Great balls of tapioca! Jeow serves the 'dish of the century'

Dish of the month? Dish of the year? This might be the dish of the decade, honestly. These were the thoughts running through my head as I sat at Jeow, the new restaurant in the Richmond space that, until very recently, was Anchovy.

The dish in question was about as unexpected as it was delicious: steamed dumplings made of tapioca pearls ($17), imbued with the nutty-sweet flavour of Jerusalem artichoke, along with cashews and salted turnip. Wrapped in lettuce and dipped in a sauce of tamarind, fish sauce and chilli, it had incredible textural diversity: soft and slightly gummy tapioca, the crunch of the lettuce, the smoothness of the filling. Dish of the century!

This new venture for chef Thi Le and partner Jia-Yen Lee is more like a slight shift. The room has stayed the same, it's just the name and inspiration that have changed. Where Anchovy was, at its core, a Vietnamese restaurant, Jeow is inspired by the "suburban Laotian eateries of Australia's two largest cities", according to the restaurant's website.

That distinction is important – it would be easy for Le and Lee to claim that this restaurant is inspired by Laos itself, and also easy for us in the media to act as though they've done something new in bringing Laotian food to inner Melbourne. 

The wording of the website pays homage to the Laotian people who have settled in Australia over the past 50-or-so years, and the many fine cooks among them who have opened restaurants – mainly serving their own communities. It also acts as a challenge to the authenticity police, of which, unfortunately, there are many among the ranks of the food-obsessed. 

This isn't so much a Laotian restaurant as a Laotian-Australian-inspired restaurant, which means that it has the freedom to be exactly what it wants to be.

And what it wants to be, at its core, is a neighbourhood restaurant, somewhere you might come every week for addictive, crispy slivers of fried pig ears ($10), served with black vinegar and chilli for dipping, or a bowl of deeply comforting khao piak sen ($27). This is a cockerel and tapioca noodle soup with a broth so rich and full of chicken-y flavour it could cure anything that ails you.

There are multiple types of laap, one made with raw beef ($26), another using Great Ocean Road duck ($25) with roasted chilli and herbs that was fiery and fresh and astonishingly well-balanced.

And there are places on the menu where Le's inventiveness and cooking prowess really shine, like in a dish of grilled scampi ($16) that are flayed open and smothered in a green paste made of betel leaf.

A recent special of grilled Murray cod collar and wing ($24) would have been a fantastic dinner on its own when paired with sticky rice ($5), its coating of tamarind-heavy chilli jam bright and funky and fantastic.

The pleasure of a visit here is amplified by Lee's relaxed and welcoming approach to service. It's somewhat of a cliché these days to compare a restaurant meal to dining in someone's home, but there's an element of Jeow that feels exactly like that.

The room is somewhat spare, but it leaves a blank canvas for the warmth of regulars and newbies alike to fill the space with a sense of community. It's a place where people tend to strike up conversations with folks at other tables, where Lee's warm presence acts as a catalyst of good cheer. Ask about the fantastic wine list and get a smart and friendly answer; ask about any of the dishes without fear of condescension or upsell.

There's plenty of creativity on display on the short dessert menu, which includes a durian and white chocolate Swiss roll ($16) with meyer lemon marmalade, and a cooling coconut sorbet and ginger granita ($16) with roasted pear and coconut agar. This isn't one of those places where dessert is an afterthought.

Anchovy might return in some form, though not in this room. There are plans to use the next-door space for a Vietnamese fixed-menu experience in the evenings, but red tape and issues with neighbours and the council have held those plans up. 

In the meantime, I'm excited for whatever this pair does now and in the future, and love the idea that a restaurant can grow and change with the passions of its owners. In this case, you can taste and feel the renewed energy of that passion, and it tastes (and feels) really, really good.

Vibe: Pared-back Richmond shopfront, filled with happy people

Go-to dish: Steamed tapioca pearls ($17)

Drinks: Lovely small cocktail list, great wine list, nice range of non-alcoholic options

Cost: About $140 for two, excluding drinks

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine

Dani Valent reviews Anchovy's spin-off banh mi bar, Ca Com