THE POINT
Albert Park Lake

It has long been a Sir Hinchalot theory that show me a tourist restaurant with a view and I’ll show you a place where the food aint that crash hot.

Inevitably, breathtaking restaurants on top of towers, restaurants that revolve, are disappointing. Even the Windows of the World restaurant in Manhattan which sadly is no more because it was on the 107th floor of the World Trade Centre.

I remember, in a previous life, reviewing a skyscraper restaurant in Sydney called the Summit and twenty-five years later can still remember the intro. I said of The Summit: “If nothing else, and there is nothing else, the view is stunning.”

But I have been wrong. In Adelaide, Café Largo built out over the Torrence River is a great restaurant. So is Doyle’s at Watson’s Bay in Sydney and Michael’s on the river in Brisbane.

The revolving restaurant at the top of the tower at Wrest Point Casino is also worth a try.

And this week I found another one here in Melbourne. It’s right on the lake at Albert Park and it’s called The Point. And to the point it has a very sophisticated menu.

There’s a popular café downstairs and the a la carte menu upstairs. The afternoon we were there the palms looked fantastic, the skyline looked great, the lake tranquil, the island in the middle looked a bit bedraggled and I was mesmerised by a bloke on a floating paddle-steamer tractor that I found out was an “aquatic weed harvester”.

And yes Albert Park Lake still has heaps of life-smothering weeds and algae in it.

It’s a well-organised menu with an unusual, extensive vegetarian menu and the main menu is also extensive with appetisers, entrees, mains and desserts.

We copped a delicious and complimentary white bean and mushroom veloute with a touch of white truffle oil and chervil.

It came warm in a tiny cup and had the texture of warm vichysoisse.

Next we shared a pretty dish of home cured salmon -- a cone of salmon with creamed leeks and a lemon garlic dressing. It sat on a tiny potato pancake about the size of a twenty cent piece.

By the time we finished that the weed harvester was working overtime.

I was also tempted – but didn’t have – an assortment of oysters ranging from natural with a shallot and red wine vinaigrette and a tempura oyster with a tomato broth and bok choy.

With the mains came a problem. Now Sir Hinchalot is not averse to raw things. Raw meat, raw fish. Have mentioned before that I can eat steak tartare and love raw salmon and tuna in sashimi. But some things I can’t take rare.

And I believe restaurant menus or the waiters should tell you if that is their serving credo.

For example I do not eat semi-raw lamb as the French often serve it. Will not eat rare pork and do not like rare duck.

At The Point I ordered a heap of duck. There was a roasted breast, minced duck neck, a beautiful and delicate minced duck ravioli envelope, duck in a bok choy roll and a clever cup of duck consommé.

The problem was the breast came so raw the skin hadn’t crisped, the flesh was tuna red, the fat layer between the skin and meat was just that a layer of uncooked fat and I had to send it back.

Probably just as well because my lunch partner had ordered roasted fillets of veal and when they came they were not only not roasted they were virtually red raw.

Understandably it turned her off and they taken away to be replaced by steamed fillets of barramundi en papillote – which is classy for cooked in a tinfoil envelope.

It is a good menu at The Point. The service was great – even through the embarrassment of sending two dishes back which is extremely rare for me. I’m a fairly forgiving diner.

I would love to go back for dinner. And the best thing at Albert Park that tranquil afternoon was that there was not a yellow ribbon in sight.

And the park looks better than at any time I’ve known it and I have been going there and living in the area off and on for more than twenty years.