website.
More open on New Year’s Day:
Thanh Nga Nine, 160 Victoria Street, Richmond, 9427 7068
Victoria Street is a good bet for holiday meals with most restaurants trucking on. I love this place for its savvy service and fresh Vietnamese food.
St Ali, 12-18 Yarra Place, South Melbourne, 9686 2990
The South Melbourne cafe is kicking off the New Year with a recovery breakfast. Stagger in for fry ups with extra carbs and Prohibition cocktails.
Middle Fish, 122-128 Berkeley Street, Carlton, 0416 411 192
Start 2012 in a spacious booth at this new warehouse cafe, where the Southern Thai menu includes fish curry soup.
First published in The Age, January 1, 2012
Leave A Comment