Chris Lucas has never been a restaurateur to do things by half, a point he’s made before and emphatically re-confirmed late last year at this lavish, four-level French-accented house of fun on Melbourne’s Bourke Hill. With its two-level dining room, basement jazz club and superb rooftop bar, complete with a 50-year-old maple tree-centred garden designed by Paul Bangay, Maison Bâtard is a masterclass in glorious, lavish, anti-minimalist indulgence.
But just as the visuals run the…

