First taste of Supernormal Canteen down south

Good news, St Kilda. You've got your New England lobster roll back. Andrew McConnell, the perennial reinventor who has already put Cutler and Co and the Builders Arms under the knife in the last year has turned Luxembourg into Supernormal Canteen - the low-key Japanese pop-up that was a precursor to Supernormal in the city.

But eagle eyed eaters will notice elements of Golden Fields too (fresh mangosteens for dessert!), McConnell's pan-Asian restaurant which was originally here in the Fitzroy Street site.

The pitch is far more casual than either Fields or Supernormal proper. You order from tick-a-box menus and there are communal tables (as well as two tops a private dining room) and about 20 seats at the long bar, now overhung with Japanese drapes.

Dish-wise, it's Supernormal and Ricky and Pinky's greatest hits including the pork and prawn dumplings in black vinegar and a joint of northern-style cumin lamb with pancakes.

Add to that daily specials like fried chicken and okonomiyaki, and booze-friendly snackage in the form of typhoon shelter prawns (deep fried school prawns with extra rubble), yakitori skewers including chicken thigh threaded with green onions and tsukune (chicken and pork meat balls which you run through a dipper of yolk and soy), and a cup o noodles, freshly made, loosened with dashi and crowned with abalone in a porcelain cup. A banquet will be $65.

The pictogram drinks list has everything you expect - a few yuzu highballs, sake and typically good wines plus Asahi on tap and a mystery tinnie of the day. There's no karaoke. Yet. But it's all ahead for good times otherwise.

Supernormal Canteen is open daily 5-11pm at 157 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, 03 9525 4488, supernormal.net.au/canteen. Specials and banquets start next week.