Why this inner-west neighbourhood gem is among Victoria’s finest places to dine

If every neighbourhood needs a good baker, butcher and cafe, perhaps it also needs a perfect little fine-dining restaurant. Seven years in, Navi is just that.

Since 2018, chef Julian Hills has taken diners on culinary adventures in a 30-seat dining room in a quiet inner-west pocket. The room – now with adjoining lounge bar – feels like a gallery, sparse and sleek, ready to showcase beauty and provoke amazement and delight over eight or so small courses.

There’s a trend in contemporary dining towards simplicity, so let’s ask a tricky question: is there a point to expensive restaurants with complex food, hefty wine lists and waiters that can tell you which side of the hill the grapes grew on?

It’s all very well for a chef to work out that pickled magnolia flowers and raw fish taste nice together, but is there a pay-off for diners? Well, yes, when it’s as fun and surprising as Navi.

Of course, a meal like this is an investment – but so is a ticket to the grand final.

Navi is a restaurant that might make a jaded diner fall back in love with tasting menus, and it’s a welcoming entryway for people who’ve never eaten like this.

Murray cod with fermented potato.Bonnie Savage

A tasting menu (with, potentially, matched drinks, too) makes frequent interaction with waiters inevitable, but the polished, perceptive team here dances a delicate line between informing and interrupting. If you’re geeking out about the non-alcoholic beetroot “wine” with carrot and betel leaf, they’ll hang about to discuss it. If you’re screwing up the courage to propose to your one and only, they’ll just melt away.

A meal like this is an investment – but so is a ticket to the grand final.

Last time I visited, Hills was on a rare trip overseas. That might seem like a bad thing. Actually, it was an opportunity to witness the playful spirit he’s shared with his crew. Whether Hills is here or not, this is his singular vision.

A creative guy who was studying ceramics when he fell into cooking at the Myer cafeteria in the 1990s, Hills realised he had a knack for flavour matches when the blue-rinse set started lining up for his roasts. “My brain is very busy,” the self-taught chef tells me later. “I can taste everything in my head before I put it on a plate.”

He’s inspired by what’s growing – either in his own patch, on the farms of trusted suppliers or in secret foraging spots – and by the house-made preserves burbling away out the back.

“Elements of Aylesbury duck” is a signature medley, although the preparations change.Bonnie Savage

The arrival snack is a black garlic macaron filled with salmon caviar, the only dish always on the menu and a pointer to the so-crazy-it-works approach. That might be followed by a tiny sourdough tart filled with sea urchin and gleaming apple-and-yuzu jelly.

There’ll be a vegetable investigation: I had golden beetroot variously dried, fermented, pickled and roasted, a chewy, crunchy, earthy assembly that’s a rollercoaster for the taste buds.

There’s always adroitly cooked duck breast served with other cleverly prepared parts – perhaps koji-brined duck heart, melting pancetta or kofte with liver, a signature medley expressing both consistency and perpetual curiosity, which resolves in pure enjoyment.

Finger lime ice-cream with black sesame meringue.Bonnie Savage

Dessert is based around a fermented finger lime ice-cream, sour and caramelised, briskly whipping around the palate.

When Navi launched in 2018, the feeling was “Welcome to my home”. The warmth persists as the restaurant has grown into itself: more structure and breadth has allowed greater ambition, assuring this neighbourhood gem is among Victoria’s finest places to dine.

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.

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