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Capital Kitchen

Dani Valent
Dani Valent

Contemporary

Everyone knows shopping makes you hungry, but soggy sushi and mile-high pizza make retail ramblers feel cheap and nasty rather than nourished and fuelled. In fact, even when the food is good (stand up Chaddy's Vini e Spuntini), it's rare to leave a shopping centre dining zone feeling entirely good about life. Personally, I've never walked into a mall restaurant and said, "Oh, lovely!" with the same happy, hopeful hooray I did at Capital Kitchen, the new cafe venture from Chyka Keebaugh, owner of The Big Group catering company.

The cafe is in Chadstone's luxury precinct next to Tiffany & Co. In a rare and welcome move there's an outdoor patio - sure, the view is of the car park, but in the shopping centre context I'll take my outdoorsy breeze where I can get it. The interior fitout is a pinch of country dairy, a peck of Hamptons holiday pad; its various zones are large and airy and mostly daylit. It's a comfortable place to nurse baby on a couch, call "hello daaaahhling" from an armchair, or compare Prada purchases with the ladies (and it is mostly ladies) on the main dining floor.

There are menus on the table, but ordering is at the counter (tip: head to the coffee counter when the queue snakes long). In typical Big Group style, the food is simple but stylish; there are healthy options among the pizzas and sandwiches but they tend to have indulgent tweaks.

Salads are good: I enjoyed my tumble of risoni, pesto and baby beetroot leaves, salmon nicoise with lovely soft-boiled egg, and a roasted vegetable melange with currants and verjus dressing. The steak sandwich hits the top 20 on the classic hit parade. The creamy horseradish is tasty, but the caramelised onion bread pales in comparison with real onions nestled against beef.
Service could be improved.

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Meals for our table of four arrived in dribs and drabs over half an hour. Savoury plates congealed on our table, even after our desserts were wedged between them. Coffee was patchy: one great espresso, one weak latte. And, while I'm griping, the kids' lunch box is a cool idea except the baseball-sized Granny Smith apple was definitely "oops, I left it at the monkey bars" material. A few grapes or strawberries would show better judgment. Cakes are terrific, especially the mile-high lemon meringue cup cake, which looks just as good as the kitchen that serves it.

Tips and pans to theserve@theage.com.aua

Rating: 3.5/5 Capital Kitchen
Ground floor, G043, Chadstone Shopping Centre, 1341 Dandenong Road,
Chadstone, 9563 4144
Licensed AE MC V Eftpos
Mon-Wed & Sat 9am-5.30pm; Thurs-Fri 9am-10pm; Sun 9am-5pm
Breakfasts $5.50-$11.50; lunch and dinner $12.50-$21

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Dani ValentDani Valent is a food writer and restaurant reviewer.

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