[content_slider]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[/content_slider]
MELBOURNE | Abacus All Day follows on from its hugely successful one-year-old sibling, Abacus in South Yarra, with an all day dining concept that works. Bringing the same forward-thinking concept and contemporary style to the eastern suburbs, Abacus All Day showcases seasonal and quality Australian ingredients in fusion-influenced dishes, offering a unique dining experience to Eastland Town Square’s outdoor foodie mecca.
The grandeur of Abacus All Day’s venue is encouraged by its high ceilings, spacious interior, stylish surfaces and enlarged artwork graffiti facing the front entrance. Tables and booths portray a rustic elegance that compliments the contrast between the venue’s farmhouse feel and urban coolness. Openly spacious, the kitchen, bar and dining area all merge seamlessly, creating a communal space that caters equally well to private dining as it does to group functions.
The clever mixologists behind the bar expertly concoct cocktails that will leave your taste buds tingling, whilst the service exhibited by all of the floor staff is impeccably professional yet conversationally casual. The food menu is no less impressive, with co-owners Dylan Whitmore and Chris Connelly utilizing their childhood inspirations and expert knowledge to deliver a menu focused on quality Australian produce, flavour and textural balance, and excitement.
Open for breakfast, brunch and lunch, we decided to try out their dinner menu for something a little different. Sharing-style tapas dishes start the evening with a bang, with things like Braised Octopus Tentacle with South Australian chorizo and torn sourdough, Portobello Mushroom Fries served with a chardonnay vinegar, and a seemingly simple Warm Salad of charred broccolini, rocket, pistachio and hazelnut that makes you appreciate the subtle complexities that chefs incorporate into their dishes.
Mains soon follow, served on generously sized plates that mirror the elaborate theme of this all day eatery. Perfectly suitable as individual main meals or shared ones, the variety of options makes it difficult to categorize into a singular cuisine. Korean BBQ Chicken Ribs coat free-range chicken in kimchi and a kimchi honey glaze, served alongside charred corn, merguez sausage and pickled daikon. Whilst Charcoal Tagliatelle, Rib-Eye Steak and Deconstructed Sushi Rock are other examples of their offerings, the latter of which adds a strange Australian touch to Japanese-inspired sashimi with the addition of an avocado.
Sweet options complete the dining experience with a couple of chocolate dishes (the Chocolate Delice is amazingly decadent), as well as a tart, pannacotta and cheese board. You also don’t want to miss out on their bread, with sourdough and mixed seed breads freshly baked at their South Yarra location, served with Mornington olive oil (in its natural state, and as a powder) and house dip (baba ganoush on our visit) that confirms the notion that you can tell a lot about a restaurant by the quality of bread that they serve.
Their all day dining concept is relatively unique compared with the other venues occupying Eastland’s Town Square, putting Abacus All Day in a whole different league. The quality of their seasonal produce, innovative diversity of their food and drink options, and intentionally contemporary style attracts customers looking for something new and exciting. However, be prepared to splurge a little if ordering more than a few sharing tapas dishes, as this restaurant portrays facets of a finer dining restaurant within its casual ambience.
Abacus All Day
Town Square, Eastland Shopping Centre
171/175 Maroondah Highway
Ringwood
Victoria 3134
Australia
Telephone: (03) 8820 3975
E-mail: n/a
Website
Open
Mon – Tue: 8:00am to 4:00pm
Wed – Sun: 8:00am to 11:00pm