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Tonka

Dani Valent
Dani Valent

Seen the light: Tonka has been transformed from its Honkytonks days.
Seen the light: Tonka has been transformed from its Honkytonks days.Joe Armao

Indian$$

I’m sure a lot of serious deskwork gets done in postcode 3000 but there’s plenty of serious lunching as well. Tonka, a sophisticated year-old modern Indian restaurant, is among the most pukka places to let the idea of a quick bite ebb into irrelevance as the tasty parade gets under way.

Tonka’s name pays homage to Honkytonks, the naughty nightclub that hid in this grotty alley in the early to mid-noughties. The laneway is still louche but the interior is now light, lovely and civilised with MCG views, and the club’s crazy mixture of mirrors, absinthe and billowing dry ice consigned to folklore and flashbacks.

Owner/chef Adam d’Sylva (also at mod-Asian Coda) brings his Indian heritage to bear; Michael Smith is head chef. The menu features familiar terms like curries and tandoor but there’s nothing about a Tonka meal that replicates standard suburban Indian.

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Ginger beer cake with pear sorbet.
Ginger beer cake with pear sorbet.Joe Armao

Flavours are fresh and nimble: you’re more likely to taste herbs than spice and the underpinning protein is as important as the smothering sauce. That’s the case with the betel leaf roll-ups, topped with trout, toasted coconut and citrus, and the luxe beef rib with a mild vindaloo. The idea is that diners lollop away without that bloated chicken tikka/garlic naan feeling but I reckon the food can be too spry and delicate at times. 

Anyone that goes to the trouble of peeling grapes for me gets big love but that's not the only reason I fell for the quail. Plump and juicy, yoghurt marinated and emerald-tinged with coriander and mint, it’s served with cress as well as grapes. Tandoor-style but sous-vide cooked, the quail is a victory of good produce and clever ideas.

Desserts maketh the lunch hour but the ginger beer cake with pear sorbet is good enough to make the whole day, and the coffee (in tactile Robert Gordon cups) is so well wrought that it’s possible to emerge from the lunch idyll with your game face on.

Rating: Four stars (out of five)

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Dani ValentDani Valent is a food writer and restaurant reviewer.

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