Want to test if a chef’s paying attention? Order something unforgiving like tripe or chicken. At Carlton Wine Room, chef and co-owner John Paul Twomey comes through with flying colours on both counts with a gorgeously textured tripe and cuttlefish gratin, and half a roasted chicken that’s a juicy, flavour-filled standard bearer for the genre. The menu also harbours one of Melbourne’s great desserts, a gloriously sodden rum baba topped with pretty piped crème diplomat, while a stracciatella and potato focaccia combo makes this a local worth crossing town for. Twomey’s style – comfort food with a modern edge – is mirrored in the dining spaces, well-drilled service and the cleverly annotated wine list from sommelier Travis Howe that leans minimal intervention without being dogmatic about it. There’s an easy flexibility to the whole operation and whether you’re sitting downstairs at the bar chasing oysters with a glass of biodynamic sparkling or upstairs in a striped horseshoe booth for the full dinner shebang, the sense of a place that truly gets hospitality is always present and accounted for.
This review was made independently for the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide. The guide’s reviewers visit unannounced and pay their way.
Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide
Our guide gives a yearly snapshot at the best restaurants to eat at right now. The best-rated restaurants, as judged by the reviewers’ first-hand experience, form our national Top 50.
Kristoffer Paulsen
