‘No oven, no worries’: Navi’s new Yarraville sister bar that is just as good

Bar Gabi

21 Anderson St, Yarraville

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There’s no oven at Bar Gabi. Don’t worry, this isn’t a chaotic plot twist in a reality cooking show where they ask the contestants to make a pavlova without eggs. Instead, Yarraville Village’s new neighbourhood hang takes a more holistic approach. Everything is cooked over charcoal, while the cuisine uses native ingredients grown from the land for generations.

It’s run by the same team behind Navi; arguably one of the best-value degustations in Melbourne. For his next trick, chef Julian Hills has opened somewhere even more accessible (and affordable). Unlike Navi, which can take a while to snare a booking, I swung a reservation on the day. They also accept walk-ins, though you may not want to leave that to chance. Also nothing on the menu costs more than $42, meaning you could comfortably visit for a weeknight snack and drink or a full-blown dinner without breaking the bank.

Hills, who owns the bar with wife Georgia Roberts, Navi drinks whiz Miriam Wahlhütter, and her partner/chef Paul Turner, continues to thread indigenous ingredients through Gabi’s kitchen and bar.

Both native Australian and south-east-Asian flavours get whirl, with local florals inspiring the look of many cocktails.

You may want to kick off with the Mallee gin martini (and that gumleaf garnish) with the swoonworthy Pai Tee. The one-biter, wafer-fine pastry cup is filled with an ultra light duck parfait topped with duck XO. Navi loyalists may recognise this as an ode to the restaurant’s ‘Elements of Duck’ dish. What a way to start.

There’s also a potato cake; a crunchy golden-rippled surfboard carrying some of the plumpest pickled mussels I’ve had in ages. You could share this with a friend, but you’d be silly to.

The Thai-inspired kangaroo sausage is bouncing with lemongrass, shrimp paste and turmeric, and is designed to be wrapped snugly in fragrant betel leaves and loquat jam. Another favourite. There’s also a potato damper, grilled branded and sticky with blackened finger lime glaze, best swiped in a wattleseed miso alongside or used for the post-dinner plate mop.

As for mains, there’s beef rump cap and mushrooms, or rotisserie chooks brushed in a native lemongrass, though the perfectly-cooked snapper was hard to ignore. It’s served with salty ‘beach greens’ and a sweet and sour sambal so delicious it’s deserving of its own grocery line.

When it comes to cocktails, Wahlhütter looks to the 70s for inspiration. The kermit-green coloured ‘Folly’ is sweet and strong; a mix between ‘a Midori illusion’ and ‘strawberry lamington’. Or you could stick to something classic, like the ‘Mallee’ gin martini made with a peppermint eucalyptus-infused vermouth. Local wines and beers also get a look in.

Bar Gabi offers a fine dining experience on a shoestring, with top-tier cocktails and warm hospitality. It’s the kind of place you can only hope opens in your postcode. No oven, no worries.

Images: Supplied, @bargabi/facebook