Grossi Florentino

To dine in the glorious Mural Room with its imposing art, impeccable service and perfectly pitched lighting is to immerse yourself in the history of Melbourne dining. But Guy Grossi and his team are running a restaurant, not a museum, constantly evolving a menu that is classic enough to keep people happy, and contemporary enough to keep them interested. While an appetiser is a little bowl of heavenly old-school pasta e fagioli, an entree of ravioli is actually paper-thin parcels of lardo (cured pork fat) filled with sea-sweet spanner crab. Pinkly seared wallaby fillet intuitively teamed with cauliflower caponata and toasty spelt, and steamed Glacier 51 toothfish with spiced salt, tick the indigenous and sustainable boxes; there might be a flavour-first zampone of pig's trotter filled with house-made cotechino sausage on a bed of lentils for traditionalists. Baked apple terrine with milk jam, apple jube and prosecco jelly is, like most things here, innovative yet comforting, old yet new.