Saint Crispin

As soon as Saint Crispin opened in mid-2013, it seemed obvious that Melbourne needed an assured, relaxed restaurant just like this, with a hail-fellow-well-met air and food that inhabits the overlap between rustic and refined. Every dish sounds good and almost every plate pays off with arresting flavours from a broad European spectrum. Braised veal cheek comes with an umami-rich paste of miso and eggplant. Jiggly slow-cooked egg stars in an entree of black rice and mushrooms. There are culinary tricks aplenty but they're used to highlight great produce rather than for show. Even when there's theatre - cured beef hiding a mound of tartare, a rhubarb dessert stabbed with meringue batons - it makes culinary sense. Chefs' restaurants can over-focus on the plate but there's ample attention given to ancillary aspects here. the waiters know what's what, the high-ceilinged shopfront is comfortable and classy, and the music works for an intergenerational crowd that likes to eat up conversation as well as dinner.