As customers look to spend less on dining out, Peter Gunn has traded the set menu for a la carte after 10 years at his hatted Collingwood restaurant Ides.
Contemporary$$$
Usually, taking a Good Food hat away from a restaurant is a blow. In this case it marks a brave, fun and timely change of direction on the part of a restaurateur coming into his power. After a decade of degustations, Peter Gunn’s hitherto 16.5/20 two-hat Ides has cast off the heavy cloak of commitment to the Big Night Out and refashioned itself as a restaurant that welcomes you for oysters and a chat, Wednesday steak night or – sure, if you really want to – a six-course menu.
This loosening of the tie is partly personal: a chef in his 40s doesn’t necessarily want to cook on the same culinary highwire he did as a young acrobat. The circus tricks that started as self-expression now seem exhausting. There are also market realities: diners are spending less and attention spans don’t always stretch to tasting menus. These factors could have caused a perfect storm; instead, the sunshine is glorious.
Ides in 2026 serves thoughtful dishes using superlative produce prepared with expertise. There’s detail but little complication: the effort that went into avant-garde technique is now directed towards flavour. Oysters, dressed with yuzu and pepper, are tart, bright and mineral wonders. Pipis are steamed with sake, mirin and a precise ratio of butter to bring gleaming richness. Chips served on the great-value steak night are cooked to dark-golden, every fry a crunch-fest.
To prepare the crab-tart shell, half the butter in the pastry is replaced with duck fat to make it both smooth and crisp. This tart is filled with potato purée and crab mayonnaise and studded with broad beans to make a visually dramatic entrée, although more crab kapow would be welcome. When diners are eating fewer dishes, you can amp up the impact of each. For example, the kingfish with ’nduja sauce could happily take more spice.
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Ides has been a fascinating entity to watch. Gunn started doing pop-ups in 2012 when he was sous chef at Attica; these days, peripatetic dining is normal, but Ides was novel then. When Gunn (and two business partners) took on these 30-seat premises in 2016, he deftly tapped into fine-dining zeitgeists. Menus ebbed and flowed from six to 12 courses, meals began with a flurry of cutlery-free bites in the snack-happy days around 2018, and there was a quirky use of ingredients (charred avocado comes to mind).
The space has morphed: initially, a masculine cave with spotlit tables, there’s a play of light and texture now, while a wall separating the bar next door has been opened up, making the conjoined room more dynamic.
One dish speaks eloquently to the challenges of change. Gunn’s signature dessert is the Black Box, a technical adventure in chocolate. One version of the recipe has 37 ingredients and this instruction: “Pierce mango pieces and dip in nitrogen for 2 seconds.” Diners were given a hammer to destroy the confection before eating it. When Gunn mapped the recent changes, he thought the last Box had been smashed, but it’s a showstopper and regulars asked for it. In a smart call, the dessert isn’t on the menu, but can be ordered ahead. Finding yourself, yes. Expressing yourself, definitely. Pleasing customers? Restaurant gold.
The low-down
Atmosphere: Keen, confident and contemporary
Go-to dishes: Sake-steamed pipis ($28); spanner crab tart ($36); Wednesday steak night ($55); mango sorbet with avocado oil ($12)
Drinks: Ides has an adjoining bar and the drinks expertise is a highlight. There are excellent bespoke cocktails (I love the Yuzu Drop) and a wine list studded with interesting gems.
Cost: About $200 for two, excluding drinks
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine.
