LOCATIONFurther north from the main Lygon Street restaurant stretch.
PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIAThe first thing that strikes you about Residential is how open and airy everything looks. The room is painted white, with two bands of black and rectangles of colour on the walls, which make you (me, anyway) think of the painter Mondrian. There are two areas in which to dine: one near the cake display, with lots of room for prams, and the other with bare-topped tables of various sizes. It looks somewhat like an uncluttered farmhouse kitchen, but much, much bigger.
Dur-é Dara, who’s in partnership with chef David Stibson, is well experienced in the hospitality industry from her days at Stephanie’s, EQ at the Arts Centre and Nudel Bar in the city. The food here is simple, partly because the kitchen is tiny, yet the dishes are thoughtfully composed and well prepared. The menu journeys from breakfast through to lunch and dinner with ever-changing dishes throughout the day to keep interest and flavour high. At breakfast, there are house-made crumpets (fabulous with butter and honey) as well as the more familiar brekkie combinations. The eggs are free-range, the bacon cured by a Carlton butcher, and the spinach is proper English spinach. For lunch, instead of predictable pasta dishes, Residential offers simple meals like a platter of cold meats with melon, pickle and cheese, and a mackerel and orange soaked prawn salad. A couple of dishes appear both at lunch and dinner, such as the calamari cooked in white wine with herbs; but dinner tends to be more substantial, with dishes such as roasted duck with olives, avocado, bean shoots and a soy and sesame dressing, or grilled T-bone steak with a red wine sauce. In between meals, there’s coffee or tea, or a glass of something more serious. There are some wines available by the glass, and a small and reasonably priced wine list.
Rita Erlich, March 2009