Best restaurants for a CBD lunch break
If you’re tired of a chicken and avo sandwich or last night’s leftovers for your work lunch, try these delicious CBD lunchbreaks options on for size.
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If ever there’s a time to treat yo’self with great food and a cheeky drink, it’s the middle of a long working week.
Read on for the most delicious restaurants for a CBD to try on your lunch break.
CITTA (DI STASIO CITTA)
Milan comes to Melbourne in the most spectacular way at Città.
This is the pick for solo and duo diners in for a quick bite, as perfectly amenable a spot for the best mid arvo snack, the “after school sandwich” — herb-crumbed veal cosseted in fluffy buttered white bread — and a perfectly made martini as it is a glass of Di Stasio’s own Yarra Valley pinot with a plate of spaccheri (tube pasta) and rich, refined ragu.
VUE DE MONDE
For those who are yet to dine at Vue de monde, don’t worry. The hits you’ve heard about are still on show.
But with young chef Hugh Allen now at the helm — fresh from a three-year stint at Noma — you might find the new creations even more memorable.
LESA/EMBLA
A year on and Lesa — the quieter, more refined upstairs yin to ever-bustling Embla’s downstairs yang — has shaken its little sibling status and is proudly, definitively, making its own mark on the world.
Of course, Embla remains the ever-reliable go-to for impeccable charcuterie and woodfired fare and knockout bread paired with a glass of something funky. It makes for an all-class one-two double act that’s as Melbourne as the MCG.
SAXE
In the handsome upstairs dining room in the CBD’s legal district, it’s a choice of a la carte, set menus for lunch, or dinner degustations, but let the knowledgeable and humble staff — some of Melbourne’s best — guide you.
Downstairs, the newly minted Saxe Kitchen offers a more relaxed take on the same style of food, from a mushroom and comte crumpet to beef cheek with broth and noodles.
FRENCH SALOON
Paris as seen through the eye of Melbourne, French Saloon offers a terrific execution of Gallic classics rendered with modern-day class.
An interesting cellar offers great drinking for those happy to splash some cash, while switched-on service by consummate professionals makes spending time in the handsome room a joy.
PHILIPPE
Sometimes the simple things really are the best. And when a grey day needs brightening, Philippe Mouchel’s famous rotisserie chook remains a failsafe hug of comfort that has made countless Melburnians smile for every good reason.
This comfortable, wonderfully handsome subterranean hideaway remains the standard-bearer for fabulous French in the city.
LELLO
At once modern and old school, Lello remains a convivial and reliable CBD go-to for authentic Italian cooking.
Handmade pasta is the star of the show, with the vincisgrassi lasagne layered with beef, offal and béchamel an intense but balanced delight.
MAHA
Shane Delia’s sophisticated subterranean souk has become a CBD institution, a bastion of modern Middle Eastern flavours, both accomplished and affordable.
Whether it’s a burger at the bar or a more substantial feast, a generosity of spirit is at the heart of Maha.
DAUGHTER IN LAW
Modern Melbourne Indian that’s as terrifically fun as it is delicious.
You’ll want to try one of the naan pizzas that top a thin, crisp smoky base with such ingredients as tandoori chicken. Familiar yet new: it’s pizza that’s unmistakably Indian and surprisingly good.
From the same wonderfully inauthentic playbook: chops and chips.
But it’s Aunty Dhal that’s the knockout.
MASSI
Massi may only be in its fourth year but there’s more than a quarter of a century of hospitality smarts in owner-chef Joseph Vargetto, which explains why his intimate dining room is as full for a midweek lunch as it is for a romantic Saturday date night.
OSTERIA ILARIA
This always-bustling trattoria might be less pasta-focused than its more famous sibling next door, Tipo 00, but overlooking it here is a trap for young players, for such plates as nettle pappardelle tossed through a rich, sticky braise of goat are simply outstanding.
CODA
Coda’s ever-changing dishes slip between culinary boundaries like those long boats you see in Vietnam — here a Javanese curry, there a Saigon cutlet with French accents (pomme frites and fromage) along the way.
The $65 set menu is both a cost-saver and a snapshot of Coda at its best. Service? Spot on. Especially if you’re propped at the bar and getting the benefit of real booze knowledge.
SUPERNORMAL
Supernormal has good times in spades. Under the same Flinders Lane roof you can punch out a Street Fighter II arcade game, sing karaoke and score Pocky (Japanese biscuit sticks) from vending machines.
TIPO00
Tipo00 is now firmly placed on many a tourist’s must-do Melbourne list, but Tipo 00’s charms are such that rather than becoming a victim of its own success, this loud little laneway space is as good as ever thanks in part to terrific staff who manage the throngs, and pasta that remains utterly queue-worthy.
This is rustic Italian served with a Melbourne eye.
MAKAN
Makan is a restaurant so polished, professional and completely unique, serving such delicious food, it’s hard to believe it was born out of reality TV.
But here you’ll find My Kitchen Rules’ 2016 champs, sisters Tasia and Gracia Seger, in the kitchen of their first restaurant.
Add an ice-cold Bintang beer with your food and you have a beautiful Balinese feast here in the heart of the city.
ROSA’S CANTEEN
Two things are assured from a meal at Rosa’s — a warm welcome to start and some of the city’s best cannoli to finish.
In between there’s plenty to keep loving at Rosa Mitchell’s cosseted CBD sanctuary of home-style Italian cooking and hospitality, where name-checked, local ingredients loom large.
Let charming staff guide you through fare-friendly wines and Italian desserts, but really, after a hearty session here, a chocolate cannoli is the perfect full stop.
ROCKPOOL
It might’ve lost some of its Big Night Out Appeal to Melbourne’s newer players, but Neil Perry’s classically good-looking Rockpool remains a reliable go-to when you need to impress a date, your boss or your better half.
GROSSI GRILL
Sure, you could take a window table at Bourke Street’s Grossi Grill just for the best people-watching Melbourne has to offer, but those in the know will tell you it’s the pasta that’s the real attention seeker at this wonderfully refined, yet casual, sibling to the pinky-up styles of Florentino upstairs.
LUCY LIU
The CBD’s uber-cool Lucy Liu covers all the bases for an Asian feast.
All of Lucy’s food is flavour-packed, like the deceivingly spicy Thai phat kaphrao kai of stir-fried minced chicken jumbled with garlic and hot chilli.
It packs serious heat, naturally leading you to a quenching cocktail such as the Floating Market with its crisp apple bite.
ASADO
Adding South American swagger to Southbank, Asado is the fourth meat-and-malbec venue from the San Telmo team.
The 150-seat restaurant is stylishly on theme — hides and leather, chequered-tiled floors and mosaic murals — where cow is king and fire fuels the fun.
Bustling and busy with sharp service that keeps things humming, this bit of Buenos Aires by the Yarra is hot stuff.
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