Five weeks after opening, there are still cords dangling from the roof, the toilets are missing mirrors, speakers are housed in unfinished holes in the ceiling and the first vision upon ascending the concrete stairs to the flagship fine diner is the bottles-in-crates work-in-progress of the bar area.

Melbourne has always had a perplexing love affair with the Stokehouse. And after these years apart, there’s much goodwill in the air-kissed air. For who else would be excused for opening an unfinished restaurant? With entrees nudging $30, there doesn’t appear to be any preview discounts applied, either.

The reborn Stokehouse should be a shining light by the bay, a beacon for locals and visitors alike that reiterates Melbourne’s reputation for being a world class food city. But it’s not. Well, not yet.

Whether it’s the small tables for two that makes sharing snacks a juggling act, the workaday cutlery, terrible acoustics or rudimentary website, it’s like the Basics in Modern Restaurants handbook was swept up with the ashes of the old building.

The jail-like surrounds of the Robert Simeoni-designed admirably eco/sustainable building completes an impression diners can often suffer from Stokehouse syndrome: held captive by a social set, they unquestioningly love the restaurant because it seems everyone around them does, too.

But those cleverly referential charcoaled timber slats and window frames add a prison sentence to the glorious expanse of horizon that was the main drawcard of the old incarnation (and beware if you’re wearing white).

The interior features bare rough-sawn reclaimed timber on the floor that weirdly extends up the wall and partially onto the ceiling, while the glass-tubed light installation that runs the length of the space is very lovely, but seems as out of place in this dining room as a copy of Socialist Weekly.

But there’s some excellent food coming out of the kitchen helmed by Ollie Hansford, service can be engaging and Gavin Cremming’s comprehensive wine list has surprisingly affordable bottles in a cellar that’s also filled with the four-figured best of Burgundy.

A bowl of mozzarella curd and oil to spread on good bread and crisps to start sets a generous tone, while snacks are quick to hit.

An inspired crisp sesame-and-pepita toasted taco shell filled with chunks of king prawn on an avocado mousse is a supremely tasty, if expensive, opener at $9 a pop, while fat, panko-crumbed oysters ($8 each) topped with a few Yasa caviar pearls are impressively lux.

Seafood is an expected menu mainstay across the courses, with an exquisite marron salad ($34) the best of the lot. Along with crunchy baby snow peas, supple leek, slivers of sweet zucchini and their flowers fried crisp comes a generous amount of perfectly poached marron.

Diced shallots in rhubarb vinaigrette add cutting acid, while finger lime scattered cream underneath ties the lot together.

Seared tuna served with a dice of pickled radish is equally accomplished, though the thin smear of wasabi-spiked crème fraiche “syllabub” dates an otherwise excellent plate ($21).

Thick slices of pickled green mango hold up a salad of fennel and celery leaf that accompanies triangles of good, if light on, calamari ($28), while a deeply sweet carrot reduction that pools in the almond puree that comes with the daily changing market fish is clever and outrageously good.

Pity the fish — snapper this day — was overcooked ($43), but it still trumped embarrassingly bad fish and chips: dry whiting in a hard, desiccated crumb teamed with six damp, floury chips ($39).

A lovely piece of beef — Ranger Valley rump cap — redeemed, though served only with a small watercress salad, you’re looking at upwards of $60 for steak and a side.

Though served too freezer hard, the peanut butter semi freddo was excellent, though the rest of the dish — macerated cherries, chocolate macaron and candied peanuts — a little incoherent ($19).

Conversely, the white choc parfait in the re-imagined “bombe” was too meltingly soft, though the glossy meringue and powerful strawberry elements were
on point ($21).

Stokehouse should be excellent from the get-go. But with too many misses in an incomplete dining room, right now it’s a disappointment.

This review originally appeared on news.com.au.