Pascale Bar & Grill is the flagship restaurant in QT Melbourne, an ambitious boutique hotel. Interior designer Nic Graham’s use of space is immensely baroque, heavy on black-framed glass, polished concrete, chequerboard and leather.

The men’s toilet is a collage of disembodied boobs and statues. Some of the seats have a cartoonish sexy-lady face made from cut-out eyes and lips. Some will inevitably read this as arty or playful. Others might feel uncomfortable eating alongside this overt objectification.

There’s a breakfast menu as sophisticated and switched-on as man Melbourne cafes, but the main event is lunch and dinner. In the evenings, a standout is the Black Angus rib eye steak drizzled in cafe de Paris butter. A share-friendly southern rock lobster is balanced perfectly with lemon, fennel and a tomato and saffron broth. And squid ink risotto is served with cuttlefish, lemon and mascarpone.

Dessert covers all the classics, sometimes with a twist. New York cheesecake is brightened with a drizzle of spiced passionfruit. Orange rum baba comes with mascarpone crème and a hint of tonka bean flavour. And tiramisu comes classic, spiked with espresso and mascarpone.