Where to find Victoria’s best chocolates, chocolate dishes and chocolate shops
Whether you like it hot, cold or by the bagful, Victorians are spoiled for choice when it comes to fine chocolate. Here’s our ultimate guide to the best places to satisfy your chocolate cravings.
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Victorians are spoiled for choice when it comes to chocolate.
Over the past 15 years or so, chocolate has evolved from a quick treat you grab at the supermarket to a true indulgence.
It has sparked a dedicated industry that now includes chocolate cafes, factories, chocolate tours and increasingly elaborate chocolate dishes.
It's even about to hit our theatres, with classic movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory about to come to life in musical form at Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre from Thursday.
Whether you like your chocolate slightly bitter, creamy, full of roasted nuts or bursting with native ingredients such as lemon myrtle, there’s a chocolate for everyone.
To mark Willy Wonka’s arrival in Melbourne, we’ve picked our selection of the best of the best chocolate retailers and dishes across the state.
Dish: The ‘ultimate’ hot chocolate at The Chocolate Mill
About 10km from Daylesford, The Chocolate Mill has a menu dedicated to hot chocolate.
Made with 100 per cent fair trade Belgian couverture chocolate, you can pick from dark, milk or white.
Or if you’re wanting something with a kick, try the hot chilli dark chocolate. There’s also a vegan-friendly option, made with soy milk.
Hot chocolate is a simple drink, but done well, it’s hard to go past — and this is done extremely well. It’s hot, creamy and rich.
In The Chocolate Mill’s shop, it’s hard to look past the Aztec chilli bar, or if you want to go in the opposite direction, a selection of truffles, such as port and plum.
The Chocolate Mill, 5451 Midland Highway, Mt Franklin
Store: Ratio Cocoa
For those who take their chocolate as seriously as they take their wines, check out Brunswick’s Ratio Cocoa, which specialises in small batch and single origin cacao.
Using old-school techniques, this store-slash-factory puts the chocolate-making process in full view of customers.
You can pick up bars of chocolate by the origin of its beans (Solomon Islands or perhaps Peru?) or by its intensity — for those who love their chocolate dark and on the bitter side, you can get up to 76 per cent cacao. I
f those who are truly invested in their chocolate, you can book a tour to see how the chocolates are made from scratch.
Ratio Cocoa, 186 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
Store: La Belle Miette
Better known for its authentic French macarons, this specialty store also has a small but extremely high-quality range of bonbons de chocolat.
Made from French and Belgian couverture chocolate, these are little pieces of Marie Antoinette-level luxury.
Flavours rotate, which is a good excuse to try whatever is new in store.
Lots of their flavours take inspiration from some of the teas they serve, such as a fragrant Earl Grey and Jasmine tea.
The white chocolate and Champagne chocolate is pure French decadence — oh la la.
La Belle Miette, multiple locations across Melbourne
Factory: Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice-creamery
This enormous chocolate factory is less of a place to buy chocolate than it is an experience. If the size alone doesn’t grab your attention, then the sheer choice of chocolate will.
Dark, milk, white and the latest, ruby, are all here and you can buy it in the form of blocks, bars, balls, clusters, pebbles, coins, pastilles, and everything in between.
Take a seat at its cafe, where you can tuck into a brownie pizza or a chocolate fondue, and don’t forget to grab an ice-cream on your way out — if there’s any room in your stomach, that is.
Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice-creamery, 35 Old Healesville Rd, Yarra Glen
Dish: Chocolate souffle at Grossi Florentino
This is an iconic Melbourne chocolate dish and has truly outlasted many trendy and flash-in-a-pan creations.
Proving that simplicity done well can rarely be beaten, this rich, soft and gooey creation has been pleasing customers for years.
Served with a carefully sculptured scoop of grains of paradise (a member of the ginger family) ice cream and a little pot of sublime hazelnut and chocolate sauce (because chocolate always needs more chocolate).
Grossi Florentino, 80 Bourke St, Melbourne
Store: Kit-Kat Chocolatory
Yes, you can grab a Kit-Kat from supermarkets and service stations, but this bespoke boutique allows customers to elevate the humble treat into a luxurious and personalised indulgence.
Here, you can pick up limited edition flavours such as espresso, cookie and hazelnut, or even exclusives normally only available in Japan, such as butter or sake.
If those flavours don’t tickle your fancy, you can create your very own Kit-Kat — pick your chocolate base and then go crazy adding whatever flavours and textures grab your attention.
Kit-Kat Chocolatory, Level 1, Shot Tower Square, cnr Swanston and La Trobe sts, Melbourne
Factory: Phillip Island Chocolate Factory
Most people associate Phillip Island with penguins and beaches, but add huge chocolate factory to that list.
This is the place to make any kids’ — and adults’ — Willy Wonka dreams come true.
Check out the what is dubbed the world’s largest chocolate waterfall, take a look at a mini village made entirely from chocolate and the one-tonne chocolate challenge.
As for what to buy, its hot chocolate varieties are a specialty, but don’t look past the white peanut clusters, coffee creams, and caramel walnut.
Phillip Island Chocolate Factory, 930 Phillip Island Rd, Newhaven
Dish: Red velvet pancakes at Warrandyte Stonehouse Cafe
Take the flavour and colour of red velvet cake, turn it into a couple of fluffy pancakes and top it off with chocolate soil, Oreo ice-cream, house-made Oreos and Persian fairy floss and what do you have?
Either a decadent dessert or sweet breakfast.
But it doesn’t matter what part of the day, because this is what sweet dreams are made of.
There’s also plenty of bite-sized cakes and biscuits to take home, many of them gluten-free.
Warrandyte Stonehouse Cafe, 321 Ringwood-Warrandyte Rd, Warrandyte
Store: Godiva
One of the newest specialty chocolate cafes and stores to hit Melbourne, this Belgian brand is regularly totted as one of the best in the world.
Dine in at its cafe, where you can dig into a golden toasted croissant filled with milk or dark chocolate, fresh strawberries dipped in chocolate or a creamy parfait, topped with mixed berries, cookies and cream or mini, crispy salted caramel peals.
If you want to take the memory — and the flavours home — there’s a seriously decadent range of chocolate-coated pretzels, delicate biscuits, cubed boxes of caramel and chocolate, and more.
But if you want to go all out, then check out their 34-piece mooncake luxury box, which is a tidy $288.
Godiva, Multiple locations throughout Melbourne
Dish: Chocolate high tea at Windsor Hotel
It’s an oldie but a goodie and the chocolate high tea has lasted the test of time for a reason.
Available only during select days during school holidays, this is decadence with a capital ‘D’.
This is a buffet that every sweet tooth could possibly have dreamt of; French head pastry chef Jeremie Parmentier and his team deliver everything conceivably chocolate — cake, bonbons, macarons, eclairs, pastries, scones, ice cream and if that’s not enough chocolate, there’s also the piece de resistance — a milk and dark chocolate foundation.
There’s also a selection of savoury items to help balance all that chocolate.
The Windsor Hotel, 111 Spring St, Melbourne
Dish: Chocolate fondue at Moorabool Valley Chocolate
What do you do if you want to drink chocolate but also eat it at the same time? Grab a chocolate fondue, of course.
This fondue — choose from dark, milk or white — is a pot full of sweet possibilities and is made for dunking chunks of banana, strawberries and marshmallows into.
It’s a bit sticky, and a bit messy, but it’s also fun and definitely something to share (unless you have a super craving for a lot of chocolate!).
You can also learn how to make chocolate treats yourself by enrolling in their cooking classes, where you can make your own chocolate lollipops or make and decorate your very own chocolate bars.
Moorabool Valley Chocolate, 320 Ballarat Rd, Batesford
Store: Xocolatl
This small boutique makes its own bite-sized chocolates that are well worth travelling to Melbourne’s inner east for.
Its flavour offerings contrast its actual size, so try the dark chocolate and chilli toffee block, white chocolate and hazelnut, milk chocolate and passionfruit or salted almond brittle.
You can also pick up single origin, sugar-free, certified organic and fair trade chocolates.
The chocolates aren’t just delicious but they’re also incredibly pretty — the colourful, detailed artwork is what Instagram was made for.
Xocolatl, multiple locations across Melbourne
Store: Chocolate Grove
Ever wanted to eat chocolate in the shape and size of a wine bottle? This is the place for you.
A chocolatier that likes to try something new, you can try feta and garlic corn chips coated in milk chocolate, or try goji berries covered in chocolate.
Basically, if you can imagine it, this place can coat it in chocolate.
Popcorn? Coated in chocolate. Banana lollies? Coated in chocolate. Jelly beans? Well, you can guess.
Chocolate Grove, 50 Aster Ave, Carrum Downs
Dish: Nutella crepes at La Petite Creperie
Regulars to the CBD may not have seen this teeny tiny kiosk on Swanston St, but they have probably smelled the aromas emitting from it.
The waft of fresh crepes, made to order, is surely competing for a spot as a Melbourne landmark.
Choose from traditional French-style crepes or waffles and whatever flavour combination you want, but the simple Nutella, strawberry and icing sugar is the ultimate sweet comfort food as you walk through the city.
La Petite Creperie, Swanston St (opposite Melbourne Town Hall)
Store: Haigh’s
When you think of Haigh’s, one thing often comes to mind — their legendary peppermint chocolate frogs.
Available in milk and dark — and giant sizes — these alone could keep Haigh’s going for the next century.
But if you want to sample more of its range, you can’t go past their chocolate cream with Australian native quandong, cappuccino bars, ginger bars or the dark shiraz truffle.
There’s plenty for kids, too, such as chocolate teddy bears and actual teddy bears that come with chocolate treats.
Haigh’s, multiple locations across Melbourne
Store: Indulge Chocolate
If you’re a chocolate lover who likes trying new things, this Bendigo cafe is the place to check out.
You can try the Aussie favourite Jaffa reinvented in new ways or chocolate bars infused with smoked salt.
This chocolatiere proves you can mix any type of meal with chocolate, such as breakfast, with the muesli chocolate a must-try. Check out the golden chocolate, which is a bit caramel, a bit toffee, a bit creamy and a bit buttery. Yum.
Indulge Chocolate, Shop 26, Bendigo Bank Central, Bendigo
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Store: Freckleberry
Do you have kids? This is the place to take them.
A chocolatiere that injects plenty of fun and colour in their products, the chocolate here comes in lots of letters, numbers and shapes, such as bunnies, koalas and stars.
Just try to walk out without a little one wanting one of the chocolate pizzas.
There’s also something for adults, such as chocolate “vitamins” — pick from grump pills, broken heart remedy and mummy’s little helper, among others.
Freckleberry, 3/55 Little Fyans St, South Geelong
Store: Monsieur Truffe Chocolate
This popular brunch spot in the inner north doubles as an artisan chocolatier that produces single origin, beans-to-bar and Gianduja, which is semi-soft and spreadable.
Their specialty bars are a fan favourite, with flavours such as toasted coconut, Tasman sea salt, honeycomb, chai and limited editions, such as rum and raisin.
They also create beautifully packaged chocolate thins, which make great gifts.
Monsieur Truffe Chocolate, 351 Lygon St, Brunswick East
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now open at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
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