15/20 Sets the standard for fresh, informal dining.
WORD of mouth can be a funny thing. Like when there's a hot new modern Asian restaurant in St Kilda and everyone seems to be talking about the New England lobster roll.
Confused? Take a number and get in line.
Andrew McConnell's latest restaurant calls itself a modern Asian eatery that takes its inspiration from his stints in Hong Kong and Shanghai. But if any fans are going to get their knickers in a twist about something entirely new from the doyen of Cumulus Inc. and Cutler & Co., they'd better save their energy. Golden Fields is Asian-leaning, with influences from China to Korea and Japan, but it's also far more like Cumulus than the official word would care to admit.
The New England lobster roll. Photo: Eddie JimA solo venture after the collaborations of Cumulus and Cutler, Golden Fields is McConnell's sixth restaurant, which means: a) that he's getting pretty damn good at them by now; and b) he's benefiting from a quorum of the better staff members from his other enterprises. Service here has the unstuffy polish other places struggle to get right - waiters are there when you want them, not when you don't.
Yet the tail wind blowing from Flinders Lane involves more than staff. Frequenters of Cumulus will recognise the format - the share-plates, the very modern cooking, the fresh and informal attitude.
Not to mention the sublime dishes built around raw fish: duck-fish, avocado, fresh horseradish and a ginger-soy dressing ($12); or cubes of just-smoked tuna ($15) dotted among oyster cream and apple vinaigrette, with the lingering aniseed taste of fennel pollen for a really elegant balance of sweet and heat.
Then there's that lobster roll ($15), which trumps the craze for luxe sandwiches - cold poached crayfish, a warm glazed brioche roll, cress, diced shallots and Japanese mayo. In a word, addictive, which explains why the open kitchen sends it forth with watch-setting regularity - although nipping at its heels for cult status is the rectangular flat bread topped with little pillows of sea urchin, crisp shreds of lardo and diced carrot escabeche ($5 each).
The design of the wide, glass-fronted shop with views of the city leaves few family stones unturned. Elegant and modern with a touch of quirk, the monochromatic fitout features a long white marble bar with high wooden stools and guest-stars chicken feet coat-hooks. The unassailable good taste is made more approachable by dabs of design oddity - a lucky Chinese waving cat, a golden rollerskate, a stuffed duck - yet the template is tres familiar.
The Asian path suits McConnell's pared-back style; the time spent cooking in HK and Shanghai has long informed his cooking. Asian inflections, sometimes muted, twist and turn through a menu divided into headings: raw, starters, salads and vegetables, meat and fish.
An Asian-ised steak tartare ($16) features black angus beef, kimchi puree (think David Chang-brand hot sauce), raw and fried shallots and the obligatory egg yolk, with crudites standing in for Melba toasts.
Fried school prawns ($12) with pork scratchings and garlic mayo are straight-up drinking food, while salads are typically masterful: tiny shreds of pickled Chinese mustard greens give zing to fat chunks of Moreton Bay bug ($17) dotted with mayo (a recurring theme) in a crisp salad of white cabbage and mint dusted with Kampot pepper.
It's better to consider Golden Fields less McConnell goes Asian, more Asian goes McConnell - such as the charred discs of octopus ($15) with chopped mussels and salted celery in a Sichuan chilli paste, which doesn't live up to its ''hot as'' menu billing. It's certainly not a case of the chef displaying a hitherto unseen side, a la Spice Temple.
But there's plenty to love. The velvety textures of a chicken salad ($15) with sesame paste: sliced sous-vide breast meat, shredded leg and thick-set rice noodles, doused in chilli oil. Or the twice-cooked duck leg ($20) with meat that shears off the bone for diners to assemble in little steamed bread pouches with cucumber and dipping sauces - Sichuan technique meets Beijing classic.
The wine list has sixth-restaurant chutzpah - riesling and pinot noir get their own headings, while the rest get lumped under ''others''. It's tightly edited and zippy, dovetailing to the eclectic menu with an interesting selection by the glass, supplemented by a laudable policy of decanting a selection of half-bottles.
The beautiful presentation underpinned by smartly married flavours extends to desserts. Surely only the spirit of experimentation could lead to green-tea ice-cream with pumpkin and liquorice ($9). The ice-cream makes a virtue of its rich smoothness and the unheralded inclusion of gingerbread crumbs with the pumpkin puree and liquorice foam helps avert any potential flavour collision. It's peculiarly likeable.
Normally a strict avoider of Asian desserts, I also enjoyed the ragged black-sesame sponge with yoghurt cream, lime sorbet and a ground sesame caramel ($15). For the more traditionally sweet-toothed, a rich peanut-butter parfait ($10) drenched in salted caramel is the way to go.
There's no crime in sticking to a formula if it works; Golden Fields cements in the restaurateur's rulebook that informal eating - share plates, small plates, even the no-bookings policy - is here to stay.
McConnell has practically defined the mid-range, share-plates restaurant in Melbourne. Done this well, it broaches no argument.
The only question in my lazy northsider's mind is if I'll be travelling very often to this Cumulus Inc. Kowloon, when the style and a fair bit of the substance can be found in Flinders Lane. Much as I love Golden Fields, I'd be keen to see McConnell really commit to the Asian thing. Maybe that can be his seventh restaurant.
Food Modern Asian
Where 157 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda
Phone 9525 4488
Licensed
Wine list Eclectic, well-skewed with a good selection by the glass and half-bottle.
We drank Crawford River riesling (Henty, Vic), $17/$40 for 375ml decanter.
Owner Andrew McConnell
Chefs Andrew McConnell and Arnie Josue
Vegetarian Four listed under ''salads and vegetables''
Wheelchairs Yes
Noise Up there
Parking Street or paid
Value Reasonable
Service Breezy
Web goldenfields.com.au
Cards AE MC V Eftpos
Hours Tues-Sun, noon-midnight.
WORD of mouth can be a funny thing. Like when there's a hot new modern Asian restaurant in St Kilda and everyone seems to be talking about the New England lobster roll.
Confused? Take a number and get in line.
Andrew McConnell's latest restaurant calls itself a modern Asian eatery that takes its inspiration from his stints in Hong Kong and Shanghai. But if any fans are going to get their knickers in a twist about something entirely new from the doyen of Cumulus Inc. and Cutler & Co., they'd better save their energy. Golden Fields is Asian-leaning, with influences from China to Korea and Japan, but it's also far more like Cumulus than the official word would care to admit.
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The New England lobster roll. Photo: Eddie JimYet the tail wind blowing from Flinders Lane involves more than staff. Frequenters of Cumulus will recognise the format - the share-plates, the very modern cooking, the fresh and informal attitude.
Not to mention the sublime dishes built around raw fish: duck-fish, avocado, fresh horseradish and a ginger-soy dressing ($12); or cubes of just-smoked tuna ($15) dotted among oyster cream and apple vinaigrette, with the lingering aniseed taste of fennel pollen for a really elegant balance of sweet and heat.
Then there's that lobster roll ($15), which trumps the craze for luxe sandwiches - cold poached crayfish, a warm glazed brioche roll, cress, diced shallots and Japanese mayo. In a word, addictive, which explains why the open kitchen sends it forth with watch-setting regularity - although nipping at its heels for cult status is the rectangular flat bread topped with little pillows of sea urchin, crisp shreds of lardo and diced carrot escabeche ($5 each).
The design of the wide, glass-fronted shop with views of the city leaves few family stones unturned. Elegant and modern with a touch of quirk, the monochromatic fitout features a long white marble bar with high wooden stools and guest-stars chicken feet coat-hooks. The unassailable good taste is made more approachable by dabs of design oddity - a lucky Chinese waving cat, a golden rollerskate, a stuffed duck - yet the template is tres familiar.
The Asian path suits McConnell's pared-back style; the time spent cooking in HK and Shanghai has long informed his cooking. Asian inflections, sometimes muted, twist and turn through a menu divided into headings: raw, starters, salads and vegetables, meat and fish.
An Asian-ised steak tartare ($16) features black angus beef, kimchi puree (think David Chang-brand hot sauce), raw and fried shallots and the obligatory egg yolk, with crudites standing in for Melba toasts.
Fried school prawns ($12) with pork scratchings and garlic mayo are straight-up drinking food, while salads are typically masterful: tiny shreds of pickled Chinese mustard greens give zing to fat chunks of Moreton Bay bug ($17) dotted with mayo (a recurring theme) in a crisp salad of white cabbage and mint dusted with Kampot pepper.
It's better to consider Golden Fields less McConnell goes Asian, more Asian goes McConnell - such as the charred discs of octopus ($15) with chopped mussels and salted celery in a Sichuan chilli paste, which doesn't live up to its ''hot as'' menu billing. It's certainly not a case of the chef displaying a hitherto unseen side, a la Spice Temple.
But there's plenty to love. The velvety textures of a chicken salad ($15) with sesame paste: sliced sous-vide breast meat, shredded leg and thick-set rice noodles, doused in chilli oil. Or the twice-cooked duck leg ($20) with meat that shears off the bone for diners to assemble in little steamed bread pouches with cucumber and dipping sauces - Sichuan technique meets Beijing classic.
The wine list has sixth-restaurant chutzpah - riesling and pinot noir get their own headings, while the rest get lumped under ''others''. It's tightly edited and zippy, dovetailing to the eclectic menu with an interesting selection by the glass, supplemented by a laudable policy of decanting a selection of half-bottles.
The beautiful presentation underpinned by smartly married flavours extends to desserts. Surely only the spirit of experimentation could lead to green-tea ice-cream with pumpkin and liquorice ($9). The ice-cream makes a virtue of its rich smoothness and the unheralded inclusion of gingerbread crumbs with the pumpkin puree and liquorice foam helps avert any potential flavour collision. It's peculiarly likeable.
Normally a strict avoider of Asian desserts, I also enjoyed the ragged black-sesame sponge with yoghurt cream, lime sorbet and a ground sesame caramel ($15). For the more traditionally sweet-toothed, a rich peanut-butter parfait ($10) drenched in salted caramel is the way to go.
There's no crime in sticking to a formula if it works; Golden Fields cements in the restaurateur's rulebook that informal eating - share plates, small plates, even the no-bookings policy - is here to stay.
McConnell has practically defined the mid-range, share-plates restaurant in Melbourne. Done this well, it broaches no argument.
The only question in my lazy northsider's mind is if I'll be travelling very often to this Cumulus Inc. Kowloon, when the style and a fair bit of the substance can be found in Flinders Lane. Much as I love Golden Fields, I'd be keen to see McConnell really commit to the Asian thing. Maybe that can be his seventh restaurant.
Food Modern Asian
Where 157 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda
Phone 9525 4488
Licensed
Wine list Eclectic, well-skewed with a good selection by the glass and half-bottle.
We drank Crawford River riesling (Henty, Vic), $17/$40 for 375ml decanter.
Owner Andrew McConnell
Chefs Andrew McConnell and Arnie Josue
Vegetarian Four listed under ''salads and vegetables''
Wheelchairs Yes
Noise Up there
Parking Street or paid
Value Reasonable
Service Breezy
Web goldenfields.com.au
Cards AE MC V Eftpos
Hours Tues-Sun, noon-midnight.
Source: Epicure
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