The Deanery

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The Deanery: 13 Bligh Place, Melbourne, 9629 5599

My score: 3.5/5

‘We have to get serious now, folks,’ says our waiter, gently placing a quivering mushroom soufflé on the table. ‘It’s not going to get any better than this.’ He’s right. Souffles don’t spend a long time in peak condition: this one is puffed and golden and fragrant, smugly eating up its moment. So we ruin it with spoon and fork and appetite. It’s very good, light but flavoured with an intense mushroom duxelles, boosted with cep powder, a careful touch of truffle oil and tarragon. It’s a visually impressive dish and it also shows respect for vegetarians, who are often fobbed off with dull main courses.

The Deanery has a large ground-floor bar with intimate nooks and a mezzanine dining room. It’s been here, at the end of a laneway, since 2002, and ran with a mostly Middle Eastern menu until a brief flurry with contemporary cooking by Robin Wickens. After that, it fell off the radar a little bit. The current owners (ex-Carlton’s Lincoln Hotel) have just clocked up two years here and they’re offering a solid experience: not too fancy or fussy, not expensive, not too noisy, just reliable and nice. Service is really good: all the right things are done with water, bread, wine and food timing. The menu is a familiar split of small and large dishes with oysters shucked to order, good charcuterie, serious steak and an otherwise approachable global mishmash. Good dishes include the coarse, juicy pork and chicken sausage with apple risotto, and the lamb rolls: korma-style curry of lamb shoulder is rolled in brik pastry then pan-fried. It’s crisp then luscious with deep, rich, toasty flavours.

The Deanery’s cellar has always been a major point of difference. It offers rental space for private wine storage, enabling city dwellers and office toffs to come in anytime, unlock their cage, and extract a special bottle to drink here or take elsewhere. It’s an income stream but it also creates a suite of regulars. The cellar flanks the dining room and it’s fun to perve at other people’s collections. The restaurant’s own wine list is strong but accessible with a focus on accessible vintages and educational wine showcases. There are three local craft beers on tap too.

There are plenty of frenzied, trendy city restaurants. This isn’t one of them. For many, that will only add to the Deanery’s appeal.

See their website.

More drink your own:

New Gold Mountain, 21 Liverpool Street, Melbourne, 9650 8859
Every bottle of spirits at this multilevel bar is available for ‘bottle keep’, that is, you buy the bottle and they keep it here for you to drink when you like. There’s everything from Mongolian vodka to rum from Guadeloupe.

Maedaya Sake and Grill, 400 Bridge Road, Richmond, 9428 3918
There’s bottle keep at this fun yakitori bar too. You might have a sake flight (selection) then buy a bottle of your favourite so it’s waiting for you next visit.

The Valley Cellar Door, 18 Hall Street, Moonee Ponds, 9370 2000
Buy a bottle from this wine store and bar and drink it on-site for $6 corkage. Drinkers are welcome to bring their own food, order takeaway from nearby restaurants or throw a snag on the barbecue out the back.

First published in The Age, May 13, 2012