505 Wine Room

"Everyone in here has had their hair done … today," my mate whispers at me across the table, and I think she's right. Even the blokes in suits look freshly coiffured, and the extravagantly blow-waved ladies at the next table are ordering their second bottle of Bollinger. Just put it on the card!

Expensive pub renovations are tricky to nail. For every Builders Arms Hotel elevation, there's a 505 Wine Room. It used to be the Bush Inn, which was one of those classic Melbourne corner boozers with sport trivia, greasy parmas and a cigarette machine, but its prime location in Hawksburn Village meant it was a sitting duck for a makeover.

Interior designer Ricky Smith is the vision behind the refit, and it's as chintzy as a box of European chocolates. I'm told he designs the interiors of superyachts, but here the metal cages of spotlit wine bottles, high-backed velvet chairs and tones of indigo and aqua feel more like a high-end cruise ship.

The wine list is good, though, and sweeps the spectrum of price and origin (there are chardonnays for days), and you'll be able to find something to suit your party, whether it's that bottle of Bollinger or a more discreet drop.

Try a syrupy, generous Dr Loosen riesling from Germany, or a light, velvety Eastern Peake pinot noir, both decent value at $65 a bottle.

It's a shame the 16 tightly spaced pages of wines and standard cocktails are bundled together in a cheap Officeworks-style clipboard that spills everywhere when the pages are turned.

The enthusiastic staff vigorously upsell a special of "Asian style" Moreton Bay bugs. The tight crustaceans are low on flesh, high on glossy, sugary sauce and arrive with the world's smallest finger bowl for us to fight over.

The steak tartare is blended to a curious paste and comes with latticed potato chips that taste strangely like McDonald's fries – or perhaps that's because I can see the two-storey Maccas glowing over the road outside.

The tuna crudo was the best of our snacks, well-cured cubes of fish tossed with firm edamame beans and a kick of wasabi and miso with crisp lavash bread.

The salon-fresh drinkers seem totally at home, and there's no doubt the revamp caters well to a certain customer who never ventures west of Williams Road. But as nip and tucks go, it's a Botox job: smooth, but unmoving.

Drink this Eastern Peake pinot noir, $65.

Eat this Tuna crudo, $14.

Say this "It's the real house wines of Melbourne."

Know this There's a smart bottle shop on site for takeaway.