A tiny eatery with enormous heart at Westwood

You don't need to look hard to find the joy and beauty in restriction. It's there in haiku poetry.

It's integral to sports from triple jump to dressage. And it's on display in Westwood, a four-year-old wine bar with a tiny open kitchen, a set menu and just two people bringing it all together.

Owner Michael Underwood and chef Jacob Muoio are Westwood's full fleet. Michael is your waiter and helps diners through the artfully crafted, mostly local drinks list. Jacob cooks and, when he has time, ferries food to tables that are mere steps away. The slender crew might be tough for those on deck but it's key to the warmth of the experience.

The set menu is a post-lockdown innovation, necessary to bring consistency to spending and predictability to the balance sheet. It's a generous offering and great value at $75, comprising three snacks, two entrees and a main with two sides. Dessert is extra; walk-in bites are an option too.

Snacks may include cheddar doughnut topped with Dijon mayonnaise; juicy, crispy pig's head croquette; and a tiny parcel of sliced, salt-baked kohlrabi filled with a tasty, slow-cooked braise of vegetable and herb scraps.

Raw kingfish is a ubiquitous wine bar offering but Westwood's version stands out with its pickled apple and celeriac accompaniments nicely balancing freshness, funk and sweetness.

Grass-fed Gippsland beef is the current meat dish but it's the sides that lured me, especially the Brussels sprouts, pan-cooked and heat blackened, over a puree of Jerusalem artichokes and cashew.

Artichoke chips are scattered atop, bringing golden nutty bite. These chips are also the hero of a petit four that uses the versatile veg instead of cornflakes to create a whimsical honey joy that speaks to a no-waste ethic.

Practicality underpins a coconut ice-cream: it's vegan, which makes it easier to cater to that particular dietary need, and is set in a mini bundt tin which makes it a cinch to serve. It looks gorgeous too, dressed with fig leaf oil and candied tarragon, which brings beguiling herbaceous crunch.

One restriction that Muoio doesn't yell about is the fact that he's coeliac and Westwood is gluten-free. You wouldn't know it as you bite into choux pastry, swipe a waffle through whipped potato or chomp your way into a croquette. But yes, all these items use alternative grains without ever seeming lacking or less than.

That's thanks at least in part to skills Muoio gleaned during his training as a pastry chef back in his native Western Australia. After moving to Melbourne, he worked at Circa The Prince and Garden State Hotel before settling in at Westwood.

The hospitality climate sometimes seems more conducive to branded restaurants with back offices and an eye on economies of scale.

That's fine: slick restaurant machines can be fun. But there's something very special – and perhaps very Melbourne – about a place like Westwood: intimate, responsive and solicitous, and all the more appealing for proving that a tiny eatery can have an enormous heart.