This under-the-radar Swanston Street spot is primed for your next big night out in the city

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How does a restaurant this polished and ambitious, in such an iconic location, stay under the radar? Regale is a year-old, 150-seat, fine dining-ish restaurant in the historic red-brick Carlton United Brewery shell. By day, it’s Humble Rays, the second branch of the Euro-Asian brunch innovator which opened nearby in 2016. At night, it’s destination dining.

Bartenders shake cocktails in a central mixology station. Booths on a raised platform are perfect for see-and-be-seen dining – and many patrons have selfies to prove it. Happy groups celebrate under photos nodding to the building’s history: drays, heavy horses and handlebar moustaches, many lifetimes distant from the vibrant Asian skew of today’s northern CBD.

Downstairs, past a shower of drop lights and a red-bead curtain, is Galer, a basement club with DJs, live music and comedy nights. Taken together, the glamorous, welcoming venue has huge big-night-out potential. It’s not overly noisy, but the hard surfaces won’t suit everyone.

In the kitchen, Sutinee Suntivatana leads from the front, plating up clever dishes that dance easily across a choreography of Asian and European cuisine. Her team is on it: servers wearing scout-like scarves are well-drilled and smiley. Branded plates are among the touches that announce Regale as here for the long haul.

Suntivatana – Thai-born, Melbourne-based for 20 years – is one of the city’s most undersung food entrepreneurs, with 100-plus employees across matcha cafe Tori’s, vegan gelato shop Suga Rays, Balwyn Thai place Burapa and the two Humble Rays cafes – and that’s before we get to her dog-grooming business.

The glamorous, welcoming venue has huge big-night-out potential.

Thai ideas saunter in with the tuna and salmon crudo, dressed tableside with a spin on nam jim, a chilli-coriander dipping sauce, loosened here with buttermilk.

Everyone is doing burrata, the spherical fresh cheese that’s a neutral for splashy accessorising. Regale adds chilli crisp, a sweet-acidic slurry of charred capsicum and crunchy Chinese doughnuts instead of bread: simple, button-pushing genius.

Gochujang is a Korean fermented chilli paste often tumbled with fried chicken and noodles. Regale takes the chicken, pasta and gochujang hero trio and steers it Italian with chicken vodka rigatoni, an easygoing people-pleaser that’s also creative and exciting.

Eye fillet perches on potato pavé (a fancy potato bake) with massaman jus drizzled atop. Massaman curry is a beloved Thai staple often bulked with beef and potato, so it makes fusion-y sense to pair it with steak and spud and spike a silky red wine jus with curry spices. The base jus expresses slow-cooked excellence, the kind of thing Suntivatana absorbed alongside old bosses such as the accomplished Nicky Riemer, now making everything delicious at Bellota Wine Bar.

I always hold a metaphorical candle for tiramisu, but a literal candle has been held to it here. Tian op is a Thai culinary candle, made to scent sweets. Suntivatana soaks ladyfinger biscuits in jasmine water, then infuses them with coconut candle smoke before layering them with avocado and green tea mousse. This Thai-style tiramisu is subtly smoke-tinged, with pleasing savoury and floral undertones. It’s a wacky winner.

Drinks-wise, cocktails are well-made but lean a bit sweet, and there’s some aspirational pricing on an interesting and otherwise appealing wine list. Regale is very good overall, though, a generous restaurant in a landmark location that’s also a canny and optimistic outreach to Melbourne right now.

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.