Maze, Melbourne restaurant review

 

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It’s nigh on impossible to approach a Gordon Ramsay restaurant with your radar set to neutral. The British restaurateur and chef is nothing if not polarising, and for this reason the double-headed nature of his first Australian venture is a clever move. By opening two similarly named but conceptually different restaurants at the same time in the same place, Ramsay has increased the odds of pleasing more of the people, more of the time. If that was the plan, then the simultaneous arrival of Maze and Maze Grill should more than pay off.

The first floor of Crown’s brand spanking Clarendon Street-fronting Metropol hotel is the home of both Mazes, and the lounge/bar holding pen that acts as the entrance to the restaurants. With its grey and turquoise colour scheme, caged-in lounge area and cool white lighting, the bar is not the warmest or most welcoming space in town, a feeling probably exacerbated by the pristine newness of the building, though the fleet of well-programmed staff manning the reception desk does a good job of upping the level of warmth.

The restaurants are housed in a vast, high-ceilinged space past the bar that’s been cleverly divided so that Maze and Maze Grill are, like non-identical Siamese twins, connected but with their own fairly distinct looks and personalities.

While neither restaurant is aiming for a multi-starred fine-dining approach, Maze is the more formal of the two. Bare timber tables, wide leather-seated dining chairs and various configurations of cloth-upholstered banquettes line a large expanse of luxuriant patterned carpet. Floor-to-ceiling windows, covered with sheer curtains that partly obscure the uninspiring view, add intimacy to the space. An illuminated wine cellar, oversized geometric light fittings by Foscarini and a 60-metre wall sculpture of birch trees and stylised birds by artists David Band and Anita Bell are the main points of visual interest, though perhaps the room’s most obvious feature is the dimness of the lighting.

It’s a pity it’s so hard to see because the food being produced by head chef Josh Emett, a long-time Ramsay right-hand man, is lovely to look at. The menu is made up of a series of small dishes (four to five of them is equal to a traditional entrée and main) that are all about exact cooking, clean flavours and precise presentation. There’s no rocking of worlds or culinary fireworks going on with Maze’s menu, but there is plenty to admire.

Pink fir apple potatoes, peeled and marinated in a warm, subtle vinaigrette of mustard, vinegar, olive oil and herbs, share a plate with smoked eel (imported from Emett’s New Zealand homeland), crisp strands of blackened leeks and a hint of shaved foie gras. It’s a lovely soft-textured dish, dominated, but not overpowered, by the rich smokiness of the eel.

Meticulously picked mud crab from Queensland sitting on an intensely coloured disc of pressed watermelon and topped with a pale-yellow rockmelon sorbet is similarly good, while superbly roasted quail, the leg and the breast juicy and shiny-sticky, is happily teamed with a salty-sweet caramel flavoured with Kalamata olives. Firm-fleshed coral trout wrapped in salted chicken skin and resting on slowly braised fennel in a pool of sparkling clean lemon thyme consommé may be the prettiest dish on the list but could also take out the flavour award, so well balanced are the combinations.

There’s also big-flavoured king salmon cured with lemon, lime and salt and teamed with an earthily comforting succotash, and, for those after something even heftier, a robust combination of red-wine-braised ox cheek, thin slices of tongue, a feisty relish of puréed capers and raisins and near-perfect mash flavoured with horseradish.

The Aussie flag is raised over dessert with a clever take on the lamington, a puffy explosion of coconut-dusted sponge that’s teamed with chocolate ganache, cream coconut sorbet and a brilliant, slightly acidic jam made from rosella, the Australian native fruit.

There’s no such overt catering to local cultural sensibilities at Maze Grill, a place with its feet firmly planted in New York steakhouse territory. Brighter, louder and more energetic than its moodily gloomy sibling, Maze Grill has as its centrepiece a curved, nattily tiled open kitchen overhung with massed white enamelled soup ladles and swarming with a large crew of constantly moving white-attired chefs. A terrazzo-tiled floor, wicker dividing walls and a menu of well-executed comfort food differentiate the Grill with a more consciously casual vibe.

What Maze and Maze Grill do have in common, though, is an excellent wine list compiled by former Taxi sommelier Lincoln Riley. There’s a skilfully selected list of Old and New World labels with a slightly breathtaking swoop of price points, but what makes this list so well suited to both venues is its excellent selection of wines by the glass and pretty extensive range of half bottles, perfect for the casual mix-and-match nature of the menus.

Steak takes prime position on Maze Grill’s carte, with seven good-quality, respectfully treated choices ranging from a grass-fed hanger steak from Cape Grim in Tasmania to grain-fed Clare Valley T-bone and grass-fed Angus from New Zealand, all offered with a range of sauces that, somewhat miserly, add another $3.50 to the bill.

There’s plenty of joy beyond the beef, however, including a potentially addictive, perfectly seasoned creamy white onion soup that sports a cluster of cubed and sautéed potatoes, shreds of Jamón de Teruel and flecks of mushroom, and excellent deep-fried soft-shell crab with a textbook crisp crumbed exterior and a harissa mayonnaise that hides a lovely lurking chilli heat behind its initial sweetness.

Fish is well handled in the Grill too, exemplified by an excellent clean-tasting roast barramundi (from the Northern Territory) that’s laid over a colourful “warm potato salad”, an almost soupy concoction of cubed potatoes, piquillo peppers and chorizo flavoured with a hefty dose of garlic and chilli.

Desserts also toe the comfort-food line and include a straight-talking chocolate and pecan-packed brownie that’s lifted a few notches by its accompanying salted caramel ice-cream.

Possibly the most surprising thing about both Maze and Maze Grill (aside from the lack of ego, with food that’s more about pleasing than impressing) is how reasonably they’re priced. For this type of location with a marquee name involved, you’d expect more gouging, particularly when there’s an obvious commitment to good service and quality ingredients. No doubt, with the Ramsay name attached, opinion will continue to be polarised, but with the approach taken here, it seems likely that more hearts will be won than lost.

PHOTOGRAPHY JULIAN KINGMA

This article is from the June 2010 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller.