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Melbourne

One of the best surprises in Melbourne: Cutler & Co. After a long, hot and sweaty day of wandering through Melbourne we accidentally walked by Cutler & Co. The good looking restaurant caught our eye. At that time our experience in Melbourne already learned us all the places in Australia that look good actually serve good food as well so we stepped in. Wearing shorts, flip flops and messy hair immediately made us feel a bit uncomfortable when we saw the beautiful interior but the friendly staff at the door made us feel welcome anyway. Unfortunately they were fully booked that evening but we got ourselves a table for the next one. Without doing any more research we dressed up the next evening to eat at Cutler & Co, not knowing the restaurant was voted nr 7 in the top 10 best Australian restaurants by Gourmet Traveller. The restaurant is classy but unpretentious. You’ll find a mix of diners ranging from young couples to business meetings and family-get-togethers. The enthusiastic, friendly and well informed service team knew how to precisely introduce the dishes without overdoing it and kept us focussed on the degustation menu with paired juices en excellent wines. We started off with a delicious Ortiz anchovy pastry, followed by the tuna tartar with slightly smoked kohlrabi, fromage blanc, bottarga and lavas. This might have been the highlight of my meal although the following course with pickled mussels, bean salad and almond, fennel cream was very, very impressive as well.  And of course the rest of the meal is also worth mentioning. Like the Flounder with blackened leek, pickled onion and Brown Butter. The smoked duck breast, salsify and prunes. The dry aged lamb saddle, confit belly, garlic sauce and fermented carrot.  Dessert was no letdown either.  In fact, the buttermilk ice-cream with melon, cucumber, verbana jelly and thickened melon juice was in our top 3 dishes at Cutler & Co. as well! Happily surprised by how good the food was I did some research afterwards and found out Chef Andrew McConnell is a veteran of the Melbourne restaurant scene an has won just about every award going during his career. His restaurant group also includes Cummulus Inc, Supernormal, Moon Under Water/ Builders Arms Hotel and Luxembourg. I visited Builders Arms Hotel and I’ve put the rest on the list for my next visit to Australia! 55–57 Gertrude St. Fitzroy 3065, Melbourne