Where to find the best meat-free feeds in Melbourne
Vegetarians, this one is for you. Got a craving for saffron, ricotta and parmesan gnocchi with cultured butter? Or perhaps you fancy sweet corn fritters dipped in chipotle mayo? Here’s where to find the tastiest vegetarian dishes in Melbourne.
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Vegetarians, this one is for you.
Got a craving for saffron, ricotta and parmesan gnocchi with cultured butter? Or perhaps you fancy sweet corn fritters dipped in chipotle mayo?
Here’s where to find the tastiest vegetarian dishes in Melbourne.
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TRANSFORMER
The name is apt. Transformer — a “vegan, gluten-free and fructose-friendly” restaurant in an old electrical transformer factory — is changing the way we all regard vegetarian food.
And the owners of this thriving business, just off Brunswick Street, are doing it without trumpeting the fact that their menu is meat-free.
Transformer’s food is just very good. Full stop.
Start with a virtuous digestive. A kimchi juice, perhaps, with a hint of Kaffir lime, or an elixir heady with ginger, turmeric, date molasses and coconut water.
Then bring on the smoked beetroot and pecan dip with delicious flatbread.
The spelt and seed steamed buns bulging with crispy smoked tofu. Oh, and a couple of sweet corn fritters for dipping into chipotle mayo.
You can almost feel a creative current flowing at Transformer, especially when its gifted chefs send out a Persian red lentil and black rice pilaf or, better still, gnocchi of celestial lightness.
TRANSFORMER
99 Rose Street, Fitzroy
03 9419 2022
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Chef: Bryce Edwards
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
O pen: Lunch & dinner Fri-Sun 11:30am-late, dinner daily 5:30pm-late
Instagram: @transformerfitzroy
BYO: No
Licensed: Yes
Separate bar: No
AMARU
In the wrong hands, a set course menu can be a hard slog rather than a culinary adventure. Not at Amaru.
Owner-chef Clinton McIver appreciates the dynamics of degustation and at his stylish 35-seater in the thick of wedding-gowned Armadale, precisely crafted dishes are sequenced with such care you barely notice you’ve been dining for two, maybe three hours.
The cooking — full of wonders and strange tangents — enthrals and McIver, who has an artists’ eye, shapes his many courses into a coherent whole. The cumulative effect is one of escalating deliciousness.
AMARU
5/1121 High St, Armadale
9822 0144
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Clinton McIver
Price: $$$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Fri-Sat, dinner Tues-Sat
Instagram: @amaru_Melbourne
Licensed: Yes
Separate bar: No
BRAE
This humble farmhouse in the Otways has become a magnet for food lovers the world over.
It’s elevated dining but never flouncy, with straight-up, affable service in a dining room that’s a joy to spend time in but understated enough to let the food speak for itself.
The signatures are here but there’s continually new biz to explore.
This is bucket-list dining that deserves more than just one tick of the box.
BRAE
4285 Cape Otway Road, Birregurra
03 5236 2226
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Dan Hunter
Price: $$$$$
Bookings: Essential
Open: Lunch Fri-Mon 12-2pm, dinner Thu-Sat 6:30-8:30pm (booking times)
Instagram: @braerestaurant
BYO: No
Licensed: Yes
Separate bar: No
OAKRIDGE
This dynamic duo of brilliant food (Matt Stone and Jo Barrett) are so committed to sustainable and zero-waste cooking — making things such as flour from scratch and drawing on the Yarra Valley’s bounty of produce so deftly — that makes a visit to Oakridge so sweet.
Barrett’s caraway pastry is a thing of swirly beauty, while desserts celebrate the sweet-savoury divide, with fried parsnip ‘noodles’ and pear pieces doing wonderful things with a luscious hokey-pokey ice cream.
OAKRIDGE
864 Maroondah Hwy, Coldstream
9738 9900
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chefs: Jo Barrett and Matt Stone
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Thu-Mon
Instagram: @oakridgewines
BYO: No
Separate bar: Cellar door — Oakridge Estate wines only
WICKENS AT ROYAL MAIL
The Grampians have never looked better from Dunkeld’s Royal Mail Hotel. It’s new, ravishingly beautiful fine dining room — rebadged as Wickens at Royal Mail Hotel — now has the view to complement Robin Wickens’ exciting, seasonally attuned food and a cellar of worldly wines curated by sommelier Matthew Lance.
What hasn’t changed is Wickens’ devotion to homegrown produce. The leek and pine mushrooms from the Royal Mail’s vast kitchen garden. The mustard greens and turnips, the brussels sprouts and chestnuts, or the parsnips.
A very fine stinging nettle custard on scrambled egg to begin, amazing vegetable jellies to finish. The generosity shines through.
WICKENS AT ROYAL MAIL
98 Parker Street, Dunkeld
03 5577 2241
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Robin Wickens
Price: $$$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Sat 12-2pm; dinner Wed-Sat 6-9pm
Instagram: @royalmailhotel
BYO: No
Licensed: Yes
Separate bar: Yes at Parker Street Project at Royal Mail Hotel
CONGRESS
In the heart of hip Collingwood, Congress nails both the drop-in-for-a-bite and settle-in-for-the-night brief for those living above and around, but it’s the skill and warmth of co-owner Katie McCormack who looks after the floor that elevates Congress into a must-visit for those who don’t call postcode 3066 home.
A menu that’s at once accessible and innovative keeps interest levels high.
A plate of roasted brussels sprouts on a swipe of deeply creamy tahini is a taste-texture triumph.
On every level, Congress delivers style and substance in spades.
CONGRESS
49 Peel St, Collingwood
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Jack Stuart
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open : lunch Fri-Sat; dinner Mon-Sat
Instagram: @congresswine
BYO: No
Separate bar: No
TARRAWARRA
They come for the art — displayed in a marvellous purpose built museum — and the wine, sampled in a state of the art cellar door. Now visitors to Tarrawarra Estate are embracing its restaurant again.
Ebbels’ winter menu impressed with its high colour, big flavours and emphasis on vegetables.
TARRAWARRA
311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Rd, Yarra Glen
03 5957 3510
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Mark Ebbels
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Tues-Sun
Instagram: @_TarraWarra_
BYO: No
Licensed: Yes
Separate bar: Yes — cellar door
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