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Dear Liza

Simone Egger

Dear Liza restaurant is buffered by greenery.
Dear Liza restaurant is buffered by greenery.Jesse Marlow

Seafood$$

Now there's a first: asking a table-mate to pass the scraps bucket, with a straight face. Inset into each table is a little bucket for nibbled-clean pork ribs and empty Moreton Bay bug cases that moments before were the centre of attention, served in their own buckets, ordered from Dear Liza's "Bucket List".

Liza's buckets concept says: here's a waggish kind of place, rather than here's a place to super-size your serve. Everything in the bucket list is ordered by weight, available in two sizes. Half a kilo is the small size of the glistening red-black, lacquered-looking ribs, and enough for two to share (with something else). They're plum-sweet and charry, and so sticky that licking fingers afterwards could take an embarrassingly long time: pass the kitchen towel, please.

Bugs are cut lengthways, and pan-fried in garlic, white wine and butter with an echo of chilli, and gone so fast it's as though there were a hole in the bucket, but 250g of bug yields about 80g of meat. We could've eaten double, but wanted to try ribs and salt-and-pepper "popcorn" calamari (who wouldn't?); the battered pieces were a little underdone and without crunch. If it's popcorn you want, try the real thing as a starter. It's popped to order and tossed warm in bacon salt – or chilli salt, or lime and black pepper.

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Signature dish: The Moreton Bay bug bucket.
Signature dish: The Moreton Bay bug bucket.Jesse Marlow

So, to salads. The half-dozen choices are all one big size; they include Asian slaw with crushed peanuts and nuoc cham, and the option to add some grammage of protein, such as salmon fillet or poached free-range chicken breast. The warm vegetable salad with chewy pearl couscous, roasted soft pumpkin, spinach, broccoli and Danish feta comes in an aluminium mixing bowl, with tongs and cucumber vinaigrette on the side. To hammer home the DIY thing, there's also a separate build-your-own salad menu for those who feel empowered by choice – even if it is to choose quinoa or cous cous, feta or grated tasty.

The buckets and DIY theme could tip into glib if the food wasn't so well made and tasty. Plus, doing-it-yourself is good enough for the owners who did much of Dear Liza's fitout. Fortunately, one of them is a tradie, the others hospitality lifers with years' experience at Rare Steakhouse (from where the ribs come) and  Chloe's at Young & Jackson's.

They've done a great job with what is a weird, awkward location (empty for two years before Liza moved in). It's on the ground floor of a hulking apartment tower overlooking a four-lane stretch of road just south of St Kilda Junction. Not that you'd know that sitting inside. It's sunken from the street, and buffered by thick foliage. There's even a well-sheltered outdoor section prime for after-work drinks and the bucket of beers (6 for $45).

Tip ...  Weekdays, there's a $12.50 lunchbox: you choose what's init
Try this  ... Moreton Bay bugs with grilled, crusty bread

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goodfoodunder30@theage.com.au

The buckets and DIY theme could tip into glib if the food wasn’t so well made and tasty.

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