There’s a wave of Melbourne restaurants drawing attention to India’s dazzling regionality, and compact Toddy Shop is right up there. With a street-side location, loud pink-and-green colour scheme, cracking cocktails (consider the saffron-infused Bengali Martini) and Bollywood soundtrack, it delivers good times and brilliant Malayali flavours equally. If the fish nadan is available on the wall-mounted, daily-changing curry menu, don’t hesitate. Chef and co-owner Mischa Tropp’s goat, chicken, prawn or beef curries certainly don’t disappoint, but this traditional Kerala fish dish, with its thrilling three-chilli depth and backbeat of kokum sourness, goes to the heart of the cuisine’s bright, nimble spicing. So, too, does a creamy pineapple pulissery spiked with ground coconut and curry leaves, or the sweet-spicy freshness and turmeric flash of his cabbage thoran. Be prepared, however: Tropp’s all-around excellent cooking may have you booking flights to southern India before you’ve settled the bill.
Ashley Ludkin
