Plain Sailing

Plain Sailing is a gleaming corner diner at the base of a new apartment building, just a few hundred metres from Elwood Beach. It’s by the team behind Carnegie’s Left Field and Prahran’s Tall Timber.

The elegant fit-out has east-facing floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around the facade, drenching the space in light. The five-metre grey-speckled terrazzo bench is carried through in the terrazzo azure floor tiles, and brass finishings lend a little evening sophistication.

Co-owner and chef Ryan Lording is heading the kitchen (also Left Field), offering brunches in his signature Middle Eastern-leaning, health-oriented and generous style.

A few Tall Timber and Left Field staples, such as the pulled-pork Benedict, have made it onto the menu. A notable newbie is the deep-fried bao bun stuffed with peanut butter; cookies and cream; sitting atop a slice of banana bread.

Lording’s current favourite dish is a beetroot-cured ocean trout – a tumble of smashed peas, edamame, avocado, asparagus, feta and beetroot crisps, with poached eggs, toast, rosy slices of trout and dollops of a caper-and-dill pesto-like dressing. Come hungry.

But it’s a dukkah-roasted cauliflower steak with a herby quinoa salad and tahini yoghurt that is already the most popular plate.