Having cooked for Bill Clinton, worked at River Café and run Outpost, how could Paul Jewson’s ‘gate to plate’ restaurant be anything other than awesome? Jewson and Marco Pugnaloni have gutted and glammed up the St Kilda Waldorf, creating a sunny, elegant venue. Basil grows out of light fixtures, produce is artfully strewn about, and there are candles, flowers and an open fire – it’s pretty damn romantic.
It's part café, part restaurant, with breakfast served every day until 3pm. The menu offers twists on traditional breakfast dishes – coconut and chia rolled-oat porridge, hot chilli jam scrambled eggs, and beetroot-cured gravlax on a buckwheat pancake.
Dinner is when the candles are lit and the view of Albert Park really sings. The menu is traditional Australian – there's a steak, a pasta, a lamb thing, a chicken thing, a fish thing, a pork thing. But sometimes knowing what you want to do and doing it well is the key to success.