It’s one of Melbourne’s unmissable bites. Served on a crisp lettuce leaf, a round of Vietnamese blood pudding – at once crunchy and yielding, rich and humid – comes with a sliver of pickled ginger and a dusting of ground rice. It’s been a staple at Thi Le and Jia-Yen Lee’s three-year-old anchovy since opening and is just one of the non-negotiables at the modern Asian Bridge Rd restaurant.

Beforehand you’ll snack on gratis cumin-and-chilli dusted rice crispies that are a good friend with your first beer, and you might finish with a fermented rice cream with roasted pear and ginger granita. In between, you should plump for a plate of the fattest pine mushrooms seasoned with green chilli and enlivened with lemon balm, or a fig and apple salad that has the sweetness tempered by dried shrimp funkiness and fish sauce savouriness.

Other standouts include whole garfish, splayed across the plate on a powerful sour ochre curry, and whole quail, its roasted crisp skin seasoned with peppery spice, a sharp barberry sauce adding fruity foil to the dancing heat. Wow.

With a short international wine list, a nice line in vermouths and other herb-infused aperitifs, and service that’s calm, clever and welcoming, Anchovy is redefining Asian dining in Richmond and keeps going from strength to strength. It is, quite simply, superb.