The Orchard

The Orchard
24 Beatty Avenue, Armadale
03 9822 2077

Railway lines seem to turn their adjacent shopping strips into cute toy-town havens, easing the pain of cancelled trains with coffee and bijou retail. Beatty Avenue — like Bellair Street, Kensington; Pin Oak Crescent, Flemington and Station Street, Malvern — hosts a charming track-side cluster of shops and eating places, marred only by the derelict squash courts. The Orchard is part of a mini revival of this block adjacent to Toorak station: there’s a new cafe in the works, aspirational retail and, in the absence of a local pub, the bottle shop is standing in nicely as a low-key bar.

The Orchard is open all day, starting with house-made granola, egg-and bacon pizza and decadent fried brioche, then trucking on with pies, salads and upscale bready stuff (I like the sound of the chicken sandwich with tarragon, celery, avocado and mayonnaise). The place opens three evenings a week and, by night, the treechanger tropes of the interior have a mysterious lost-in the- woods sensibility, especially when candlelight plays on the mural forest along one wall.

There’s a Spanish skew to the menu of share plates. The usual tapas-as-meal problems crop up: it’s easy to end up with an unbalanced meal (too much meat, not enough vegies), the bill can creep even though no dish seems expensive on its own, and some foods are diffi cult to divvy up. I really would be happy if I learnt I would never again need to dissect a prawn into three.

Call me greedy, but sometimes, just sometimes, I long for a plate of food all to myself again.

Some dishes are very good. Venison sausage is both gamey and rich; it comes with lovely, sticky onion jam. Butter-cooked flathead is rolled with pancetta to create a delicate and delicious bite.

The fried potato cubes with paprika and aioli could stand proud in a patatas bravas parade. But it’s not all great. Flatbread is piled with too-dry beef stew.

Pickled mussels and mushrooms are conversation-stoppingly vinegary. The pork belly is claggy though the quince on the side is terrific. Desserts appear to be an afterthought.

Not so the drinks list, which is jaunty, decently priced and especially notable for its interesting beer offerings.
Perhaps it’s a better indication than the hit-and-miss food of the chirpy enthusiasm that’s at the heart of this place. As it matures, The Orchard may well bear more consistently enjoyable fruit.

Tips and pans to theserve@theage.com.au