This is the fifth collaboration between owner Camillo Ippoliti and chef Karen Batson, who most will know not by name, but venue: Cookie, Revolver, Toff in Town all spots much of Melbourne has visited over more than a decade. Magic Mountain Saloon is the latest addition to the family, where the booze flows until the very early morn, the beats are loud and Batson’s food is as fiery as ever and arguably some of the best Thai going around.

The menu is big, and covers many bases – there are many good things from the wok, as well as the grill. Lots of salads, of course, and curries and roti and rice. It’s a menu that a dozen visits still won’t put a dent in. And you’ll want to come back for the sticky beef ribs, which are incredible; a mound of gloriously sticky, meaty ribs that come crowned with a handful of crunchy shallots, finely diced garlic and red chilli. They are extraordinarily delicious.

So, too, the char grilled calamari and green mango salad, the calamari, wings and tentacles all, comes lightly kissed by the grill, supple and tender. The green mango salad through rocks a lovely sourness that’s coupled with lots of tingly heat and minty goodness. It’s as refreshing as it is authentic and highlights a kitchen unafraid of embracing liberal amounts of chilli.

While this is a day through night through morning affair, Magic Mountain takes its bar and booze seriously, with two dozen whites and reds by the glass, along with a cellar full of big, bold aged barolos and other bottles of all persuasions, undefined by genre, much like the space. It’s very loud, it’s buzzy, it’s boozy and excitingly delicious. Magic Mountain Saloon is yet another collab that gets it so very right.

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Tel: (03) 9078 0078