Why this 20-year-old treasure should be on every Melburnian’s list of go-to restaurants

It’s not easy to run a restaurant these days – costs up, spend down – so it’s worth celebrating milestones, whether it be six months, a decade or, in the case of this remarkable treasure, 20 years of pouring wine, serving tapas, hosting marriage proposals (planned and spontaneous) and making people feel better about life.

When Bar Lourinha opened in 2006, Melbourne was learning to eat at the bar, sherry was a grandma drink, and owner-operated restaurants dominated the dining landscape. Things are different now. Let’s bless the stalwarts who are still here, especially when they’re this good: settled but always striving.

In the early noughts, chef Matt McConnell and front-of-house pro Jo Gamvros went on tasty Euro odysseys, feeling their way towards their own restaurant. The Iberian peninsula, particularly Portugal, spoke to them most seductively, not just for the spice, fish, olive oil and wine, but also because its hospitality is a bit rogue, unpolished and daring. Along with original partner Simon Benjamin (who left after 10 years to open Fitzroy’s charming Napier Quarter), they launched Bar Lourinha.

It felt lively and exciting then, but I love it even more now: confident but nimble, immune to fads, embracing of regulars but just as glad to see new faces. The poise, warmth and attentive hospitality are so sublime I can’t see why it wouldn’t be on anyone’s list of go-to restaurants.

‘Why not swing in for afternoon espresso and a bikkie anytime you’re in town?’

There’s much to look at here, whether you’re cosied up on a leather banquette, twitching at the bar waiting for a first date, or celebrating upstairs in the function room. Bountiful bric-a-brac (copper serving-ware from Jo’s nonna, paintings of toreadors, vintage bottle-openers) keep you company in the moment while seeming to sew the place more firmly to the city’s fabric.

The menu is a mix of seasonal and “We can’t take this off”. From the latter list, the chickpeas with greens are a version of a dish McConnell and Gamvros ate in a dodgy bar in Seville. They smelled it walking past, ate it, went straight across the road to the market, bought the ingredients McConnell reckoned were in it (cumin, allspice and lemon among them), cooked them in their apartment on a 40-degree day, nailed it and brought the dish home to us. Spice-marinated and caramelised, these pulses are humble brilliance.

The tapas list will likely include salt-cured kingfish “pancetta” with frisky mojo rojo (a pepper sauce) and skewers threaded with morcilla (blood sausage) and pork tongue, robust for sure but perhaps the most approachable offal in town.

Prawn rice is pure Portuguese comfort, textured but soupy, deeply seafoody yet still bright.

Alfajores are Latin shortbreads sandwiched with dulce de leche, a milk caramel. They’re great for dessert, but why not swing in for afternoon espresso and a bikkie anytime you’re in town?

Maybe more impressive than its big anniversary is the energy here: Bar Lourinha has a leg in the past and eyes on the future: the next season, the next vintage, and ever-fresh batches of Melbourne memories.

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.