Carlton cafe NORA becomes a restaurant

• Review: NORA Small Dinner Club

Kiss NORA's charcoal tarts goodbye.

The high-concept Thai-inflected Elgin Street cafe, where your chilli omelette is cooked sous vide and hot chocolate implodes like a death star, is becoming a tasting-menu-only restaurant on March 10, following a year of successful Friday night dinners.

"It seemed organic," says Sarin Rojanametin, NORA's self-taught chef and owner with baker Jean Thamthanakorn.

A quick renovation will transform the table where ingredients are currently displayed into a communal one, and the cafe counter into a chef's table. You can do a dinner of either six to eight courses or 11 to 12 courses ($75 or $95 respectively) at one of two sittings from Thursdays to Mondays.

Brace for big ideas and Thai flavours, meticulously assembled on plates Rojanametin crafted himself. One dinner last year featured a silky bantam leg, and mackerel with a fiery hot snow. Drinks matches, courtesy of Kentaro Emoto of Kappo, might be whisky, sake, beers or juice as easily as wine.

The cafe's last service is February 28.

156 Elgin Street, Carlton 03 9041 8644, noramelbourne.com