Twenty years young, Donovans is still celebration central on the St Kilda foreshore.

On a Sunday night in early spring, ‘Happy Birthday’ sing-songs resound through Gail and Kevin Donovan’s “house on the beach”, but shrewdly divided into different dining zones after the disastrous fire of 2014, Donovans is a place where tables for two can be just as content as party of ten.

Especially if you open your account here with a martini by the log fire, then dive into tempura-fried oysters or smoked salmon with light-as-air blinis.

Donovans’ lovingly curated wine list is a handsome document, especially strong on chardonnay, riesling and shiraz, while the heftily priced menu is starred with dishes “honouring 20 years of tradition’’.

Stalwarts include “old fashioned” chicken pie and a whole roasted duck for two, but young chef Emma D’Alessandro is making her mark on this old boy with revived modern classics. Cone Bay barramundi is adorned with Cloudy Bay clams, pork rack comes with a warm salad of sugarloaf cabbage, and beef cheek sinks deeply into celeriac puree.

The night we dined, Donovans’ celebrated Josper charcoal grill imparted just enough barbecue flavour to blushing Tasmanian lamb rump and the spikily delicious Bombe Alaska dessert came through with flying colours.

At Donovans, some things never change.

Must eat dish: Bombe Alaska for two
Instagram: @donovansstkilda