From the first mouthful at Cinder I’m convinced executive chef Jake Furst and I will get along. There are rare moments as a reviewer – and as a diner – when you stumble across a restaurant where you and the chef seem to share the
same palate. I sense it immediately at Cinder as I’m slurping down a morsel of coal-grilled scallop drenched in molten Café de Paris butter.

Café de Paris is famously rich, packed with more than a dozen ingredients including various herbs – tarragon, thyme, rosemary, dill – and spices, Worcestershire sauce, Madeira and much more. But the kicker here is a king-hit of curry powder, which adds warmth and wonder to the point where I’m sipping buttery dregs from the shell till there’s none left. But that’s OK, because I’ve ordered more.

Cinder is the revamped dining room of Fitzroy’s landmark Terminus Hotel, which has fed pub patrons since the mid 19th century but never, I suspect, as well as this. The pub got a lockdown makeover to create a softly-lit den of a dining room in hunter green and tobacco brown leathers, Victorian ash tables and walls of oyster-grey paint or raw bluestone. The new executive chef, Furst, built his menu around steaks. Hence the ageing cabinet in the foyer and the Josper charcoal oven centre-stage in the kitchen.

The Josper is, as a waiter explains, a “fancy wood-fired Spanish grill”. It gets a solid workout from the kitchen crew who sear steaks over ash wood, and grill fish, vegetables, poultry and anything else that could benefit from fire and smoke. The menu requires some difficult choices. Besides the 18 opening plates split into small, medium and large, there’s a separate page of steaks – grass-fed, grain-fed, dry-aged etc, with a choice of sauces and savoury butters. And a specials page with house-made pasta, more steaks (including a whopping 1kg Westholme wagyu T-bone for a whopping $385) and five fish.

You’d need a crowd here to have a hope of trying even half of what’s on offer.
Between two, we valiantly sample the calamari – well-seasoned, lightly battered rods on a decadent black smear of squid ink and wasabi aioli. It’s outrageously good squid. The grilled haloumi, sliced too thinly, is split and dry rather than golden and gooey, but enjoyable enough with a drizzle of vincotto and roasted grapes.

Of the dozen steaks offered I take the 250g Robbins Island wagyu rump (9+ marbling). It arrives charry outside and reddish-pink within and capped by a fat disc of Café de Paris butter. It’s a superb steak – Furst & co definitely know
how to cook cow – served with confit garlic and cabbage, daikon and apple slaw.

Seafood spaghetti is riddled with prawns, mussels, squid, scallops and golden fish bites, and dressed sparely with garlic, oil, parsley and plenty of pepper. Perhaps too peppery for some (like my plus one) but, again, just to my taste. From the bar, an outstanding Cinder Negroni made with Botanist gin from Scotland and Antica Formula vermouth with hints of vanilla.

Beers and ciders are served on tap, in bottles and cans; a workmanlike winelist does the job but doesn’t dazzle. One of the friendly, informed staff tells me they’re working on a cellar list. (Fun fact: the fine glassware is Rona brand from Hungary.)

The menu’s winning streak continues with dessert. A sticky date pudding – actually a slice – in a caramel puddle, studded with walnut and topped with a scoop of date and sherry ice cream that is just … chef’s kiss.

Related restaurant review: The Golden Fleece Hotel brings a slice of Santorini to South Melbourne