Moon Under Water

There’s a set menu here. It’s available and noted on the website and discussed if/​when you call to book.
On the 4 dish set menu you get two choices for each and a salad and chat potatoes with the third dish. At $ 75 each this was great value, especially given the unexpected extras. Wine matching for the 4 courses is $ 45.
Raw, marinated diced scallop on crackling bite — fresh, crunchy, bright, yum.
Smoked eel — with egg, apple — light smoked flavour, great temp., flavours right on, good serving size.
Wagyu — shaved with candied almonds, mini beetroots; smooth, beets fresh, crunchy — really well cooked, almonds just sweet and crunchy enough to add character.
Lamb — two perfectly cooked strips, house made mustard was a sensation.
Rasperries — fresh with almond cream; balanced, smooth — almost savoury.
Two people I went with got plate size envy when the serving of sliced Wagyu came out; the other option on the menu was a prawn. A single prawn. No-​one left hungry after all the dishes and accompaniments so this was a minor niggle.
Housemade butter, bread, lemon and ginger soft drink were all great too.
With cheese to end and coffee along with a shared bottle of Mac Forbes Pinot Noir this came in at just under $ 100 a head. It might appear expensive but there’s highly touted, established fine dining venues of yesteryear that Moon Under Water is blowing away at this price point.
Service was spot on the whole 3 hours. Two gents ran the 6 – 8 tables expertly. The rooms set out well with good sound proofing from the bar and bistro next door. The toilets are shared with the bar/​bistro patrons which is OK for dudes but both my wife and mum had to line up. Kind of ill-​fitting with what Moons setting out to achieve but not a deal breaker.
Will definitely be back.

While taking a trip down to Melbourne for an anniversary, we decided to go out to a nice dinner to celebrate. It is sometimes a risky thing chosing a restaurant in advance based solely on the internet, but in this case it worked out just fine.
The food was lovely, from the amuse bouche through to the desert. And the service was excellent. Warm and friendly like you might expect at a pub, but with a level of service and professionalism that shows that this is not a simple bistro.

We went there with a group of four on a Sunday night to have a little celebration. The all white interior is stunning. The room is dimly lit; that adds nicely to the ambiance of the place. The staff is welcoming and friendly. Food is not too bad and tasty really, bread and butter was presented in a little tin box. We all had the offered four course set menu for AUD 75/​person and Sauvignon Blanc from France. All tasted very good, but there is room for improvement since it was not remarkable. We all loved the presentation of the food. It might be OK for us as Melburnians to pay AUD 460 for a dinner of four. (Still, when I got the receipt I was nearly slightly shocked). I reckon overseas visitors might even be frustrated about the value for money.

What’s that, you say, a restaurant by a McConnell in Gertrude St., Fitzroy? Never!
Well, actually, yes. There are several. And Moon Under Water is one of them.
Food? 4, courses, $ 75. Add wine match? 4 half-​glasses, $ 55. Add cheese? $ 8. Total? Not a cheap night out. But a good one.
Start with cheese crackers. Add an amuse bouche of sashimi, seaweed, rye bread. Then bread, butter, pickles. Entrée 1: tomato, king prawn, chilli, fennel. Entrée 2: Zucchini flower, whipped pine nut, greens, Main: Pork loin, lovage (a herb), leek. A salad of potato, red wine vinegar and leaves. All that was good. Nothing mind-​blowing, but very good.
And then came dessert. Figs, chocolate, pastry, and a little hazelnut. Wow. Texture, flavour, balance. Divine.
The wines were all interesting. A frizzante for bubbles. A white that was closer to a rosé. A «syrah» — 2012, Yarra Valley. And one to go with the dessert that escapes my memory (probably because the dessert was so good). Three solid matches, and one that didn’t work for me; the syrah. Shiraz, for me, is always an odd match with pork, especially one that’s very young, and not from a well-​known shiraz-​producing area. It’s a quandary, because a «typical» shiraz would have been too big, but pinot noir might have been too «boring» for what they were trying to achieve. Not bad, just not great.
Value wise … it’s a little pricey. Servings sizes are on the small side, wines are half-​glasses … it’s not that you feel like you’ve been taken for a ride, more a nagging sensation that maybe you should have an extra few dollars in your wallet.
Good service, good atmosphere; a well-​deserved four stars.

Came here on a word of mouth recommendation from a former food writer and globetrotting foodie. Meals are served in a beautiful white-​themed square room seating about 50 diners. The white-​on-​white room had a surreal quality, reminiscent of a Hollywood dream sequence, dining in the clouds. The prix fixe menu changes regularly. The night we dined the menu was:
— cheese biscuit
— lightly cured wagyu beef, pickled cauliflower & orange
— parmesan tart, globe artichoke & Oritz anchovy
— Bass grouper, burnt butter, clams & jamon
— Steamed ginger cake, brown sugar ice cream, lemon custard
The courses were exquisite and the presentation elegant as you would expect. It was evident that much thought and care had gone into designing and preparing each course. This is a perfect restaurant for foodies and those celebrating special occasions.

Moon Under Water is a really pretty space with white décor, cute little vintage-​y touches, and a sort of dreamy feeling. That probably sounds a bit daft but there is no other way to describe it — the lighting and décor made me feel instantly comfortable and happy, and I half expected to see the folk of the Faraway Tree pop out of a white-​washed cabinet to take me on an adventure.
I appreciate what they’ve tried to do here. A limited menu is designed to focus on what’s seasonally awesome, and I do get that. However when I say limited, I actually mean «set menu only». Choice is whisked away in favour of diners placing themselves in the care of a knowledgeable and attentive staff and chef. And knowledgeable and attentive they were, however I have to take points off for somewhere that dictates the food I’m going to eat, and how much I’m going to have.
I think there were 5 small-​ish, very rich courses for about $ 75 (from memory, I could be wrong here as it was a few months ago). My gripe is that I couldn’t get through it all, and so was flooded with first-​world Food Guilt for leaving some plates untouched. I would have preferred to pick a couple of dishes and just enjoy them at my own pace, but that’s just me.
One thing to try is the cheese and truffle toasted sandwich fingers, which are an add-​on that you can get to the set menu if you feel like something extra. They were delicious, and cut into delightful «high-​tea» size that lets you pretend you’re not really eating anything at all.
It’s worth checking this place out, particularly if you’re OK with surprise set menus, because I think it has been put together with a lot of care and love. For me, I probably would only go back for a special occasion with a group of friends, where set menus make more sense.