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Vue de Monde

Larissa Dubecki
Larissa Dubecki

Marron and beef sandwich from Vue de Monde.
Marron and beef sandwich from Vue de Monde.Eddie Jim

Good Food hatGood Food hatGood Food hat18/20

Contemporary$$$

SHANNON Bennett's horizons have expanded in the 11 years since he opened Vue de Monde on a back street in Carlton. Then he was an ambitious young chef with his eye fixed on local domination. Now, with Vue having made its third move, the latest to the top of the Rialto building, he is seeking nothing less than to become a key player in the global conversation about the future of dining.

The move of Vue to its new site - the former observation deck of formerly Melbourne's tallest building - allowed Bennett to use the latest green technologies in its set-up. You can read about it on the Vue website, perhaps while deliberating about the juncture of green-washing (let's not forget that dining at this altitude in the middle of the CBD must surely put a few dents in the carbon credentials) and a restaurateur's concern for the politics of eating.

But in aesthetic terms alone it's a statement about the future of fine dining. It's out with the ironed tablecloths and in with the kangaroo skin, the soft-textured hides tightly tacked onto wide tables that make date night somewhat less than intimate.

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There are furry chairs that also owe thanks to Skippy, and an arrangement of river stones serving as salt and pepper holders. Gnarled Penfolds Grange vines stand in for cutlery holders. Even the bread arrives in leather pouches with warmed stones in the bottom. The net effect is charming, although these proud new-world talismans make the menu's French headings look decidedly anachronistic.

Vue hasn't shaken off every stiff formality but mark III - dark and dramatic to Normanby Chambers' white and bright - certainly feels looser.

The wine list remains an eye-catching collection of global beauties but is more in touch with its affordable side. The menu offers more transparency with an a la carte option of four courses for $150 a head as well as the mighty 10-course degustation at $250 a head, although with some of the steepest prices in Australia the left arm should really know what the right arm is doing - three waiters asking about dietary requirements is a little surprising. As a piece of theatre, however, which is a large part of what dining at this level is all about, Melbourne has no finer.

The only sour note of the evening is the issue of time, something raised in several phone conversations emphasising that our booking was strictly for one and three-quarter hours. Gentlemen, start your timers. For all the surfeits of hospitality on show at Vue, the policy displays a tin ear for the definition of the term. The assertion we could complete the full degustation within the time frame was comical, although we didn't get to test the theory after a magical cancellation made the table ours all night. (And the final tally? Three hours and 20 minutes after opting for only eight courses instead of 10. So what becomes of diners who don't have a newspaper column?)

It's good to see some dishes Bennett was seemingly planning to cling on to with his cold, dead hands - the marron served on the hot river rock, for example - have finally been given the heave-ho. His new marron dish is a breath of fresh air, albeit one informed by the decidedly ground-level ''dude food'' movement. A fat tail of WA marron, gently poached until the proteins are jellied, is married to a crisp ox-tongue sandwich with a toasty brown-butter emulsion - a luxe surf and turf that makes use of the fingers.

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Of a similar ilk is a slow-cooked duck yolk with celeriac puree impersonating the white, with lamb sweetbreads, croutons and onion rings joining the frat party. An onion and thyme stock is ladled at the table over a dish that's not unlike breakfast at the wrong end of the day, although one with a seditious amount of truffle grated over the top.

Bennett is something of a global bowerbird, his current Vue exhibiting influences from Mugaritz to Noma yet incorporated into his own vision with a good bite of the local terroir. Chefs venture out from the open kitchen to serve at the table. It's not always their comfort zone but it's a barrier-breaking touch that deserves to be seen more.

The food, executed with aplomb by head chef Cory Campbell, doesn't push the envelope in the way of Ben Shewry at Attica. It sticks to safer, classical ground, although comfortable with modern technique and not averse to the odd molecular flourish, such as the crowd-pleasing palate-cleanser involving baby herbs ''frozen'' at the table with liquid nitrogen, which the diner smashes with a pestle before cucumber sorbet is added to the bowl.

But the food can be subtle and assured as well as brash and showy. The first course proper is a delicate thing of spanner crab topped with thinly shaved hats of kohlrabi, avocado and lime zest. It's a dish of gentle flavours and textures that highlights the crab's sweetness. The final savoury course - four melting cubes of wagyu tenderloin, each topped with a chestnut sliver, a garlic chive and a snip of glace cherry - is simply a case of letting the ingredients speak wonderfully for themselves. And the finale of a tonka bean soufflé´ with a smoked, bitter chocolate ice-cream, has the wheel turn full circle to those days before Bennett could have even conceived of this restaurant with the twinkly carpet of Melbourne laid at its feet.

The setting has changed but the game remains the same for the brash upstart who once declared he wanted his restaurant to be Australia's best. Vue de Monde remains at the very top of its game.

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Food Contemporary

Where Level 55, Rialto, 525 Collins Street, city

Phone 9691 3888

Cost Four courses, $150 a person; 10-course degustation, $250 a head

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Licensed

Wine list Grand and ambitious but now with more to offer the price-sensitive drinker

Owner Shannon Bennett

Chef Shannon Bennett and Cory Campbell

Vegetarian Yes

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Dietary Gluten-free available

Service Polished

Noise A warm hum

Value Depending on your definition, yes

Wheelchairs Yes

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Parking Street or paid

Web vuedemonde.com.au

Cards AE MC V DC

Hours Tues-Fri and Sun, noon-2pm; Mon-Sat, 6-9.30pm

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Larissa DubeckiLarissa Dubecki is a writer and reviewer.

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