Rodd & Gunn unveil French-influenced fine diner and moody bar in four-storey precinct

The Lodge Dining Room is the cherry on top of the New Zealand fashion label Rodd & Gunn’s four-storey global flagship in Melbourne. The precinct includes a shiny retail shopfront on Little Collins Street and beneath it the Cellar & Caffetteria, the subterranean wine bar and bottle shop with cocktails curated by Matt Bax (Bar Americano) and a snackable, shareable Italian menu.

The Dining Room incorporates not only the restaurant, but a moody bar one level down, also helmed by Bax. Chef James Evangelinos is offering a menu that focuses on technique-driven, French-influenced fine dining with mostly classic flavours. Meals start with the old-school European hospitality of complimentary bread, featuring several bakes of the day centred around a lofty brioche loaf glazed in caramel.

The $75-a-head fruits de mer is essentially a table-blanketing seafood course, a selection of raw and creatively cooked bites such as moreish abalone croquettes. Beyond, find gently poached Shark Bay scallops with charred white asparagus and a liquid-nitrogen-charged almond dressing spooned on tableside. Sweet marron is served in a delicately flavoured marron bisque alongside a roulade of summer squash.