Nacional
Editorial
At first sight, Nacional looks like just another chic, inner-suburban joint. The interior and ambience screech tasteful bourgeois Melbourne. Adroitly designed lighting, impeccable rows of high-end tea canisters and the clean lines of a subtly partitioned bar and dining space are lovely; but hardly unprecedented.
There is, however, a little surprise here. You'll find it on the plate.
During, breakfast and lunch, Nacional functions as a cafe. The meals, although wonderfully prepared, offer no jolt to the palate. It's at dinner time, however, that chef Leena Monson visits the Americas.
The small plates here will help you get through a beer menu with 38 blessed entries. An American ale is the ideal accompaniment for New Orleans flavoured corn-crusted soft-shell crab with mashed avocado and lime. And, spiced gazpacho with crab salsa demands a Mexican tipple.
An uncommon dish like the extraordinary, almost obscenely succulent chicken escabeche with black garlic demands an uncommon beer. Ask the amiable staff for a recommendation.
Wine snobs may find some interest in an encyclopaedic list.
Don't expect a rollicking bar humming with weeknight libidos. Nacional may be quiet, upright and sleekly respectable. But, it's on Monson's tapas plates that the vibe explodes.
Fans of contemporary American cuisine and local devotees of good beer could do far worse than an evening at Nacional.
SM King, April 2010
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