Nora Small Dinner Club

The gentrification of Thai and Asian food in general has been a strong theme of the past few years, and yet you won't find many food enthusiasts calling it a trend. And that's because most of our "mod-Asian" restaurants have been far more about rooms filled with graffiti and cocktails and forcing coriander into dude food than they have been about truly contemporary Asian cuisine.

But the real modern Asian – stuff being cooked by people who know the ingredients and traditions well enough to break the rules to great effect – do exist, and increasingly so. Anchovy in Richmond is casually meshing classic Vietnamese dishes with cutting-edge technique and organic fish mint. Restaurants Ruyi​ and Lee Ho Fook​ are both elevating Chinese food, and daring to charge properly for it.

So, while a couple of years ago you might rightly have thought that eating puffed fish bladder amuse was the kind of thing that could only happen to other people, elsewhere, now you would be wrong. And you'll be happy.

Because, in the right hands, given the right treatment, (dehydration, deep frying, a sprinkling of some fragrant salt) a puffed fish bladder is a crisp cloud of crunch, closely resembling fish crackling, draped with a sticky ribbon of raw squid. Self-taught chef Sarin Rojanametin​ has those hands.

But you may know this already. If you've ever been to Nora, the artful cafe Rojanametin runs with his partner Jean Thamthanakorn, with its display table of ingredients, its envelope-pushing breakfasts of custardy sous-vide omelette and fragrant shrimp dressing; its charcoal tarts with pandan​ filling; and that dramatic hot chocolate made by destroying a glossy hemisphere of couverture​ chocolate with your hot milk, you won't be surprised that the new dinner service, Friday-nights-only, bookings-compulsory, is one of Melbourne's most exciting.

Book it, and now.

The cafe seats only 16 at a time, so even with two sessions, that's just 32 diners getting at the silver-skinned, blushing blue mackerel fillets, their oily richness countered with a shroud of icy-hot chilli and lime snow, a slip of gently vinegared compressed watermelon and calligraphy swipe of black sesame paste. Trust me when I say that's a party to which you want to RSVP.

Sadly, that dish will be gone by the time you do get in. The menu changes monthly, but creative, odd-ingredient-driven excellence proves the rule here rather than the exception.

It's actually better that you won't have the chance to arrive with expectations. 

The idea of the dish starring the jet-black leg of a silky bantam, the David Bowie of poultry, is far less challenging if you don't overthink it. Sure, that poached leg still has a claw attached, but the flavour is all gentle ginger and shallots, which carries through in broth form to the nutty grains and squeaky nest of fried rice noodles on the side.

It's a little bit congee, a little bit Noma: bird and its food, circle of life, et cetera.

You're eating off Rojanametin's own handmade ceramics. You're using heavy, white-handled daggers with bamboo inserts custom-made by renegade knife-smith Roland Lannier​. Rojanametin even took the pictures you're seeing here. If your house is a place where hobbies go to die, dinner here can be equal parts inspiring and shaming. 

But probably more of the former. The house-baked loaves with cultured butter and fermented shrimp paste; the tidy, simple close of coconut cream on sweet-sticky cassava, caramelised in coconut blossom water; the ballsy wine match curated by the low-intervention lovers at Clever Polly's that extends to Two Metre Tall's fusty raspberry cider, and the even ballsier non-booze match that might deliver sparkling tamarind with holy basil, or granny smith and celery juice with roasted cashews, is all a trip and a challenge. The Thai flavour touch points are all nailed, all re-presented artfully and with skill.

Did I mention it's $65 for five courses? Run, don't walk.

THE LOWDOWN
Pro tip It's pre-pay when you book, so lock it in your diary.
Go-to dish Hope for something as good as the blue mackerel and chilli-lime snow (in the $65 tasting menu).
Like this There's nothing like this, but Anchovy is also pushing the prog-Asian boat; 338 Bridge Road, Richmond.

How we score
Of 20 points, 10 are awarded for food, five for service, three for ambience, two for wow factor. 
12 Reasonable 13 Solid and satisfactory 14 Good 15 Very good 16 Seriously good 17 Great 18 Excellent 19 Outstanding 20 The best of the best