Roast chicken and bread sauce. Welsh rarebit crumpets. Ox-tongue skewers. Set in the historic Wesley Place Precinct, Mark Hannell and Rebecca Baker’s new restaurant is finally here, and it’s opened with a menu that pulls no punches. Here’s what to order when you visit, according to Mark.
How about a drink?
Start with the Reed House Martini made with Melbourne Gin Company’s PDG – a play on a fortified wine called pineau des Charentes that uses sauvignon blanc grape juice from Gembrook Hill and ages it in French wine barrels with gin – and salt spray. The slight sweetness from the PDG and the subtle salt from the spray balances the drink; a house Martini to be reckoned with.
Got anything light and fresh?
Go the raw tuna with tangelo, Aleppo chilli and buckwheat. It’s zippy and fresh with a hit of spice, and is ably supported by a Killer Kitty Highball featuring sweet vermouth we make from spent wine and dark caramel, lemon, ginger and soda water.
What if I like tasty food but don’t eat animals?
How about the cauliflower with tahini, blood orange and macadamia? The cauliflower is heavily roasted to boost its nuttiness, then drizzled with our lemony tahini sauce. Then we bang in season blood oranges and macadamias for a bit of crunch on top. Our crisp potatoes with malt-vinegar mayo are also proving to be a pretty popular snack… more on that below.
Is there a dish on your opening menu that captures the Reed House vibe?
There is, and it’s the ramen Scotch egg with mushroom ketchup. We’ve taken the soy-cured eggs that normally sit on top of a bowl of ramen and morphed them into a fun snack to kick off a meal. They’re wrapped in minced pork that’s seasoned with soy and thyme, and they go bloody well dipped into our mushroom ketchup: mushrooms cooked down with vinegar and brown sugar – proper old school.
Let’s go big. Let’s go crazy. What have you got for us?
I’d recommend ordering the whole flounder with yeasted butter and herb salad, and I’d recommend ordering it with a bottle of Clos Cibonne Cru Classé Rosé from Provence. The flounder is roasted on the bone, the yeasted butter brings the umami, and the zingy herb salad with some pickled seaweed adds an extra hit of flavour.
Paired with our fried potatoes and malt-vinegar mayo, it’s almost like a classic fish and chips combo. Almost.
And to close?
Definitely the Builder’s Tea milk punch and an amaro Milo bite. The bites are a bit of a riff on a freckle: dark chocolate set with cream, butter and amaro, with a scattering of sprinkles and flaky sea salt for texture, and then dusted in Milo powder.
For our Builder’s Tea, we use a rum base with a Yorkshire tea infusion. Then, for richness, we wash it in milk, clarify it, and served with nutmeg shaved over the top. It’s not a Melbourne bar, after all, without a milk punch on the menu.
Reed House, Wesley Place, 130 Lonsdale St, Melbourne, open for lunch Tue-Fri and dinner Wed-Sat, reedhousemelbourne.com, @reedhousemelbourne