Delicious 100: Where to enjoy Victoria’s best contemporary dining
From mud crab “snags” to smoked trout with a caraway croissant, these are Victoria’s stunning bucket-list worthy eateries really pushing the envelope in Australian cuisine.
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From traditionalist mansions to innovative farmhouse escapes, there’s never been more variety and quality in Australian dining.
These are some dining experiences that transcend the food on the plate: it includes forward-thinking chefs that turn new, outlandish concepts into heaven on the tastebuds, richly thought-out venues that use their serene surroundings to full effect and some marvellous examples of a well-planned wine list.
Our food reviewers have scoured the state and here are some of the finest contemporary Australian restaurants that have cracked the delicious. 100 list of Victoria’s best eateries.
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PT LEO ESTATE
From the sweeping, dramatic entry of the Jolson-designed building to the sweeping, dramatic views across the vines and sculptures to Western Port beyond, Pt Leo is a carefully considered wine-dine good time that has every sense covered.
There’s an extensive cellar door where you can taste wines from the 50 acres of estate vines, and all that art to explore with glass in hand, but beforehand there’s so much good food to eat, whether in the bustling 110-seat restaurant or in the quieter, more refined 45-seater called Laura.
But for easy, roll-up-your-sleeves, lick-your-fingers fun, the main restaurant is our favourite to return to. It’s where a wood-roasted crumpet comes topped with drunken chicken so good you’ll be ordering another after one bite, and a vibrant carrot souffle cloud comes dressed with arresting scampi roe.
It makes the whole package unbeatable. Pt Leo is simply outstanding, and is easily — definitively — Victoria’s most exciting dining destination. The art of dining, reimagined, Pt Leo is a roaring success.
PT LEO ESTATE
3649 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Merricks
03 5989 9011
Must-eat dish: Wood-roasted snapper, Hawkes Farm braised broccoli, fennel cream
Chefs: Phil Wood and Joel Alderson
Price: $$/$$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Pt Leo Restaurant: lunch daily 11am-5pm; dinner Thur-Sat til 10:30pm; Laura lunch Thur-Sun; dinner Thur-Sat
Instagram: @ptleoestate
BYO: No
Separate bar: Yes
Wine list: Andrew Murch
IGNI
Only Igni is going to whet your appetite with crunchy saltbush chips, spears of cured wagyu, and lardo-wrapped grissini sticks, even before you start your five- or eight-course degustation. And only Turner — a sage-like presence in his semi-open kitchen — is inclined to drench blackened broccoli heart in ‘winter milk’, then double down with fire-roasted pumpkin and jersey cream.
There’s not even a menu (not until you leave) but when the ideas are so elegant, the service so secure, the ambience so inviting, who needs a guidebook?
Moodily lit, Igni is supremely comfortable but a seat at the bar by the woodfire grill is recommended if you want to see flames licking your honey-glazed hapuka. This standout dish is only shaded by the smoked duck with macadamia. Turner makes it deluxe by folding duck pâté into leaves of grill-stroked endive. Amazing.
IGNI
Ryan Place, Geelong
03 5222 2266
Must-eat dish: Smoked duck, macadamia, endive
Chef: Aaron Turner
Price: $$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Fri-Sat 12-4pm; dinner Thurs-Sat 6-11pm
Instagram @restaurantigni
BYO: No
Licensed: Yes
Separate bar: No
AMARU
In the wrong hands, a set course menu can be a hard slog rather than a culinary adventure.
Not at Amaru. Owner-chef Clinton McIver appreciates the dynamics of degustation and at his stylish 35-seater in the thick of wedding-gowned Armadale, precisely crafted dishes are sequenced with such care you barely notice you’ve been dining for two, maybe three hours.
Amaru’s classy fitout — all mod curves and groovy chairs — enriches the experience, and with most tables having a view of the open kitchen, you feel connected to the amazing creations being sent out.
An eclectic wine list supports the Amaru experience. Expert service enriches it. Restaurant manager Gareth Burnett is one of the best in the business and he leads an intuitive team adept at knowing when to hover and when to step back.
AMARU
5/1121 High St, Armadale
03 9822 0144
Must eat dish: Meredith cheesecake
Chef: Clinton McIver Price $$$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Fri-Sat 12-3pm; dinner Tues-Sat 6-11:30pm
Instagram: @amaru_Melbourne
BYO: No
Licensed: Yes
Separate bar: No
Wine list: Duncan Peppiatt
BRAE
This humble farmhouse in the Otways has become a magnet for food lovers the world over. But as its global reach rises, Dan Hunter and his gun team delve deeper into the land and sea immediately surrounding it for an ever-present, ever-growing savvy sense of self.
It’s elevated dining but never flouncy, with straight-up, affable service in a dining room that’s a joy to spend time in but understated enough to let the food speak for itself.
There’s continually new biz to explore — see the strangely successful yet simple combo of barbecued beetroot, fireball-orange roe and a wedge, cut at your table, of ridiculously good honey, straight from the farm hive, that pops and melts in your mouth.
Or the “nose-to-tail” chicken winging it to you in several interesting ways, or the strawberry gum ice cream intensified with passionfruit.
This is bucket-list dining that deserves more than just one tick of the box.
BRAE
4285 Cape Otway Road, Birregurra
03 5236 2226
Must-eat dish: Barbecue beetroot with farm honey and roe
Chef: Dan Hunter
Price: $$$$$
Bookings: Essential
Open: Lunch Fri-Mon 12-2pm, dinner Thu-Sat 6:30-8:30pm (booking times)
Instagram: @braerestaurant
BYO: No
Licensed: Yes
Separate bar: No
OAKRIDGE
Gosh, it’s good. Being seated in the dining room with postcard vine vistas and the light pouring in, deciding on a something-for-everyone estate wine, and then the main act — Matt Stone and Jo Barrett’s brilliant food.
That this dynamic duo are so committed to sustainable and zero-waste cooking — making things such as flour from scratch and drawing on the Yarra Valley’s bounty of produce so deftly — makes a visit even sweeter.
Barrett’s caraway pastry is a thing of swirly beauty, teamed with a salad of smoked trout, caviar, herbs and sour cream that’s as pleasing on the plate as the palate. Ditto the dehydrated persimmon discs hatting the Berkshire pork to lend sweet-tart counter to the just-cooked meat.
Desserts celebrate the sweet-savoury divide, with fried parsnip ‘noodles’ and pear pieces doing wonderful things with a luscious hokey-pokey ice cream.
Team this with service that’s sharp and informed but with country charm, and you’ve got one of the best winery restaurants going.
OAKRIDGE
864 Maroondah Hwy, Coldstream
03 9738 9900
Must-eat dish: Smoked trout, caviar, cultured cream, caraway croissant
Chefs: Jo Barrett and Matt Stone
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Thu-Mon 10am-5pm
Instagram: @oakridgewines
BYO: No
Separate bar: Cellar door — Oakridge Estate wines only
LAKE HOUSE
Thirty years young, the Lake House dining room remains the quintessential country manor. Its comfortable opulence and understated elegance makes a long lunch — or longer dinner for those staying in-house — a celebratory affair.
Whether you opt for four choose-your-own courses or settle in for the full tasting experience, you’re best warned not to fill up on the house spelt sourdough with smoked butter — it’s a challenge, for it’s so good — but you’ll want to ensure room for each one of the petit fours to end.
In between you might find kangaroo with mountain pepper sandwiched between flaxseed crackers, and smoked eel dashi adding depth to bug meat mousse wrapped in charred cabbage. Milking Farm Yard’s famed chicken comes with translucent prawn meat and a powerful sauce of its shell, while silken ocean trout with fennel custard is clever and elegant.
Lake House remains one of Victoria’s essential dining destinations.
LAKE HOUSE
4 King St, Daylesford
03 5348 3329
Must eat: Ocean trout with fennel custard
Chef: Alla Wolf Tasker
Price: $$$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Fri-Wed; dinner daily
Instagram: @lakehousedaylesford
BYO: No
Separate bar: Yes
VUE DE MONDE
There is an unrivalled sense of occasion to a meal at Vue de monde that remains undiminished even after almost two decades. From the moment you are welcomed on the ground floor of the Rialto before being whisked 55 levels up to be greeted by name upon arrival, until descent hours later with a breakfast bag for the morning, this is a choreographed show of extraordinary finesse.
On the varied tasting menu there are mud crab “snags” to cook on the barbie, marshmallows to twirl over fire and Vegemite butter-rubbed croissant “damper” to eat off a stick. Highlights are many, from the elegant simplicity of a single roasted carrot served with magpie goose through to raw Flinders Island lamb under a crown of cauliflower couscous or smoked eel sheathed in a potato cannelloni. Each dish is lick-the-plate good. And then there are the signatures — Australia’s best cheese trolley is reason enough to return; so too the ethereal chocolate souffle to end.
Vue is still one of the most expensive dining experiences in the country — which makes the shouting from the open kitchen all the more intrusive — but for a vision of contemporary Australia on the plate, it’s still one of the best.
VUE DE MONDE
Level 55,
Rialto, 525 Collins St, Melbourne 3000
03 9691 3888
Must eat dish: Marron with Jerusalem artichokes and Geraldton wax
Chef: Justin James
Price: $$$$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: lunch Thur-Sun; dinner daily
Instagram: @vuedemonde
BYO: No
Separate bar: Yes
Wine list: Carlos Simoes Santos and Dorian Guillon
IDES
Whether you choose the four-course set menu or full experience, a meal at Ides, Peter Gunn’s contemporary, boundary-pushing Collingwood restaurant, is filled with terrific tricks and sleights of hand.
From the first mushroom morsels that hide in plain sight, through to a chocolate box that’s a smashing success, the full menu is more fun than fine diner, for there’s nothing po-faced about peanut butter to spread on hot-seeded rolls, a surprising signature for very good reason.
An onslaught of snacks — cucumber sprinkled with tingling Sancho pepper; a fried chicken wing; juicy cos seasoned with palm sugar just some of the tastes — precede an elegant Spencer Gulf prawn swimming in a stunning green pepper broth, and torched kingfish with a powerful chorizo lime sauce.
A recent makeover has softened the once-austere room, service is switched on and worldly wines flying the non-interventionist flag are firmly aimed at a cool industry crowd happy to spend.
While there might be the occasional miss (a pear tart piled high with truffle is a too overtly bold and heavy-handed finale) Ides continues to push boundaries and march to its own beat.
IDLES
Must-eat dish: King prawn, green pepper broth
Chef: Peter Gunn
Price: $$$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Dinner Tues-Sun 6-11pm; Lunch Sat-Sun 12-2pm
Instagram: @idesmelbourne
Wine list: Liam McCurry
Separate bar: Yes
BYO: Yes — corkage fees apply
WOODLAND HOUSE
“Elegant, innovative, energetic”. That’s the Woodland House mantra and after four years in the gracious Victorian mansion that once housed Jacques Reymond, chefs Hayden McFarland and Thomas Woods are busy turning words into action.
Their set-course menus — concise ($135) and extended ($165), with or without wine — are finely wrought. Founded on clever ideas, crafted from superior ingredients and artfully plated.
A winter degustation at Woodland House begins with beautiful bread and smart snacks (mussel and foie gras, scampi and saltbush).
After that, McFarland and Woods send out dishes that bend nature to their will: a medley of pickled spanner crab, miso and rapeseed oil; ruby-red venison ornamented with pickled quince and juniper; and a chestnut ice cream dessert heightened with honey and celeriac. Best of all is the pressed suckling pig on slow-baked cabbage and sorrel with a fine ticket of crackling.
The service here is sturdy, the cellar long and deep. Woodland House would be even better if the kitchen was visible and the dining room — a rather bland ensemble of abstract art — capitalised on the name, which suggests forests and foraging.
WOODLAND HOUSE
78 Williams Road, Prahran
03 9525 2178
Must eat-dish: Suckling pig, slow-baked cabbage, sorrel, black garlic
Price: $$$
Chefs: Hayden McFarland & Thomas Woods
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Thurs-Fri 12-3pm; dinner Tues-Sat 6:30pm-late
Instagram: @woodland_house
BYO: No
Licensed: Yes
Separate bar: No
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