Review: Standard bar snacks and 'very tasty' donuts in Dessous
| Address | 164 Flinders Ln View map | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening hours | Dinner Tuesday-Saturday | ||
| Feature | Bar, Licensed, Accepts reservations, Events | ||
| Price | Expensive (electricity over $40) | ||
| Payment | eftpos, Visa, Mastercard | ||
| Phone | 03 9070 4939 | ||
It’s an era of fun, umami, taking the most decadent ingredients you can find, tossing lots of fish sauce and fresh herbs in it, and then adding crunchy and flaky and a little more fun to the mix. This is the era of cream sauces, bright pickles, food made especially to be enjoyed with booze, orgies of sex on a plate.
Let’s take a donut and fill it with crab; let’s cook the crap out of our vegetables so they melt and sizzle and then drizzle them with three kinds of milk. Let’s not hold back.
This is the manifesto that comes to mind when dining at Dessous – Mulberry Group’s Flinders Lane venue – a place that captures the mood of the moment perfectly.
“So delicious”: Crab donuts. Photo: Simon Schluter
If there’s one thing the Mulberry Group knows how to juggle, it’s a sense of place. It was Mulberry who took the Melbourne cafe idea and turned it into something closer to a nightclub, not in tone but in excitement and attention to aesthetics, with Top Paddock, Kettle Black and Higher Ground, and then, after selling those venues. , with Liminal.
In 2019, when they opened Hazel, they created a space loved for its clean-meets-rococo good looks. At the same time, under Hazel, they launched Dessous, a gloomy cellar that’s part lounge, part restaurant, part wine bar, and 100 percent place.
What does it mean? Flinders Lane basement bar is almost a design genre all its own, and this place has it.
If there’s a better bar snack in this universe, it just doesn’t come to mind.
You must, of course, enter through several doors, punctuated by stairs going down. A sweep of velvet curtains reveals a room you’ve glimpsed from the walkway, but, nevertheless, the act feels like revealing a hidden world.
Candlelight shone on the table, illuminating the dark botanical upholstery and gold-framed paintings. Entered like a scene from a high budget movie.
Blame COVID-19, blame the excessive attention paid to Hazel’s sister restaurant, blame the lockdown, but for some reason Dessous didn’t make the fuss that might have been when it opened. I can’t speak to whether the uproar might have been justified back then, but I can say that as it stands now, Dessous is well worth considering.
Bar snack perfection: Pickled scallops with whipped cod roe and homemade potato chips. Photo: Simon Schluter
Chef Dan Sawansak, who was head chef at Higher Ground before taking on the role here, is an expert in the current cooking that I described above, too much fat and acid marriage is not enough. umami and fun.
Most of the dishes, if not made with liquor in mind, go great with wine or cocktails. (Speaking of cocktails, these are some of the best I’ve had recently, courtesy of beverage manager and artist Kris Leombruni.)
The pork hock croquettes ($9) are all shredded tender and crunchy on the outside, topped with aioli drizzled with crunchy pickled mustard greens. Practically begging for a sip of rich white Burgundy or a vibrant pinot noir, both of which are easy to find on mid-range wine lists and reasonably priced.
Roast duck leg with pickled figs. Photo: Simon Schluter
And yes, there are savory donuts topped with yeast, fillings that mimic a lot of custard or cream, but made from a bunch of crab wrench, salmon roe that serves as fish for hundreds and thousands. There’s a lot of humor in this dish, made even more fun by the fact that it’s so delicious.
Just as delicious as the pickled scallops with whipped anchovies, served with homemade potato chips. If there’s a better bar snack in this universe, it just doesn’t come to mind.
Sawansak really shows off his cooking with the duck leg ($38), which has been peeled and grilled, then paired with morcilla and pickled figs. The balance of riches, sour cuts and musky sausage is a revelation.
Bone marrow and glutinous rice.
The only place where I think Sawansak might need a moment to retreat is on a plate of bone marrow with sticky rice. In some ways it’s a brilliant combination of fat and funk and a handful of Thai mint and basil, but in others it’s gone too far. The fish sauce and lime juice are very strong, and the sticky rice is so crunchy that it loses its ability to absorb the wobbling and slipperyness of the marrow or hot sauce. The bone marrow, for all its bravery glory, is actually quite smooth, and the taste is finally lost on the plate it should be shining on.
And a very quick note about the service, which is very proficient, to the point that it is not. My dining companion (who looked young) ordered a drink and was (quite) asked for ID – when it took him a while to find it, the bartender who was serving us suddenly left, saying, “I’ll be back.” He never did. Towards the end of the evening, plates stopped clearing, bills were impossible to get, and I longed for those early meals when we were considered important enough to be loved.
But in general, Dessous lives up to its brief hits with style and passion. It’s a place to pile on the fun, pull stops, and bet on an elegant edge.
Atmosphere Dark and sexy chic basement
Main dish Duck leg ($38)
Drink Fantastic cocktails, great wine list
Cost $160 for two, plus drinks
#Review #Standard #bar #snacks #tasty #donuts #Dessous
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