Restaurant review: A beautiful beginning for this new Braddon restaurant, Wine Room

It's rare to take a seat at a brand-new venue and less than two minutes later the entrees arrive. The only problem was that we hadn't ordered yet. It's hard to get service right in a new venue. It's kind of like driving someone else's car. You know how to do it, but occasionally you will swish the windscreen wipers instead of indicating. Despite the odd accidental swish, Wine Room is in its very own lane (and laneway) off Mort Street in Braddon, and is starting to settle very nicely into its beautifully designed shell. The waiter arrives with a single sheet which lists nine wines by the glass, some beers and a handful of other options. The list seems rather short given the title of the venue. But then our new friends at the next table hand us the full list which has around 90 bottles on it! This is a bit more exciting, although at least 15 on the list are unavailable tonight. Two of the eight snacks are also unavailable, but we don't despair as we love the look of the Oscietra black pearl caviar bump, served with our all-time favourite; Billecart-Salmon Champagne. But upon ordering, we discover that it's not Billecart tonight, it's something else. OK, let's reset and start again! The vibe inside is excellent. The interior is a bit like a 1950s milk bar in shape, with lots of fine detail to be found in the vertical lines throughout the venue - in the reeded glass pane above the front door, the water jugs, the candle holders and the beautiful recycled timber panels that wrap around the cosy room. They get the music and lighting just right, and great quality abounds in the detail of the design and comfort of the room. We receive a delicious little dehydrated mushroom snack and restart the engine with a glass of Quartz Reef Sparkling Rose from Central Otago ($22). The gilda, bluefin tuna, olive, anchovy, and guindilla with wasabi cream ($12 each) sounds like more than a mouthful, but it is a lively and lovely palate opener. The gilda is one of the most popular pintxos found on bar counters in Spain's Basque Country. It is "green [meaning 'raunchy' in Spanish], vivacious and rather spicy. Like Rita Hayworth in her role as Gilda", said the inventor of the pintxo in 1946. These tuna skewers have vibrant summer seaside notes with anchovies, green olives, peppers and a fine grating of lemon rind on the tuna. The subtle touch with the wasabi cream sets it up nicely. The accompanying White Gate Semillon-Riesling ($16) blend has fresh squeezed mandarin character and some great skin contact texture, lowish alcohol at 11 per cent, and I feel like I might be back at the beach, or indeed, San Sebastian. The Balinese beef tartare with prawn crackers ($24) arrives with betel leaves and nori sheets as well as the crackers. It's a generous portion and there is a lovely tabasco hit radiating through the raw beef which makes the whole dish shine. I have been waiting for some time to weave a Richmond Tigers reference into a review, and the Fremantle octopus with black garlic, yellow peppers and nduja ($24) kicks us right in the mouth like a Dustin Martin "don't argue". The octopus is incredibly tender and the squid ink makes this a most photogenic, yellow and black dish. Just don't take a selfie without wiping off the squid ink first. MUST READ: As the holiday season is coming to an end, I slip in a glass of Non 3 toasted cinnamon and yuzu ($15). The proliferation of high-quality, non-alcoholic drinks on the market has been great to watch and served cold, this is probably the best one that I've seen. This one is verjus based and has excellent complexity with orange, yuzu, cinnamon, cane sugar and a pinch of salt. It's just a one-glass pit-stop tonight, but what a great option. Sweet and sour eggplant with fried garlic and soft herbs ($32) is a ripper of a dish. The eggplant is shallow fried with a lovely delicate crunch and carefully placed on a sweet and sour jam, sprinkled with a plethora of crispy garlic. The addition of dill lifts the dish beautifully. Look out, Lonsdale. Murray cod with macadamia, lemon myrtle, garlic scapes and cod gravy ($48) is cooked very well. Each element is great, but the macadamia and lemon myrtle paste (which the waitress tells us is made with coconut milk and a stabiliser) dominates a piece of fish who might be confident enough on his own, or at the most with just a splash of his own "gravy". Charred cabbage with fermented prawn, chilli butter and bonito ($14) is a great side to the two mains and we have quite possibly overfilled our tanks. The creamy cabbage is perfectly charred, with burnt chilli oil lingering long and deep into the night. The lemon myrtle splice ($18) is a beautiful balance of tart, sour and salty. With sweet pineapple studded through the macadamia crumb, and fine slivers of kaffir lime leaf dancing over the top of it, this is a splendid dessert and certainly not an afterthought. As we depart, we realise that the venue shares a kitchen with the adjacent daytime Gather Café. This is a commercially astute arrangement, and it takes experienced operators to execute such mechanics. So, a bit of tough love won't hurt these guys. The attitudes are great, the food is excellent, and Wine Room is a keeper that will just get better from here. Address: 24 Mort Street, Braddon Contact: 1800 149 463 Website: wineroom.bar Hours: Dinner, Tuesday to Saturday. Chef: Josh Smith-Thirkell Dietary: Plenty of options Noise: Well engineered Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: