It’s been a tradition for us to treat each other to somewhere nice for birthday dinner. This year for Fafa’s bday we went to Makan and now for mine, Navi.
Navi is the contemporary dining experience in Yarraville, Melbourne. It’s by chef Julian Hills, and it only houses 16 people every night. Even though I tried to book weeks in advance, it’s pretty popular that we only got a spot a couple of weeks past my birthday.
Funnily, unlike the famous Atlas Dining and Kisume, I only heard of Navi when Aina tried to score a spot for her husband’s birthday there. We, Indonesian, have a thing for a fancy birthday dinner, eh?
The thing is, at first, I wasn’t intrigued. I am not into dining at places where I have to wait for weeks, especially if it’s expensive – with the exception of Jiro Sushi in Japan. But then Aina mentioned possum as Navi served possum on the menu. Possum is one of the wild Australian animals on my list to eat weird world delicacies). I was sold!
On the day, I wore my birthday dress again, which I have worn before, on and after my birthday, as a fine dining experience always makes me a little nervous, but the service in Navi was impeccable and put me at ease. So was the restaurant’s decor and ambience, which looked like a humble house from the outside.
After small pleasantries, the food came. The bad news is the possum was a seasonal item, and they didn’t serve it anymore. The good news is the whole course was sublime. It started with black garlic, brook trout roe macaron, smoked eel, apple and native thyme starter ━ which is my absolute favourite on the whole menu—followed by mushrooms, black artichoke with salt roast celeriac. Murray cod, whipped roe, grilled cavolo nero and golden plains pork, caramelised radicchio, native fruits as the mains. Followed by Geraldton wax Guandong chocolate, smoked apple truffle ice cream hazelnut and salted caramel blood orange jelly as dessert.
And they gave me a surprise, a mango sorbet, as a birthday treat.
We cheered to many more Navi like celebrations ━ and possum eating in the future.
Follow me on Instagram@KultureKween for more recent updates.
