Nostalgia has a vice-like grip of restaurant menus, with the dishes of our childhood getting a delightful second act. This year’s Good Food Guide is rich with restaurants embracing retro trends from the ’70s and ’80s, with vol-au-vents, hash browns and the humble ice-cream sundae getting a fresh glow-up for the modern diner. It’s a return to food that feels familiar and comforting, with a few twists to feel like a very modern interpretation.
“Maybe it’s the economic headwinds, maybe it’s the news cycle, but chefs have embraced comfort on their menus this year. I’ve especially loved the new gloss they’ve put on crisp-fried hash browns – like chip’n’dip but better,” says The Age Good Food Guide co-editor Emma Breheny.
We’re leaning into this nostalgia, giving three of these old-school favourites a modern makeover. Because let’s be honest, sometimes the best thing is often what granny was rolling out in 1987.
The hash brown has had a glow-up. Once the breakfast answer to the morning after the night before, it is now being stacked, topped and glamourised within an inch of its life. Here, crisp spiced potato gets a swoop of whipped feta sharpened with chicken salt, plenty of dill and a completely unnecessary but deeply excellent spoonful of salmon roe. It’s crunchy, salty, creamy and proof that the hash brown was never the problem. We just weren’t trying hard enough.
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Few things used to signal mum is having people over quite like a vol-au-vent. And if restaurant menus have anything to say, everything old is new again, which is excellent news for vol-au-vents and deeply concerning for those of us still recovering from wearing low-rise jeans the first time around.
When you lean into the trend, and take a bite, you’ll wonder why you ever left these tiny vessels of retro joy. This version, filled with cold poached prawns that have taken a light bath in a mayo popping with salty capers, grated tomato and curry leaf, is a grown-up nod to the old vollie and a superb reminder to bring them back to the mainstay.
Once upon a time, dessert was all impact and glamour. It came in an oversized glass, involved numerous scoops of ice-cream and required a spoon long enough to retrieve a small child from a deep well. No foams, no fuss, just hot fudge overspilling, whipped cream resting precariously, and the cherries no one wanted but will fight to the death for all the same.
This is the old-school sundae in all its unapologetic glory. A dessert that understands more is more, and there is no such thing as too much fudge sauce.
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