VICTORIA
Osteria ITALIAN
1175 Morning ton-Flinders Rd, Red Hill tedesca.com.au
Chef Brigitte Hafner
Price guide $$$$
Bookings Essential
Wheelchair access Yes
It starts at the front door, a hand-tooled thing of beauty that signals both attention to detail and a penchant for the singular and hand-crafted. It’s evident inside too, particularly with the kitchen being in the dining room, with chef-owner Brigitte Hafner rolling pasta on the blackened timber bench against a backdrop of the brick hearth’s flames licking at ducks, or pork, or vegetables. It has a dinner at a friend’s place vibe, underlined by the laidback service and the single seating policy, so lunch stretches to leisurely hours that include a visit to the wine cellar or a stroll around the gardens. The menu’s loose script is antipasto, pasta, fish, meat and dessert but how that manifests depends on what’s being produced nearby. Perhaps local mussels, loosened on the grill and tossed through pasta, suckling lamb flavoured with herbs and wine, or a berry tart. It is all good, often sublime, including the wine from a geographically diverse list. A must.
Anchovy VIETNAMESE
338 Bridge Rd, Richmond (03) 9428 3526 anchovy.net.au
Chef Thi Le
Price guide $$
Bookings Recommended
Wheelchair access Yes
Besides the thrilling, original cooking of Anchovy chef and co-owner Thi Le, the most exciting thing about this modern Vietnamese-Australian restaurant is its constant evolution. When it opened in 2015 – in a sparsely decorated Bridge Road shopfront (the minimalist approach remains but is now more upholstered) – Le’s menus immediately showed a promising and unique perspective through mediums as diverse as pickled mussels, Vietnamese blood pudding and salad dressings made with fermented tofu. Once à la carte, Anchovy now serves a set menu of eight to ten dishes that might include a version of bánh bèo served with a cured pork relish, custard apple ice-cream teamed with gingerbread granita, or garfish, expertly boned and topped with jicama and rice paddy. The lockdown experiment of bánh mì through an Anchovy filter (fillings include jungle spice pork sausage and
