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Victoria has long been in dire need of decent restaurants and Nova – a new foodie hub near the station – is answering its call. On an airy, imposing corner site within the development is Timmy Green, an all-day Australian-style diner. It looks snazzy, with art deco touches, overflowing plant pots and a cute baby grand in the corner. The food, too, is overwhelmingly decent. We stick to small plates for variation. A bucolic Daisy Garden salad of fresh crudités wodged into piles of sweet potato and avocado, on a bed of ‘edible soil’ (home-made dukkah, apparently) was fresh and crunchy, while halloumi fries were greaseless little batons, perfectly paired with a sharp pomegranate-flecked yogurt.
The smoked salmon pizza – really an artful bruschetta on brittle charcoal bread, strewn with yuzu cream, pickled turnip, avocado and fish – was a low (if I order pizza, I want pizza); diddy little grilled lamb cutlets, perfectly pink in the middle and the fat just crisping an exemplary high. A crisp pile of popcorn shrimp with rounds of jalapeño and a fiery pineapple salsa was nearly as good. Hell, even my Timmy’s Margerita, a soupy mix of avocado, almond milk and mescal, was highly palatable.
But, alas, the service. Despite booking for dinner, we were jammed on to a spindly bar table that only fitted half our plates at a time and we had to ask for menus at every stage of the meal. Staff are genial, but it’s a tad shambolic – though the unexpected soft-launch-style discount on the bill showed good intentions. On our visit it was irritating; for a date or a formal dinner it would be embarrassing. It’s barely been open a month, but with the competition across Nova, it will have to get slick quick.