Despite being inside a bustling shopping precinct in Melbourne, Calia’s chic décor somehow makes you forget the busy department stores and swarms of customers pulsating around you.

The Japanese-focused restaurant-to-retail store – which has a part-dining, part-grocery offering and was founded by chef Francisco Javier Araya – opened its second location on Chadstone’s ground floor.

From the layered puff pastry mille-feuille with purple sweet potato crème, to the kombu-dashi-braised abalone ceviche, Mauritian-born executive chef Kerry Lam (ex-chef de cuisine at Calia Emporium) knows what makes Calia’s offering something special.