The Cellar Door, Eastland

I'm not a keen shopper so I approach Christmas as though I'm a trained seal. That is, I give myself a food reward for every present I buy.

The new Eastland's almost-finished Town Square makes it a pleasure to punctuate shopping hell with eating heaven. This progressive outdoor precinct shakes up mall design by embracing its neighbourhood and wrapping community and council facilities into the mix of retail and restaurants.

It's easy to mock commercial developments that take a stab at creating civic space, but even the great piazzas of Rome and Athens were once new and no doubt dismissed by the toga-wearing hipsters of the day as blatant attempts to lure the consumer denarius. Anyway, seals are immune to scorn, so I swam right in.

Seals may love raw fish but I'm not partial to shopping centre sushi. That's not a problem here because dining options include cool chains Jimmy Grants, Huxtaburger, Paco's Tacos and Ang Ang (a Chinta Ria offshoot).

There are two proper restaurants: handsome grill house Hunter and Barrel and the large and lovely Cellar Door. The latter is an ambitious place, aiming to showcase the Yarra Valley, which beckons a little further east. It's an airy, multilevel hangout with heaps of character, owned by the same folk that have Croydon's Public Brewery.

There's a casual bar area with craft beers on tap, a larder stacked with Yarra Valley produce, a dining room with table service, mezzanine gangplank and function room, and a fantastic rooftop garden bar.

A concise, well-priced menu is built around snacking. Hummus showered with Middle Eastern spices is stuck with furled prawn crackers and tongue-tickling salmon roe. Trout is cured and piled onto rich rye bread. A charcuterie plate is a balanced meat-fest with exactly the right quantity of crackers.

Steak is sliced so it's easy to share; it's served with thin-sliced fried potatoes and good bearnaise sauce. Accompanying asparagus is lightly charred and gleaming.

The Cellar Door is only a few weeks in but I suggest that the team sits down to eat the menu: they may notice that the eating experience doesn't always match up to the natty presentation. That's certainly the case with a tangled tower of pig's ear crisps, whose tangy dipping sauce can't be tackled without much rearrangement of ear.

The waiting team is keen but could do with more training. When I mentioned that I didn't eat all the ear because thick dark hairs were still attached to some pieces my waiter blanched before recovering to suggest that at least it proved they were real. I guess so.

No hairy issues with the doughnuts, which are made with dark beer batter and taste deliciously yeasty and intense.

All in all, the Cellar Door is a stylish and amenable place to rest weary flippers between shopping list victories and – bit by bit, bite by bite – seal your Christmas deal.

Rating: Three and a half stars (out of five)