Victoria’s tiny restaurants: Chae, Underbar, Greasy Zoe’s
Size doesn’t matter with these sought-after, intimate dining experiences but you’ll have to book early to get a table. Check out the tiny restaurants making big waves.
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Size doesn’t matter with these tiny dining experiences in Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Intimate lunches or dinners, of fewer than 20 people, are in hot demand with these venues booking out as soon as seats are released.
These are Victoria’s smallest restaurants.
CHAE
Brunswick
Seats 6 people
Wait time: May and June fully booked. July and August reservations are available on June 1 at 7pm.
Chae is Melbourne’s smallest restaurant, located inside a one-bedroom Brunswick apartment. Demand to eat at the tiny Korean diner has soared in the last month — with May and June booked out, and thousands on the waitlist hoping to score a seat at the table.
The food is movable feast of traditional Korean cuisine including bugak (deep fried vegetables), kimchi (fermented spicy cabbage), chilli hot sauce gochujang or even makgeolli — a milky, sparkling rice wine.
Chae costs $59 per person for lunch or $69 for dinner, which includes about five to six courses, without drinks.
GREASY ZOE’S
Hurstbridge
Seats 8 people
Wait time: May and June fully booked. All bookings are released on the first of the month at 9am.
You’ll find Greasy Zoe’s inside an unassuming shopping village at the end of the Hurstbridge train line. This humble restaurant has become even smaller since it first opened in 2017 — almost halving its total seats from 15 to eight in 2021. Husband and wife owners Zoe Birch and Lachlan Gardner recently returned to the kitchen after having a baby. Greasy Zoe’s food is hyperlocal, homemade, sustainable and seasonal. The set-menu costs $140 per person and is made up of 18 or so snacks, with the choice to add wines ($90 per person) and non-alcoholic drinks ($50 per person).
Birch said diners favoured smaller restaurants for a unique experience.
“It’s a bit special. A lot of people appreciate that special experience and Lachlan and I are able to have a conversation with everyone,” Birch said.
“This way you get a real experience and as a customer, you’re not just a number.”
GIRO DEL MONDO
St Kilda Rd
Seats 8 people
Wait time: First seven weeks booked out. Reservations made via 9088 0095.
Italian chef Dom De Marco’s Giro del Mondo take diners around the world inside an eight-seater, fine diner in a secret underground room beneath his St Kilda Rd venue Giro d’Italia.
De Marco has already sold out the first seven weeks of his new venture to locals by word of mouth.
Giro del Mondo plans to open in late May, with De Marco’s six chefs creating a new monthly cuisine inspired by their home country — starting with Malaysian and following with Nepalese, Indian and Chinese.
Giro del Mondo opens for dinner on Friday May 28, from Monday to Saturday, from 6pm to 7.30pm. Five courses for $150pp, excluding drinks.
UNDERBAR
Ballarat
Seats 16 people
Wait time: May and June fully booked. July reservations released on June 1 at 9am.
Ballarat’s innovative dining attraction is exclusive in more ways than one.
There’s no street frontage, the entire restaurant seats 16 people per session and is only open two days a week.
Head chef Derek Boath opened Underbar (pronounced oon-de bar, that’s Swedish for wonderful) back in 2017. The food is seasonal and locally-sourced, and may include delights such as spanner crab with sweet corn and zucchini or smart snacks like pig’s head terrine and smoked cream cheese with English pea powder. Bookings are in hot demand and are available on the first of each month.
FUTURE FOOD SYSTEM
Federation Square
Seats 14 people
Wait time: Tickets still available for lunch on Sunday May 23.
Ex-Oakridge chefs Matt Stone and Jo Barrett and ecowarrior Joost Bakker are behind the self-sustaining Future Food System house — a greenhouse at Federation Square in Melbourne’s CBD. The trio host a series of intimate dinners, on Wednesdays to Saturdays, and a Sunday lunch, for up to 14 people. All dishes are made with produce grown on site. $390 per head.
A LITTLE BIT BIGGER, BUT STILL INTIMATE
Moke in Flinders has a no-waste ethos, with the food changing weekly. Open for dinners Thursday, Friday and Saturday and for weekend lunches.
Enter Via Laundry was hard to get into when it first opened and after its MasterChef debut, snaring a seat became almost impossible. June and July reservations are available for Saturday dinners and Sunday lunch, and a dinner on Monday 28 June.
This flame grill-powered Red Hill restaurant crafts a set-menu from local producers. The main dining room seats 30, but there’s also a private dining space which can seat 10.
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