Herald Sun food editor Kara Monssen reveals the top 25 restaurants in Victoria
This pop-up restaurant inside a pub in the city’s east isn’t here for a long time. But it’s so good it’s made the top restaurants list.
Food
Don't miss out on the headlines from Food. Followed categories will be added to My News.
After 12 months of eating, drinking and thinking, here is ‘The List’ of my favourite places to visit in Melbourne and Victoria.
NEW RESTAURANTS
Reine (WINNER)
380 Collins St, Melbourne
French
$8 oysters, $120 steaks and $150 entrees — Reine can’t be swung on a shoestring, but Jacqui Challinor’s grand empress is unquestionably worth every penny. Challinor and ex-Nomad chef Brendan Katich worship traditional French fare inside their Gothically glam temple (aka the city’s old stock exchange building). Expect bold and beautiful dishes alongside equally boisterous Aussie, French and Cali wine, cocktails and more.
Yugen Dining
Capitol Grand, 605 Chapel St, South Yarra
Asian
The food at Stephen Nairn’s South Yarra underground dining den, Yugen (that’s Yoo-gan) is clever, inspired and perfectly executed. Try the toothy Chinese doughnut meets prawn toast mash-up, swoonworthy Japanese egg custard chawanmushi or intercostal wagyu’s cauldron of melty beef.
French Saloon
1/46 Hardware Ln, Melbourne
French
Nuzzle worthy comte gougères. Sensationally crisp Sancerre. A perfectly wobbly lemon tart. Luke Fraser’s takes simple Parisian pleasures to a delicious new heights at his Hardware Lane French haven. The Melbourne mainstay is back with a new-look and feel post-Covid, but still oh-so French.
The Good Room | The Hellenic House Project
515 Highett Rd, Highett
Greek
thehellenichouseproject.com.au
Say what you will about ex-MasterChef Australia judge George Calombaris, but don’t knock his new high street project. The Hellenic House Projects slings downright delicious, family-style Greek cooking across two floors. Chef Anthony Thalassinos is behind rock star eats upstairs, such as salt and vinegar salted fried zucchini chips, perky raw scallops and fall-in-a-heap tender lamb shoulder. Cheap and cheerful souvas and tarama-loaded potato cakes downstairs also hype worthy.
Mahob by Amok (BEST VALUE)
234 Riversdale Rd, Hawthorn East
Cambodian
Consider this part of my campaign to make Woody Chet’s Hawthorn pub pop-up permanent. His six-month stint cooking food from his Cambodian motherland became a year-long posting after pleasing the locals and blow-ins alike. While the wine leaves a lot to the imagination (thanks to an annoying liquor licence), leaving without trying the national dish, seafood amok, or the Khmer Kroeung (yellow curry paste) fried chicken wings is blasphemy.
REGIONAL
Little Pickett (WINNER)
35 Mount Joy Parade, Lorne
Modern Australian
Sustainability warrior Jo Barrett’s small but mighty bowls’ club is bound to bowl you over. Using fodder from local farms, or the garden overlooking the green, Pickett’s produce-driven spread will please even the fussiest club members. Halloumi lacquered in a Otways honey, tuckshop inspired pan-fried pork dimmies and the salad (yes really) are our picks.
Chauncy (ROAD TRIP WORTHY)
178 High St, Heathcote
French
Assign a designated driver for the ultimate long lunch at Heathcote’s Chauncy. If you can get a booking. Reservations at the 20-seater Frenchie have run hot since Louis Naepels and Tess Murray opened in 2022. The ever-changing spread may include feather-light Comte gougères, terrine made with McIvor Farm pork or juicy rockmelon hunks in creamy ajoblanco. Murray works the floor, lending her wine know-how while splashing Jasper Hill back vintages or grand cru Champagne into your glass.
Laura
3649 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Merricks
Spanish contemporary
Spanish native Josep Espuga is bringing his Michelin-star thrills to the ’Ninch. He riffs on his Catalonian heritage across Laura’s lavish farm-to-fork, seafood inspired menu. Maybe you’ll get a chestnut custard and gooey quail egg layered with a salty jamon jelly, or silky olive oil pasta sheets draped over smoked eel and sweet figs. Lobsters torched tableside and a back vintage pairing from the cellar is rather special.
Tedesca Osteria
1175 Mornington-Flinders Rd, Red Hill
Modern Australian
File this wholesome Mornington Peninsula farmhouse under ‘impossible to book’ but well worth the wait. Prepare for Chef Brigitte Hafner’s onslaught of rotating antipasto, which may include wispy Jamon Iberico sheets tumbled with honey-licked persimmon cheek, or brined olives. Seafood, pasta and red meat follow, before ending on something sweet. A decent wine-match is guaranteed thanks to business partner James Broadway’s wine-importer background.
Chae
33 Mountain Rd, Cockatoo
Korean
Melbourne’s tiniest restaurant is so popular there’s now a ballot to decide who gets a seat at the table. Chef Jung Eun Chae moved the six-seater Korean restaurant from her Brunswick apartment to a much larger, leafier, Cockatoo home — with the same concept and ferment bent. Chae, and her family, make all from scratch. Her mum’s fermented salted Murray cod fish eggs are a winner, as is the kimchi and that sweet-fermented pumpkin and rice punch bobbing with seasonal fruits.
FANCY
Gimlet at Cavendish House
33 Russell St, Melbourne
European
Name a restaurant more at the top of its game than Gimlet? Food, drink, service and all-important ‘vibe factor’ continues to reach beyond exceptional and consistent, four years since opening. The dining room, so impressively grand and swoonworthy it wouldn’t be out of place for a business lunch, family gathering, date night or solo-snack. The one-bite gnocco fritto still does the trick, as does the large-format half southern rock lobster and grass-fed T-bone.
Atria Dining
Level 80, 650 Lonsdale St, Melbourne
Modern
Atria shakes off its double-whammy ‘hotel restaurant’ and ‘restaurant with a view’ curse thanks to Sydney chef Mark Best and Michael Greenlaw (ex-Vue de monde) execution. Found 80-floors above the city, in the Ritz-Carlton hotel, the food’s modern with a native twist. I hope that wasabi-leaf wrapped raw yellowfin tuna served in the opening weeks has graduated to a permanent placement. Same goes for that mustard and miso smothered pork jowl.
Brae
4285 Cape Otway Rd, Birregurra
Modern
Victoria’s OG farm-to-fork restaurant continues to win local and global diners over with every sustainably-minded move it makes. All ingredients surrounding the Birregurra farmhouse are celebrated in their purest, freshest and mind-blowingly delicious forms on the plate. Dan Hunter takes us on a Otways hinterland tour across ten courses: slurp minestrone made with a vibrant veggie bounty, coal-fired abalone and pork jowl skewer or in blushing red lobes of Great Ocean Duck.
Ten Minutes By Tractor
1333 Mornington Flinders Rd, Main Ridge
Modern
The Mornington Peninsula isn’t short of posh lunch spots, though Ten Minutes is ‘bucket list’ worthy. A celebration of provenance, produce and homegrown pleasures, chef Hayden Ellis’s chapter brings a new standard of excellence. A cheeky nod to his Kiwi roots is seen in his elevated pork boil creation. The glorified garden salad and novel-length wine list are other memorable moments.
Navi (WINNER)
83B Gamon Street, Yarraville
Modern
Still one of Victoria’s best-value degustations. This suburban fine diner still pulls crowds, and waitlists, thanks to chef Julian Hills’s exceptionally clever cooking. Like the unforgettable charcoal macarons bouncing with Yarra Valley roe or the ‘elements of duck’ platter which uses every part of the bird to create something profoundly delicious. Can’t snare a table? Drop into Navi Lounge next door for something equally delicious.
CASUAL
Embla
122 Russell St, Melbourne
Modern
Why do we love Embla? Because it’s a wine bar knocking out stupidly delicious eats, after eight years in the game. Has table-thumpingly good pours from here and abroad. A campfire air comfort. Oh and Obama chose to eat here. Dave Verheul and Christian McCabe’s CBD stayer performs at a level other restaurants can only dream of. Get the ‘bread with cred’ and butter, before dabbling in pickly delights of pine mushrooms, ricotta and olive oil, or a salty and supple swordfish fillet.
Bar Liberty
234 Johnston Street, Fitzroy
Modern
All hail the pierogi. A perfectly pleated potato and cheese dumpling, sometimes pan-fried, served with caramelised onions and sour cream, always undoubtedly delicious. Thank young chef Zackary Furt for the pleasure. He’s paying homage to his Polish heritage through food and we’re here for it. This Fitzroy hipster hangout still delivers faves on the food front: DIY scissor-snipped wholemeal flatbread is a no-brainer. Maybe roasted pork belly with crisp spuds and greens will warm the soul. Plus wine in all its glorious and unpretentious forms.
Serai
7 Racing Club Lane, City
Filipino-Australian
Chef Ross Magnaye brings big Filipino flavour and energy to this lively laneway eatery. Expect cooking from his motherland with an Aussie sensibility, flexing wild, wacky and utterly delicious food at every turn. The ‘McScallop’ slider is a certified McHit, as is the kangaroo kinilaw; an ode to the Filipino classic. Cocktails and mocktails are ripe with native fruits and shrubs from the island nation.
Jeow
338 Bridge Rd, Richmond
Laoation
There’s no bun (vermicelli rice bowls) or banh mi here. Find that next door at sister sandwich shop, Ca Com. Instead, Jeow is where you get serious about Laoation food. Anchovy masterminds Thi Li and Jia-Yen Lee, take your tastebuds on a journey through the fresh, funky, crunchy and ‘call the fire brigade’ punchy South East Asian cuisine. Maybe the two-bite tapioca orb will win your heart, or that fiery laap.
Wayward Winery (FAMILY FRIENDLY)
76 Quoin Hill Rd, Waubra
Modern
Wood-fired pizzas, smart snacks and smashable wine, this hidden gem restaurant on Ballarat’s outskirts brings the wow factor — and pizza under $30. Ballarat titans Teddy and Louis Powlett’s first winery takeover delivers a tight-line up of crowd pleasing snacks, pizzas and estate-grown wine. Maybe it’ll be eggplant empanadas or blistered flatbread swiped in a wispy beetroot dip, or one of the handful of pizzas. Our pick is the mighty mortadella number.
WINE AND DRINKS
Enoteca Boccaccio (WINNER) (BEST WINE LIST)
1/1046 Burke Rd, Balwyn
Italian
This Balwyn bar is kryptonite for wine nerds. Proper champagne for under $20 a glass, back-vintage Bourdeaux and BYO Mondays. The D’Anna family, who run gourmet grocer and bottle shop Boccaccio Cellars downstairs, are deliver quality and value-for-money eating and drinking. Andrew Beddoes keeps it Italian on the pans with veal agnolotti del plin and gooey stracciatella with Jerusalem artichokes. Also home to the best lemon tart you’ll try.
Apollo Inn
165 Flinders Ln, Melbourne
European
apolloinn.bar
Andrew McConnell’s Gimlet companion bar is broody and moody. A cosy space, warmed by smugness of the lucky 24 who either booked ahead or staged an aptly timed walk-in. Snacks run thick and fast, such as a potato focaccia that’s warm, gooey and crisp where it counts and gilda-esque pickle, pepper and anchovy tostada. Come for the cocktails, stay for the food.
Molly Rose Brewing Chef’s Table (DARKHORSE)
279 Wellington St, Collingwood
Asian
This Collingwood brew-pub does more than craft beer. Chef Ittichai “Biggie” Ngamtrairai is behind an unreal beer and fine food degustation, mixing flavours that typically don’t belong. Like a sensational tagliatelle seaweed pasta foaming with pecorino cheese, or more-ish smoked lamb ribs squiggled in persimmon jam. Hand-pumped IPA “Rye of the Tiger” is your go-to bev.
Bar Bellamy
164 Rathdowne St, Carlton
European
If Bar Bellamy is your local, lucky you. Oska and Dani Whitehart’s menu changes weekly. Pop in for a snack, or go whole hog, which isn’t hard with chef Barney Cohen on the tools. Flash-fried school prawns, crumbed pork chop with fennel and raisins may grace your plate. In your glass, a chilled martini or negroni. No bookings, so try you’re luck or join the queue.
Caretaker’s Cottage
139-141 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne
Modern
Officially one of the world’s best bars, unofficially Melbourne’s smallest pub. Rob Libecans, Ryan Noreiks and Matt Stirling’s Covid project has achieved incredible things since opening last year. Thank those nifty small bites, smart cocktails and Guinness on tap for the cult following.
Six spritzes to sip in the sunshine
The pre-mix spritz is fizzing in popularity this season. Here are six to slink in your glass while the weather’s warm.
5 best things to eat in Melbourne this October
From bug salt chips and butter-soft calamari to the most elite pre-dinner snacks, here are five delicious things to eat this month.