It starts with snacks. You want to go straight for the pumpkin scallop but they’re still molton crisps of caramelised batter so your fingers skip to the lightly pickled cucumber with rose geranium; fresh aromatic bites that clear away the day’s nonsense. Next, gougères with a snowstorm of cheese on top are filled with tart, sweet green tomato. Hallelujah. 

Six or eight courses duly follow, each one a sublime and creative ode to perfect produce. A palm-sized stoneware bowl comes filled with spanner crab wading in clam butter, pearls of Yarra Valley salmon roe adding salty pops to the creamy mouthfuls, then venison tartare arrives with artichoke and cheese. At the right time of year, a rye-poached potato comes hidden under a blanket of kind-of oyster hollandaise and freshly shaved black Braidwood truffles (an option) with disks of raw mushroom. The earthiness of the dish brings potato to new heights; the humble spud is brought to life.

Sous chef Bradley Guest is joined in the kitchen by Bilent Peel, Benjamin Howes, Eytan Harel and Joseph McPhail, several of whom appear as waiters through the meal and – when he’s not taking rare family time – head chef Daniel Puskas also brings his masterpieces to diners, running through ingredients and thought and cooking process, if the table is open to it. Whoever brings the food, greets diners at the door or runs through the menu, there’s elegance, grace and humility, a sense of humour without falling into the too familiar.

A slab of swordfish hides under a green chard leaf on a puddle of finely chopped salted red cabbage that’s on the verge of fermentation. The dense fish is as light and as fresh as it comes. Rangers Valley chuck tail comes with a mountain of freshly shaved truffles (if you missed it earlier), mushroom and marsala; a tender and meaty finale to the impeccable savoury courses.

What comes next is neither savoury nor terribly sweet, a remarkable cleanser and one of the highlights of the meal; a so-smooth mead vinegar custard in a bright strawberry consommé with frozen raspberry fragments.

Oh joy. It’s enough to give us faith in fine dining.

Must-eat dish: Spanner crab with clam butter and Yarra Valley salmon roe