Waiters Restaurant

Warranwood, Victoria, Australia, September 23, 2014—

Photo: Jim Shere

INTO THE CITY today, a beautiful first day of Spring, for an urban stroll involving cafés and bookshops, and lunch at a place I very much like, one of my Hundred Restaurants.

Not so much for the kitchen, though its execution is quite acceptable and the menu -- written up each day on chalkboards -- is attractive and nourishing. Rather, I like this place for its old-fashioned ambiance. It re inds me how similar Melbourne and San Francisco are: this is old-fashioned and reassuring, full of bonhomie. You walk up a flight of steps to get in, and meet a big rectangular room seating perhaps forty, windows at the street end, the open kitchen at the other. Two cooks work in that kitchen; two saucy waitresses handle the floor.

The clientele at lunch is mostly regulars, mostly businessmen. I counted about two dozen men at tables, not counting me and my brothers; there were three women among them. Many of the tables seated five or six; there were no couples.

I began with grilled sardines on a bed of mixed salad drizzled with just a bit of balsamic vinaigrette. The sardines were butterflied, the bones removed, and they lacked salt, but that was easily remedied. The blackboard had promised lamb Roman style, but it turned out not to be Testaccio-style scraps but sliced roast leg of lamb that was served up in a tasty, meaty tomato sauce, with plenty of vegetables on the side -- carrots, green beans, a good-sized roast potato.

House Pinot grigio and Sangiovese

• The Waiters Restaurant, 20 Meyers Place, Melbourne; 0419 553 869

Afterward, a fine coffee at Pellegrini, an oldfashioned cafe on a city boulevard nearby, whose proprietor had a Roman air about him himself, and served up my macchiato in a glass too big but curiously appropriate and elegant.

• Pellegrini's, 66 Bourke Street, Melbourne; 9662 1885

THAT SUBSTANTIAL LUNCH did not prevent tucking into a fine dinner. Mel poached a small chicken with star anise, lemon grass, a little tarragon I think, and served it over rice noodles with a mixed salad to accompany it. Delicious.

Pinot grigio, Lindeman's "Bin 85", 2013