Delicious 100: Best restaurants in Melbourne suburbs
If you want an incredible meal you don’t need to head into the CBD. Some of the best restaurants Melbourne has to offer are just around the corner.
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Who says you need to head into the city for a fine feed?
More than ever, Melbourne’s suburbs are filled with fabulous dining options that offer something special for that special occasion.
Here are some suburban superstars to put on your eating hit list.
TULUM
Those in the know long knew that Balaclava’s modern Turkish restaurant, Tulum, was one of Melbourne’s best, but a recent refresh of both looks and direction has elevated it even higher.
Coskun Uysal, whose cooking takes Istanbul training and mixes it with a Melbourne sensibility, has evolved his destination diner into something more accessible.
The new-look room is beautiful, comfortable and sexy, with dark panels and exposed bricks, timber, marble and leather all adding good looks.
The lighting is flattering, the Anatolian pop infectious, the staff welcoming, knowledgeable and efficient. And the food? Better than ever.
AMARU
Clinton McIver’s intimate Armadale fine diner continues its quiet rule, turning out beautifully judged odes to Aussie ingredients every single time.
It’s a pleasure to watch McIver and his honed team toil humbly in the open kitchen, but it’s not just the food that makes the experience, for there is quality and coherence in every aspect of Amaru, from service and fit-out to well-spaced tables, warm welcome and gracious goodbye.
ATTICA
All aboard the Attica express, where your tastebuds will be taken to unfamiliar territory as a procession of dishes boasting native ingredients land at your table over the next four or so hours.
Chef and owner Ben Shewry heroes homegrown produce to lure visitors from here and abroad to his world class Ripponlea restaurant.
O MY
The brothers Bertoncello – who introduced ‘degustation’ to the vocabulary of Melbourne’s outer east six-odd years ago – have moved next door into stylish new digs in Beaconsfield’s old Post Office for their acclaimed farm-to-fork fare.
With the daily changing menu dictated by what’s grown in their 1.6-ha farm down the road, making the most of seasonal bounty and preserving the rest is a keen focus.
O.MY is as terrifically enjoyable as it is terrific value, the larger dining room and new wine bar losing none of the country charm of the restaurant of old, yet gaining a new-found maturity and clarity of purpose. For a celebration of produce, it’s one of our best.
NAVI
With its quiet backstreet Yarraville location, ghostly gauze curtains and spotlit tables, the fridge full of craft beers, cellar of low-intervention local wines and months-long wait for a table, Navi might have given the inner west its first taste of fine dining but, with his brilliant brik pastry, Julian Hills is also giving Melbourne its first taste of posh possum.
ETTA
Lucky Brunswick East. For not every suburb has such a warmly welcoming local.
And while many do try, not every chef nails the house-baked bread and handmade butter double act. But at Etta, owner Hannah Green greets newcomers and regulars alike with such easy, welcoming humour, you’ll want to return even before she’s poured the first glass of the elegant house Blanc de Blanc.
And new chef Charley Snadden-Wilson (ex Ramblr) is serving such a knockout version of bread and butter, it ruins almost all others.
REVIEW
GREASY ZOE’S
Homemade and hyperlocal. Seasonal and sustainable.
Hurstbridge’s two-person run Greasy Zoe’s ticks all of the above in tiny, suburban 15-seater. Whether chef Zoe Birch is serving Yarra Valley beer washed-rind camembert or Gippsland beef short rib, brined and coal-smoked to perfection – trust everything is made from the freshest and best of the week.
AROMI
Italian has defined Melbourne 2019 and Aromi in Brighton is Paolo Masciopinto and Salvatore Montella’s (ex Sarti, Bar Carolina) contribution to the canon.
And it’s up there with the best, for Masciopinto is turning out some truly excellent versions of the classics.
Start with his knockout gnoccho fritto, for this puffy fried dough square stuffed with soft cheese and draped with wagyu bresaola is one of the best snacks you’ll eat this year.
PRETTY LITTLE
It’s all about wine, dine and a rollicking dinner party vibe at Pretty Little in Balaclava, which is, just as it says on the tin, pretty little.
This diminutive diner offers cosy communal seating for just 16 along a single oak table that runs the length of the room where, after that bottle of Heathcote shiraz, you might find your next-door neighbours turning into your new best friends.