Wilson & Market is all about big flavours with surprising finesse, says John Lethlean in The Australian. The standard, across the board, is incredibly high at this restaurant at Melbourne's Prahran market, concurs Gemima Cody in Good Food.
Big and ambitious, consisting of a cafe, bar, restaurant and enoteca, Wilson & Market is not just about the cooking, writes John Lethlean in The Australian - "it's the little things, like the way your triple-cooked russet potato chips — amazing, btw — arrive in a copper pot in branded parchment paper with a black ceramic pot of roasted garlic aioli alongside." Or as Lethlean describes it, "specialness, where ordinariness might have worked almost as well," offering as proof a dish of sashimi-grade yellowfin "served in generous tiles with a salad made up of several varieties of white radicchio, radish, fresh herbs, pistachio, pomegranate seeds and avocado, dressed with a bright and utterly distinctive drizzle of olive oil, pomegranate molasses, finger lime, sesame seed and jalapeño."
British-born chef Paul Wilson learnt his talents at many top Melbourne restaurants, notes Concrete Playground, and at Wilson & Market he uses ingredients he has grown to love – including some Central and South American treats – meeting techniques learned in the terrifying kitchens of London during the shouty years. It's a strong combination," says Gemima Cody in Good Food. She writes of "sweet, tiny Moonlight Kiss oysters" that have their "vinegary mignonette doctored with a little celeriac," and "whiting carpaccio, chunkily cut and amplified with a slightly spicy, smoky and bitter puree of buddha's hand and aji amarillo chillies," and a "gently smoked tranche of chervil- and seaweed-topped ocean trout with a textbook devilled egg and piccalilli-like relish of fennel and tiny radishes," concluding simply that "every flavour works."