Housed in the Potter Museum of Art on the University of Melbourne campus, Residence is an incubator restaurant for young chefs, selected to test a promising concept. The inaugural young chef is Robbie Noble and his idea is Cherrywood, a bistro inspired by his northern English roots. There’s an homage to his mum’s roast chicken in the form of a “tea”: a very rich chicken broth poured from a kettle over aromatic tarragon into tiny cups.

Hanger of beef comes with ox tongue and peppercorn, an overload of richness. But Noble also challenges ideas of British cooking being prodigiously meaty. A lion’s mane mushroom carpaccio is actually a vegetarian take on vitello tonnato, the thin-sliced mushrooms laid over a tofu cream, the cumin-tinged dish clever and satisfying. Art needs patrons. If food is art, perhaps restaurants need them, too.

Good to know: On weekdays, the space opens from 8am as a cafe stocked with roast chook sandwiches and pastries from Brunswick bakery, Iris.

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