Last chance to try Asian-inspired playful “pop-up”

Popular Victoria St pop-up Pebble Dining will close its doors on May after a six-month stint. Chef Cam Tay-Yap says he and his wife would love to find a forever home in the neighbourhood for their restaurant.

Cam Tay-Yap didn’t have any particular attachment to West Melbourne when he took on a sub-lease there last November.

But since opening a business on Victoria St the young chef’s outlook has changed.

“I really love how community-driven this area is. It’s been unreal.”

For Cam and his wife and collaborator Trish Pham, maintaining friendships and welcoming people in is at the heart of their hospitality enterprise, along with the “playful, flavour-forward”, Asian-inspired food.

Their “pop-up” restaurant, which opened on the border of North and West Melbourne in November, has the same spirit as that of its original incarnation, which he ran out of the carpark of his friends’ Oakleigh climbing gym, Cam says.

Now the eatery has walls, a ceiling and a liquor licence but also still an outdoor area for dogs, so it is a place to hang out where “everyone's invited”.

Pebble’s latest format has also been informed by six months of recent travel around the international neighbourhood.

Cam, who first got interested in cooking by helping to feed his large household while still a student at Melbourne High School, trained and earned his stripes in fine dining.

After being taken on by Ben Shewry at Attica in Ripponlea, he went to work at three-Michelin star restaurant Core by Clare in London, and later, back home in Melbourne, became head chef at three-hatted Amaru.

In 2024 he was judged The Age Good Food Guide’s Young Chef of the Year, a recognition he shared with another young up-and-comer.

Over a 12-year restaurant career, he has been “fortunate enough” to work and make friends with “some amazing humans” around the world, the chef told North West City News, and his recent culinary adventures with Pham – which took the couple to Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Bali and Japan – involved some of them.

“We did all these pop-ups and collabs at different restaurants throughout Asia – some of them have been with friends and some of them we went in cold and became friends with them afterwards,” he said.

Back on the corner of Victoria and William streets, where the couple took advantage of a six-month vacancy in the leadup to the opening of a new tempura bar, they wanted to share something of their international experience.

The food at Pebble Dining is “creative”, “playful and shareable”, according to the chef and, while inspired by the countries the couple visited, not at all authentic to them.

“It’s kind of a build-your-own adventure,” Cam says, explaining also that the restaurant makes everything themselves and “want[s] to take what we do seriously without taking ourselves too seriously.”

Being asked to recommend menu items is like being asked to choose your favourite child, he claims, nevertheless mentioning a few dishes and ingredients.

“We’ve got lovely stingray from Lakes Entrance.” (It is served with banana leaf, pumpkin and crab curry and tromboncino squash.)

“We have these mushroom rendang hand pies, which have been a crowd favourite since day one; chicken ribs have also been a crowd favourite.”

“We have some squid and potato noodles, which are really, really delicious in like a laksa sauce; and a tomato terrine that kind of celebrates local produce and farmers.”

Judging by the social media comments, the restaurant’s potato flatbread is another clear crowd pleaser.

They also serve a big steak.

Being Malaysian-Australian and not feeling completely at home in either country has been a source of angst for Cam in the past, he says.

But getting older and travelling more has helped him come to terms with his cultural identity.

As he sees it now, “I’m always going to be half Malaysian and half Australian and that’s so fine”.

“I have a very different outlook on the world and that’s also a really good thing,” he says.

For the eating public, that outlook looks to have inspired some exciting combinations.

The tomato and leek terrine with basil yoghurt and pineapple sambal is a case in point; so too the strawberry, red bean and green tea “pavlova”.

As for drinks, there is “a stunning list of wines and cocktails that we’ve curated to work well with the food – some from local winemakers, some not,” Cam says.

Now in the most permanent iteration of his business so far, the award-winning chef is clear that he is doing exactly what he wants to be.

“Honestly, even if I had a million bucks, I wouldn’t change this,” he says. “This is the job for me.”

What is unfortunate is that Pebble’s time at 225-229 Victoria St is coming to an end.

While focusing on “finishing off the next four weeks really nicely” the couple are also keeping an eye out for new possibilities, Cam says.

“We are looking for, I guess, our forever home.”

“We’d love to be able to stay in this area, but we’ll just have to wait and see what the future holds for us.” •