Lagoon Dining

On a stretch of Lygon Street long defined by Italian delis, two Ezard alumni, a former kitchen apprentice and the front-of-house manager who worked alongside him, have opened a slick contemporary Chinese diner that leans heavily on the food they love to cook and eat. The cooking bounces between Cantonese and Sichuan, with side-glances toward Thailand, Malaysia and Japan, and a wit that suits the address. Vegetables are treated as seriously as anything: hot-and-sour shredded potato with black vinegar and pickled enoki, salted cucumber with shiitake and a sansho-pepper vinaigrette. Elsewhere the kitchen shows its hand with sticky lamb ribs under a marmite glaze and garlic butter toast, rolled rice noodles with XO and cured pork belly, a hot and numbing beef tartare scooped up with Chinese doughnuts, and rock oysters dressed in yuzu kosho over charcoal-roasted char siu. It is built for fun as much as for eating, a proper bar, drinks poured with intent, food dished up heartily to share. Dinner runs Tuesday to Saturday with a Friday lunch, and the whole thing carries the unfussed confidence of cooks who have decided exactly what kind of room they want to run.