Restaurants attached to hotels are having a moment in Australia right now. Unlike their counterparts in Asia and Europe, our hotel restaurants are mostly seen as an in-house proposition, dispensing blandly comforting staples to weary/lazy travellers. But as locals flocking to restaurants at Sydney’s The Eve and Grand National hotels, Hobart’s The Tasman, Brisbane’s The Calile and now the excellent Marmelo at Melbourne Place can attest, that paradigm might be shifting.
Strictly speaking, Marmelo is an independent restaurant, owned and operated by lauded Sydney restaurant couple Ross and Sunny Lusted. But it shares a building and DNA with a hotel, given its handsome, high-ceilinged room was designed by Melbourne Place architects Kennedy Nolan. Outfitted by interior architects and designers Mitchell & Eades in warm earthy tones and textures – bricks, timber, tiles, fabrics – the space cleverly channels the Portuguese accent of the excellent, seafood-heavy menu.
Before we get into what to feast on at Marmelo, a word of advice: do not neglect the sweet stuff. The wood-fired olive oil cheesecake, a light, fluffy triumph subtly flavoured with citrus zest and topped with sea salt, is worth a visit alone as is Lusted’s take on classic Crema Catalana that reveals, under the golden torched-sugar crust, plump PX-soaked raisins lolling about in the rich egg custard.
The advice is necessary, given the plethora of finely crafted, big-flavoured savoury choices might encourage you to hog out to the point of saying “no more”.
Snacks, for example, include raw Corner Inlet garfish, lightly cured with salt before being ribboned onto skewers and flavoured with coriander seeds, garlic, finely diced apple and apple cider vinegar. The sublime fish and fruit combination is a Portuguese classic.
Similar fun can be had with excellent serrano ham and Manchego bikinis, the little sandwich fingers pressed and toasted to a crisp, wafer-like thinness, and with Pacific oysters, warmed over coals and teamed with a terracotta red “charcuterie sauce” made from guanciale, lardo, tomato, paprika and oregano.
There are superb crumbed and fried lamb sweetbreads, ovation-worthy yellowfin tuna served escabeche style and the shareable paella-like Arroz de Marisco, piled with grilled, poached and cured seafood and delivered to the table in a cedar-lidded cast-iron pot.
Add a hefty wine list stuffed with excellent Iberian options and a service team who are both efficient and genuinely enthused about the food and you might just begin to question your suspicions about hotel restaurants. Marmelo’s answers an emphatic yes.
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