Shed 5

I’m relatively new to technology, dragged kicking and screaming by my old fashioned values but have come to embrace it with trepidation. Especially Google maps. I will never get lost again. Ever. My blue ball seeks out the red pin to any destination on the planet.

I was meant to be dining at Shed 5, the new restaurant which recently opened on South Wharf Promenade. Take note: South Wharf Promenade, not drive – which trusty old Google maps doesn’t seem to recognise. I waded through muddy building sites, and jumped at the smallest of shadows about a hundred metres shy of the West Gate Bridge. I thought I would be dining in a shed – Uncle Bob’s backyard pride and joy perhaps. I called my dining buddies and was soon back on track to the Promenade, a stone’s throw from DFO.

Indeed Shed 5 is in a shed, but of the meticulously restored cargo variety. Once used to hold stock ready to be shipped down the Yarra, Shed 5 is now stocking modern Mediterranean cuisine served to you under a wall of handmade Spanish blue and white tiles. We had a taste of the menu starting with a fava puree topped with hazelnuts and shallots ($10). Think of the best bean dip you have ever had and times it by ten – smooth and nutty, served with house made flatbread.

The dishes kept coming, a salty saganaki topped with sweet roasted peppers ($15), a soft slow cooked octopus with sorrel mayonnaise ($17.00), n’duja and mozzarella croquettes ($4 each) – soft pork sausage and gooey cheese, crumbed and fried. But the star of the show was the slow roasted lamb neck cooked in the wood oven ($32), a mouthful of lamb, dates, pine nuts and capers and you’ll feel the sands of Mykonos between your toes right there and then.

We were split on the desserts. Whilst most of my companions loved the silky halva semifreddo with quince sorbet, salted caramel and ricotta doughnut ($13) I was more impressed with the less sweet goat milk crema, walnut baklava, coffee and chocolate sorbet and metaxa jelly ($13). The crema and jelly mixed perfectly with the crunch of baklava and satisfied my unsweet tooth.

Shed 5 is already filling up with folks ready for a taste of modern Mediterranean fare, but with the evening light starting to stretch out as summer approaches, this will be the place to be for a crispy glass of Assyrtiko and a dish of roasted mixed olives looking out over the river.

Opa!

SHED 5
37 South Wharf Promenade, Melbourne
9686 1122
Wed – Sat open 12pm – 3pm lunch, 5.30pm – late dinner service
Tues and Sun 12pm – 3pm for lunch
shed5.com.au