delicious.100: Victoria’s best restaurants with water views
WHETHER it’s a view of the Yarra River or the St Kilda foreshore, scenic views over the water can turn an amazing meal into an unforgettable experience. Take your pick from Victoria’s top waterside dining destinations.
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WHETHER it’s a view of the Yarra River or the St Kilda foreshore, scenic views over the water can turn an amazing meal into an unforgettable experience.
Luckily for us, Victoria has ample incredible restaurants which boast fantastic food and a great view of the water.
Take your pick from the state’s top waterside dining destinations as listed in delicious.100, the only food guide to rank Victoria’s top 100 restaurants.
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Donovans
40 Jacka Bvd, St Kilda
03 9534 8221
Twenty years young, Donovans is still celebration central on the St Kilda foreshore.
On a Sunday night in early spring, ‘Happy Birthday’ singsongs resound through Gail and Kevin Donovan’s “house on the beach”, but shrewdly divided into different dining zones after the disastrous fire of 2014, Donovans is a place where tables for two can be just as content as party of ten.
Especially if you open your account here with a martini by the log fire, then dive into tempura-fried oysters or smoked salmon with light-as-air blinis.
Donovans’ lovingly curated wine list is a handsome document, especially strong on chardonnay, riesling and shiraz, while the heftily priced menu is starred with dishes “honouring 20 years of tradition’’.
Stalwarts include “old fashioned” chicken pie and a whole roasted duck for two, but young chef Emma D’Alessandro is making her mark on this old boy with revived modern classics.
Cone Bay barramundi is adorned with Cloudy Bay clams, pork rack comes with a warm salad of sugar-loaf cabbage, and beef cheek sinks deeply into celeriac puree.
The night we dined, Donovans’ celebrated Josper charcoal grill imparted just enough barbecue flavour to blushing Tasmanian lamb rump and the spikily delicious Bombe Alaska dessert came through with flying colours.
At Donovans, some things never change.
Must eat dish: Bombe Alaska for two
Cuisine: Mediterranean inspired
Chef: Emma D’Alessandro
Price: $$$/Bookings yes
Open: Lunch and dinner daily
Instagram: @donovansstkilda
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Stokehouse
30 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda
03 9525 5555
For many a good-living Melburnian there is only one restaurant that matters, and for them their beachy clubhouse returned not a moment too soon last summer after a devastating fire. For others, a magnificent view across Port Phillip, a comprehensive cellar that’s filled with the four-figured best of Burgundy, along with many a more affordable drop, and a seafood-leaning menu remains as compelling a reason to visit the reborn Stokehouse as the legend of some of the city’s best boozy lunches.
After a hiccup-y start, the world’s first six-star energy efficient restaurant has settled into a grove, still the place the coiffed and coutured come for Champagne and prawn tacos, riesling and ceviche in a breezy pastel-hued and blonde-wood room.
The broad menu has multiple access points. There’s a winning raw bar and snacks, with a dedicated bar area for freshly shucked oysters.
However, given its prime beachside position, how Stockhouse continues to get fish and chips so incredibly wrong (overcooked fish, flaccid batter, floury chips, forgettable tartare) is a mystery worthy of Remington Steele. At least name-checked steak comes expertly cooked.
It’s indicative of an uneven menu of hits — raw scallop with pickled ginger; perfect pancetta-wrapped chicken, and misses — raw kingfish dressed in warm ponzu unpleasantly half-cooking the fish.
Desserts, from new hire Lauren Eldridge blaze a confident trail. Sure there’s the ‘bombe’ that’s been on the menu since time immemorial, but these 2017 additions are reason enough to return.
A bittersweet, puckeringly sharp grapefruit sorbet covered in torched meringue shards is a bright full stop to a Sunday seafood extravaganza, while rosewater panna cotta hiding toffee pistachios and orange jam is deftly exotic and outrageously good.
Stokehouse is back with a new mojo — a killer room and a swinging crowd as much the drawcard as executive chef Richard Ousby’s broad-appeal, seafood-strong menu.
Must-eat dish: Raw scallop, pickled ginger
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chefs: Richard Ousby, Ollie Hansford
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch and dinner daily
Instagram: @stokehousestkilda
The Baths Middle Brighton
251 Esplanade, Brighton
03 9539 7000
Beautiful food and a bay view to match — the Middle Brighton Bath’s revamped upstairs dining room offers so much to dive in to.
The seafood-heavy menu is a bastion of good produce, solid technique and letting ingredients shine. Service can be a little green and the dining room underwhelming (okay, it’s hard to compete with that view of Port Phillip Bay), but what’s coming out of the kitchen is created with class and plated with care.
Bronzed scallops with just-cooked centres glisten on a bed of silky sweet pumpkin puree, with apple batons for crunch and cut-through.
Keenly priced beer-battered fish and chips are cooked crisp and clean, teamed with robust house-made tartare and mushy peas, while the blue-eye was pan fried to perfection, served golden skin up with cauliflower puree and confit leeks.
Desserts are as eyesome as they are delicious, such as the pairing of peanut butter and white chocolate in a creamy parfait heaped with fluffy vanilla floss.
Drink up with a wine list full of fare-friendly drops, non-hipster beers and classic cocktails.
A separate kids’ menu (think chargrilled chicken with mash and a very good cheeseburger) will please junior palates as much as parentals looking for quality options.
A Sunday roast and nightly specials also add to the family-friendly appeal.
This dining room offers some of the city’s best seafood and a great spot for family gatherings. The lovely view just happens to be a bonus.
Must-eat dish: Scallops with pumpkin puree
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Paul Raynor
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch and dinner Mon-Fri., all-day dining Sat-Sun
Instagram: @thebathsmiddlebrighton
Pure South Dining
River Level, Southgate Precinct, 3 Southgate Ave, Southbank
03 9699 4600
Long before MONA helped mainlanders discover the joys of the Apple Isle, Philip Kennedy and Peter Leary were over-delivering the best produce of that little land down at Pure South.
Early this year the pair reopened their now 13-year-old Southgate restaurant and added another level, literally and metaphorically.
The space at river level, P.S. Bar & Kitchen, is dedicated to all-day eating and casual drinking, while upstairs is to showcase their fine-dining game.
In the handsome, glass-panelled eyrie of a dining room that enjoys prime views across the city and beyond, chef David Hall transforms Tasmania’s best into approachable, clever dishes.
Start with stunning, freshly flown in “Lease 65” oysters from St Helens, perfect with house-baked rye spread with hand-churned butter from Pyengana dairy and a glass of crisp riesling from the Tas-centric list.
Follow with an artful tartare of King Island beef, and then perhaps fillets of Flinders Island wallaby seared blushing and paired with sticky beetroot and sharp red cabbage.
Then, to end, a wobbly pannacotta made from the buttermilk of the Pyengana butter to start, bringing the meal to a full-circle close. Service is young and keen and prices fair.
Look past the buskers and map-toting dawdlers, for Pure South is no tourist trap. It is, rather, a pure celebration of the south.
Must-eat dish: Flinders Island Wallaby
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: David Hall
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch and dinner daily (except Sat lunch)
Instagram: @puresouthdining
Bistro Guillaume
Crown Melbourne, Southbank
03 9292 4751
bistroguillaumemelbourne.com.au
When you can’t possibly face another kale salad, dude-food burger or edible flower, Bistro Guillaume provides the perfect antidote to trend-focused menus.
There’s a reason French cuisine reigns eternal and supreme, and if Brahimi’s menu is anything to go by, it may be down to the timeless deliciousness of French onion soup.
The deeply rich, earthy-sweet onion soup, that comes with three delightful thyme and gruyere croutons, has diners throwing their heads back and eliciting groans of “mmmm, delicieux”.
Also heady is the wine list filled with three- and four-figure trophy heroes for the captains of industry (who have regular bookings), and for the rest of us, the offering is usefully broken down into light-, medium- and full-bodied bottles.
When the Nicoise salad fails to excite, an exceptional John Dory on a bed of buttery mushrooms saves the day, followed by the city’s best version of a classic lemon tart.
Service is without fault, with enough French accents bouncing around the handsome dining room to convince you that you are in fact on the leftbank of the Seine and not the Yarra.
Stylish, suave and timelessly elegant — one way to sum up Bistro Guillaume’s classic offering and that onion soup.
Must-eat dish: French onion soup
Cuisine: French
Chefs: Guillaume Brahimi & Graeme McLaughlin
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch & dinner daily
Instagram: @bistro_guillaume_melbourne
Captain Moonlite
100 Great Ocean Rd, Anglesea
03 5263 2454
There’s so much to love about Captain Moonlite that it’s hard to know where to start.
That it’s a low-key secret(ish) gem hidden within the Anglesea Surf Lifesaving club gets the heart started, while its million-buck view, unbeatable along the coast, takes the tempo up.
The fact two true professionals are looking after the bright-and-breezy clubrooms — Gemma Gange out front and Matt Germanchis (ex-Pei Modern) in the kitchen — means that view isn’t doing all the heavy lifting. And there’s lots to love about sea-changers doing it right.
While the coastal Euro influence shines through the menu — no brighter than in a brilliant slow-roasted, garlicky lamb served with peas and goat’s curd — such staples as steak and fish and chips are done with Germanchis’ cheffy edge.
A kombu-dusted platter-sized prawn cracker is the snack that brings them back from far and wide, as does a golden slab of saganaki with pickled beetroot atop.
When your beer comes with an icy glass, your chips embody that impossible combination of fluffy and crunchy, and your bottle of Bellarine pinot gris flies fast from the fridge just in time for sunset, you know you have the best of the dining spectrum — top-notch fare in a nostalgic setting.
And that it’s named after a local bushranger, well, that’s just the blueberry and sesame sprinkle on the excellent house made ice cream that makes this venue so uniquely Aussie.
Must-eat dish: Slow-roasted lamb
Cuisine: European
Chef: Matt Germanchis
Price: $
Bookings: Yes
Open: Thurs. 5pm-10pm; Fri.-Sun 8am-10pm; Mon 8am-3pm
Instagram: @captain_moonlite
Rosetta
Crown Complex, Southbank
03 8648 1999
No matter how many times you’ve stepped into Rosetta’s opulent dining room before, her sheer beauty never fails to wow. Flamboyant as Milan’s La Scala, filled with marble, mahogany, red velvet and glittering chandeliers, Rosetta is drop-dead gorgeous and entices for dress-up dinners and flashy bowls of pasta.
The menu is chef Neil Perry’s ode to Italy, inspired by his extensive travels there. You’ll dine the country’s culinary breadth, from heartier fare such as osso buco and bucatini alla amatriciana, to lighter dishes, many seafood-skewed.
House-made pappardelle cavorts with hunks of fork-tender braised pork, oregano and shaved Parmesan, while two King George whiting fillets arrive with stunning simplicity, their skin scorched from the chargrill, the flesh sweet and succulent.
Desserts are as razzle-dazzle as the decor. A dense baked chocolate mousse is lightened with caramelised pear and pear sorbet, while Rosetta’s tiramisu remains one of the town’s best.
Served by smart white-jacketed waiters, you’ll eat and drink from a long and pricey — mostly Italian — wine list under the gaze of Italian stars, whose photos adorn the walls. Perhaps adjourn to the all-weather terrace set with white wicker chairs, but really, it’s all about that lavish bella donna of a room.
Must-eat dish: Pappardelle with braised pork
Cuisine: Italian
Chefs: Neil Perry, Angel Fernandez
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Tue-Sun, dinner daily
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
Crown Towers, Southbank
03 9292 5777
Dinner is no everyday meal, not when Heston Blumenthal is your host. This insatiably curious UK chef loves mining culinary history, both British and Australian, for inspiration, then crafting defiantly modern dishes and drinks that stir the senses and rouse food memories.
So, sauntering into Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, a glamorous space illuminated by plumes of flame, you could well find yourself ordering a Bloody Mary drained of all colour, a chicken liver parfait masquerading as an orange called ‘Meat Fruit’, and a Tipsy Cake that’s not really a cake at all.
Whimsical it may be, but Dinner — awesomely resourced in every department — executes its brief with considerable flair. Waitstaff glide around the room, striking that perfect balance between casual and attentive, while Melbourne’s biggest kitchen brigade, visible through glass, punch out dishes with heads-down discipline.
Must-haves include the ‘Frumenty’, a smoky, appealing sea broth murky with grilled octopus and pickled red moss; blushing pink venison with mouth puckering beetroot, red cabbage and pickled cherries; and that Tipsy Cake, an unlikely marriage of spit-roasted pineapple and brioche.
Still, there are blemishes the night we dine. A flat champagne cocktail. An extended lag between entree and main. And a lacklustre roast quail dish with pumpkin puree. Not good enough when that main costs $56.
The cellar here is as wide as it is deep with a recently expanded range of wines by the glass, so it’s good to have head sommelier Loic Avril as your navigator.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal remains a bucket list diner with plenty of surprises in store.
Must eat dish: Venison and bottled cherries
Cuisine: Contemporary British
Chefs: Heston Blumenthal, Ashley Palmer-Watts
Price: $$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Fri.-Sun, Dinner Mon-Sun
Instagram: @dinnerbyhb
Rockpool Bar & Grill
Crown complex, Southbank.
03 8648 1900
Long lunches, late suppers, zero birthdays, the boss busting out the corporate credit card — life is good at Rockpool.
Neil Perry’s flagship Melbourne restaurant remains a jewel in the casino’s crown, this sure bet seating a day and night procession of diners who’ll admire the open kitchen with its flurry of flames and small army of chefs on their way to their table.
The menu is long and lovely, championing steak and seafood that’s lovingly sourced and expertly treated. King prawns are simply split down the middle and grilled, while local scallops swimming in herb and garlic butter are gently torched to coax maximum flavour.
But you’re probably here for the beef, dry-aged wagyu or Cape Grim sirloin, fillet, rump and rib-eye from the woodfired grill. Whatever the cut, it’ll be flawlessly cooked and meltingly tender with a charred crust and blushing centre that are usually worth the price tag, which can reach $125.
Side dishes also star, like the heart-stoppingly good speck-laced mac and cheese and the potato and cabbage gratin.
If you have any change left, finish with a coffee ($6.50!) and dessert, perhaps passionfruit pav or a squat chocolate doughnut with raspberry ice cream, or petit fours, such as a tray of intense after-dinner mints.
Service is spot on, from breaking down the tome of a wine list and explaining the steaks to making a fuss of anyone celebrating a milestone.
The room has had a slight refresh, but remains low on lighting and high on class. Bargains won’t be found here, but this is special-occasion dining, or for those fabulous times when you’re not responsible for the bill.
Must eat dish: Cape Grim dry-aged steak
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chefs: Neil Perry, Zac Nicholson
Price: $$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Sun-Fri., Dinner daily
Instagram: @rockpoolgroup
Long Chim
Crown Melbourne, Yarra Promenade, Southbank
03 9292 5777
Punchy, vibrant and unapologetically fiery, David Thompson’s Long Chim has arrived on the Crown Riverwalk to redefine Thai food as Melbourne knows it.
Take, for instance, the dare-worthy yet defiantly delicious chicken larb, where fried Kaffir lime leaves and crunchy garlic skins add fragrance to finely chopped chicken with a heat that leaves all in its heart-racing, vision-blurring, tear-inducing wake.
It’s just one dish on a big menu of share-style street food for which Thompson, regarded as the world’s leading authority on Thai cooking, is famed.
But it’s not just about eye-watering heat. Wonderfully elegant fried rice tossed through tender-fleshed roast duck, excellent chive cakes, or a bowl of charred noodles — a tangle of dark, chewy flavour, with tender squid, tiny fried prawns, chicken and loads of eggy goodness — are all approachable delights, while the green chicken curry, studded with bitter Thai eggplants, is benchmark brilliant.
Cocktails are an expected attraction to quell the heat, and a refreshing Thai basil smash does just that with the same efficiency as an ice-cold Singha beer.
Yup, you’ve done it again David Thompson. Long Chim is hot stuff — in every possible way.
Must eat dish: Chicken larb
Cuisine: Asian
Chef: David Thompson
Price $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch and dinner daily
Instagram: @longchim
Vue de Monde
Level 55, Rialto, 525 Collins St, Melbourne
03 9691 3888
The view comes first. Then the Vue.
Shannon Bennett gives visitors to his sky-high fine diner a few moments to savour the sparkling city below, then the focus swiftly switches to what’s on the table... a flute of Champagne, smoked asparagus spears with oyster emulsion, and raw Flinders Island lamb fenced in with spring peas and finger lime.
This is how one of the most expensive restaurant meals in Melbourne begins, and the view is certainly from the top so far.
Now into its seventh year on the Rialto’s 55th floor, Vue de Monde glows with gold and white neon, and runs to a gentle techno beat. The kitchen is open plan, all hushed bustle, while black clad waiters swirl around the room with practised ease. Pushing cheese trolleys and butter churners one moment, setting marshmallows on fire the next. And offering to tailor each course to a wine from Vue’s astonishing cellar.
Diners are active participants — you’re encouraged to swipe emu jerky into eggplant — but make no mistake, this is dining at its finest enhanced by the drama of the room.
Queensland marron comes with pickled kohlrabi and squid ink, beef rib-eye is elevated by fermented truffles, and the assertive gaminess of magpie goose is offset by cabbage and muntari berries.
There’s dazzle and daring at every turn, but Bennett’s self-described “gentle progression of flavour’’ over 16 courses allows for one old school flourish in the mix — a cumulus of airy chocolate aka the best chocolate souffle you will probably ever have.
The view and the Vue will leave a lasting impression long after you have descended from the clouds back into the reality of Melbourne CBD.
Must eat dish: Spanish mackerel with smoked koji, sea herbs and desert lime
Cuisine: Contemporary Australian
Chefs: Shannon Bennett, Justin James
Price: $$$$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Thurs.-Sun, Dinner daily
Instagram: @VuedeMonde
Port Phillip Estate
263 Red Hill Rd, Red Hill South
03 5989 4444
Perhaps it’s the exception that proves the rule. But don’t think the extraordinary, delicious vista across the vines through to Western Port in the distance is doing all the work in Port Phillip Estate’s architecturally impressive dining room.
For Stuart Deller’s smart, Euro-influenced menu is an equal match, where the serves are as generous as the appeal is broad. Whether a twirl of perfect tagliolini on which a fillet of excellent red mullet seasoned with bottarga lays, or a wobbly plinth of pork jowl served with apple ketchup and Jerusalem artichoke crisps, this is flavour-first cooking that’s approachable and clever in equal measure.
Hearty cauliflower spaetzle tossed through capers and olives is a win for the veg team, while the focused wine list celebrates the estate and peninsula, with a few Burgundies and Italians thrown in for good measure.
To finish, caramelised apple terrine, made from fruit from just down the road and drizzled with estate honey, is an elegantly sweet finale. And then all that’s left is to sit back, finish your bottle of Kooyong pinot and drink in that view.
Must eat dish: Caramelised Red Hill apple terrine, Sawyer Road chestnut ice cream
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Stuart Deller
Price: $$
Bookings Yes
Open: Wed-Sun lunch, Fri.-Sat dinner
Instagram: @portphillipestate
Lake House
King St, Daylesford
03 5348 3329
If Mother Nature had a pantry, it would be the Lake House.
For 33 years, this Daylesford restaurant and getaway — under the expert guiding hand of founder and ‘culinary director’ Alla Wolf-Tasker — has been nurturing specialist provedores in central Victoria and showcasing their bounty on menus that seem almost hardwired to the seasons.
A visit to Lake House in early Spring saw head chef David Green sending out a charred onion broth heady with truffle comte; dry-aged duck nesting with beetroot, smoked potato and preserved elderberry; and peak condition vegetables — chestnuts, pumpkin, kale, artichokes — tucked into butter pastry with goat curd fondue.
Green has a special affinity for fish, netting Murray cod, trout, smoked eel and freshwater crustaceans for a delicate entree, and elevating pearl-white black kingfish (cobia) with an Asian-scented veal broth and a latticed cod cracker. Stunning.
Then there’s ‘The Apple’ for dessert, a little marvel where a sphere of eggshell fine white chocolate on Granny Smith granita hides jellied treats inside.
The service is seamless, while the cellar is one of rare depth and complexity.
Some visitors favour Lake House to savour the view, but this dining room twinkles after sundown, toasty light bouncing off gleaming surfaces and jazz tinkling in the background like water.
Must eat dish: Black kingfish, celeriac, cod cracker
Cuisine: Contemporary Chefs Alla Wolf-Tasker and David Green
Price: $$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch and dinner daily
Instagram: @lakehousedaylesford
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