Fabulous Fine Food

Here's how to tell you've found a suburban restaurant. First, there's a note of panic at the other end of the line when you ask for an 8.15pm booking. "Oh dear. Can you make it any earlier?" says the voice, prompting an image of chef sitting down in his slippers to watch the late news. Then, as you screech to a halt at 8.05pm, you notice that the restaurant is the sole beacon in a movie-set version of the sleepy suburban strip. There's the requisite Chinese take-away, shoe-repair shop, lotto-crazy newsagent and unisex hairdresser, among other staples and vacant premises. All are dark at 8pm. If Melbourne had tumbleweed, this is where it would congregate. But, because this is Melbourne, there's also a real-estate office plugging prestigious homes close to schools, a groovy daytime coffee-stop and a half-finished apartment development.

Successfully operating a modern restaurant in the burbs takes vision and courage, but owners Ross Parker and Anthony Green did their homework before launching in February. They have a long background in hospitality: Parker owned Elwood's Zartowa (where Green cooked) and Healesville's 3777. Together, they started Brighton East's ace Zest in Food and, more recently, Green ran the catering at function house 16 Ellis Street. Their new venture is appealingly minimal with a cute glass portico and an open kitchen.

You'd be mad to bank on romantic dinners in a place like this, so the Fabulous crew have a smart, broad offering. There's coffee and cake from 11am and toasties and risotto from noon. Local families pile in from 5pm: it's lovely to see grilled fish, minute steak and grilled polenta on a kids' menu, especially when each costs just $7.

Fortnightly BYO Tuesdays draw a handy crowd of vinophiles; otherwise, there's an easygoing, mid-priced wine list.

The sparse fit-out and hospitable attitude enables Fabulous to morph easily from muffins to steak and mash. The dinner menu shows flair, running the typical mod-Oz gamut from pate to haloumi to gnocchi to steak.

I liked the flathead taco, with lovely grilled fish rolled in baharat and served in a crisp, parmesan-flavoured shell. The spicing is supposedly Moroccan, the mayo gestures towards preserved lemon, but the flavours are subdued, which is why the dish works.

An entree platter of vegetarian Asian bites is a quick round trip to Indonesia, with stir-fried tempeh, spring roll, and stuffed tofu puff.

The basil-flecked potato gnocchi are great, but the accompanying sauce is a culinary cacophony: dried tomato wedges, chilli, provolone cheese and balsamic syrup battle for attention.

The miso-baked salmon with noodle salad is more refined and successful.

Overall, I think the food is too sweet: there's caramelised this and candied that and then I twisted my own arm and found myself mopping up caramel with a sugar-laden chunk of (delicious) sticky date pudding.

Still, there are obviously creative minds in the kitchen and the execution is uniformly good.

I didn't get the feeling that the waiters are in the game for the long haul, but they did a fine job on the busy BYO Tuesday we visited. "Fabulous" might be a mild overstatement, but Fabulous Fine Food is a sophisticated crowd-pleaser and, no doubt, a very welcome addition in McKinnon.