Chef Tony Tan to head Melbourne CBD south-east Asian restaurant

An on-again, off-again Punch Lane restaurant project is back on.

Slated last April to become chef Adam Liston's Korean-Japanese-Chinese restaurant Honcho, the joint venture with the Halim Group (of Windsor Hotel fame) came to a halt five months later due to ongoing building delays.

Now comes news that the sliver of land between the now-closed Rosa's Kitchen and Longrain will become a modern south-east Asian restaurant under Tony Tan's gaze.

The Malaysian-born consulting chef, who has run restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne, says the menu will "look beyond roti and chicken rice", to dishes that have never been seen in Australia before.

Tan is looking for top-drawer chefs to cook dishes such as Sarawak's answer to ceviche, umai, featuring Australian finger lime and warragul greens, 20 types of sambal or condiments, and rendang made with duck rather then beef.

The 60-seat restaurant will be built mostly off-site and will begin to take shape in Punch Lane next month. It is expected to open midyear.

Liston, meanwhile, has resettled in Adelaide, where he's on track to open Shobosho​ in the first week of April. The contemporary 80-seat Asian barbecue, in busy Leigh Street, features a custom-built yakitori grill.