Living Room

Winter Sunday roast at its best

What we ate (as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Roast Collection); set price $65

Demitasse of soup

Shaw river buffalo and pumpkin salad

Gippsland rabbit rillettes

Millawa free range chicken liver parfait

Mount zero olives

Slow roast Rutherford lamb with caramelised onion crust, roast potatoes and buttered winter vegetables

Sticky toffee pudding with rich butterscotch sauce and date ice cream

What we drank:

Tarrawarra Estate Pinot Noir, $48

Every year the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival takes some out of the chill of winter with its annual June Roast Collection, held throughout Victoria. TFG juggled several options including Bistro Vue and Albert Park Hotel (who took an interesting slant on the theme with a roast fish offering) but ultimately decided to go with Living Room in Malvern, who’s roast aimed to Put Victoria on (Y)our Table with roast Rutherford lamb.

Living Room itself is in a fairly unassuming spot on Claremont Avenue, well away from the busier stretch of Glenferrie Road. It’s set out with lots of dark wood and rich tones, but manages to give off a light and airy vibe. When TFG arrived, the restaurant was mostly empty, but filled up rapidly.

The Sunday roast had been the subject of much hype and excitement for TFG, and it has to be said, the whole afternoon delivered. The first mini course was potato and leek soup, a just-enough-to-whet-the-appetite serve:

Next up was the salad, rillettes and chicken liver parfait with toasted bread and mount zero olives:

This stuff was serious – the parfait was creamy but light, and the rillettes delivered rabbit-y deliciousness. The salad was somewhat less exciting, but still tasty – and everyone knows you don’t win friends with salad anyway. What you do win friends with is delicious, perfectly cooked lamb:

 

This had the entire table drooling, and delivered everything a roasted animal should – tenderness and juiciness. We didn’t imagine that accompanying vegetables would get much airtime, but they turned out to be just as delicious. The roast potatoes (an absolute must for Sunday roast) cooked to perfection, and the carrots were a stand out:

Last up came the sticky toffee pudding, which was served with date ice cream. The pudding was excellent and perfectly fitting for a Sunday afternoon, but what really set it apart from other similar desserts was the date ice cream.

Living Room delivered exactly what a good, hearty roast should – bring on more winter Sundays, we say!

Living Room

Food – 7/10

Value – 2.5/5

Service – 4 /5 
Total - 13.5/20

12-18 Claremont Ave, Malvern 
www.lroom.com.au