Carlton Wine Room has changed over the years. Both our visits have been terrific, but have felt like completely different restaurants. I had to look up my last time here with Catherine and it was a little over six years ago. Looking back I feel a little guilty that I said I’d be back quickly, but there was a renovation and change of management in between.

Today we are indulging in a long lunch on the Sunday of the Queen’s Birthday weekend. Gladly our fourth lockdown in Melbourne has somewhat ended, but we did have to cancel lunch in Sorrento due to the 25km restriction. We will surely get to support the French restaurant in Sorrento soon, but today their loss is Carlton Wine Room’s win.

Settling in with a champagne from a house I haven’t heard of, (but is delicious – Laherte Freres Blanc de Blancs), we started to engage in our usual collaborative negotiation of the food choices for our meal. As we agree on the whole snapper, we think about how a bit over eight years ago we had been swayed away from offering fish for our wedding as, given the choice, very few apparently choose it. With Catherine’s preference for white wines, I’m quite happy to let her take the lead, because so many of my other meals involve meat.

To start we share the anchovies, and scallops. The anchovies are served on fried bread spread with soft ricotta, and topped with a very pleasant pickled cucumber. As well as the depth of flavour, the bread has some structure and doesn’t go everywhere as we both expected it would. The tostada was similarly perfect in its construction with a delicious spring onion and yuzu kosho (Japanese seasoning) really pushing the flavour profile, but not completely overpowering the very delicate scallop.

Next up we got to try the whole snapper with Cafe de Paris butter, matched with sides of fried potatoes, and broccoli leaves. Beautifully cooked fish, crispy potatoes, and some salad to soften it all, is a glorious well-known combination for good reason. Adding in the wine selections from CWR and the staff picks today, and you have a luxurious long lunch. There’s the friulano from I Clivi that matches terrifically; its slight oiliness particularly satisfying. However, I did need to try a red. The Austrian, Ceel Blaufrankish, as the other staff pick was worth trying between mains and dessert.

That dessert was a shared rum baba with creme diplomat that was revelatory. The noticeable rum shining through the sponge, with the creme adding even more decadence. While sharing was a good idea, I could have finished one myself.

We finished off our chocolate truffles, peppermint tea and espresso, and headed to King and Godfree’s rooftop for a final glass of wine. Thinking about our experience at CWR, it was certainly a great all-round offering, with the service quite natural and professional too. Having Carlton Wine Room as a neighbourhood wine bar would be brilliant, but having it a few suburbs away is still great. The fact so many seeming regulars were stopping by and happy to have a wine outside on a cold day suggests this is a popular place for good reason. We won’t take six years for our next visit I promise!