For a while there, it seemed that Melbourne might have lost chef Ross Magnaye (ex-head chef of Rice Paper Sister restaurant) to Europe. He spent several months of last year cooking in Bulgaria, but luckily for us, he came back to Australia at the end of 2021 to open a restaurant with business partners Shane Stafford and Ben Waters.
When Stafford called him to say he had found the perfect location in a Melbourne laneway for their new venue, Magnaye had to take a moment to think. But it didn't take him long to pack his bags and come back with a bang, announcing the coming of Serai, a modern Filipino restaurant.
"It's basically Filipino food, reimagined," explains Magnaye. "We're using a lot of Australian produce, with Filipino flavours and techniques. And most of our dishes are cooked over wood-fire."
In the last few years, the chef has been at the forefront of a wave of food personalities championing Filipino cuisine in Australia, but he says it's not necessarily his mission.
I want people to taste Filipino food, but it's not my main thing, I don't push it. But maybe that's why it works, why people love it.
"Obviously this food is important to me because I grew up with it. I've only touched maybe 20-30 per cent of what Filipino food is. There are some dishes I don't even know how to cook so I learn every day," he says. "With Filipino traditional dishes that I grew up with like my mum's adobo, I always ask myself, 'how can I tweak it?'
The menu at Serai takes cues from where Magnaye's family comes from, the south of the Philippines. Think punchy and vibrant flavours with aromatics like chilli, lemongrass, ginger and garlic.
The McScallop is a tempura Abrolhos Islands scallop with crab fat mayo and pickled papaya, sandwiched in pillowy pandesal, the popular Filipino bread. "It's really rich, a bit sour and super umami," Magnaye says.
For his take on kilawin, Magnaye bypasses the more commonly used goat or beef, and uses kangaroo that's smoked and seared over wood fire. It's then diced, mixed with a dressing and served over bone marrow.
His favourite dishes at the moment are the kingfish sinuglaw, which you scoop up with pork crackling, and the calamari, which is served with a spicy longanisa sausage dressing.
The lechon, a Filipino staple, comes in the form of crispy pork belly with rum sauce and pineapple palapa, a sweet and spicy condiment.
Vegetables are treated with as much respect as the meat and seafood at Serai. For example, bright orange kuri pumpkins are cooked over fire and covered in a tocino glaze of vegan oyster sauce and banana ketchup, and then topped with confit garlic puree.
Filipinos know their way around desserts, and Serai epitomises this. We recommend trying the latest addition to the menu, smoked leche flan, with passionfruit (and possibly truffle while it's in season).
The wine list has a few local drops. Just like the food, cocktails and mocktails highlight Filipino flavours with ingredients like ube, calamansi and buko milk.
Despite only having been open for a few weeks, Serai is already making waves. A lot of this popularity is because of the food, but also because of the fun, loud, unpretentious vibes. "We're fun people so we didn't want to have a boring restaurant," sums up Magnaye with a smile.
Tue–Sat 12pm-3:30pm and 5:30pm–11pm
ALL THE FILIPINO FOOD
Polvoron: The Filipino shortbread crumbling with colour
