Where to eat late in Melbourne
IN NEED of a late night bite? Dan Stock has found some of Melbourne’s best after dark dinner spots.
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THE CHRISTMAS party season is in full swing, but while drinks flow freely, finger food does not dinner make.
So when the music stops and the belly’s a-rumbling, here are 10 top spots that will save you from stumbling.
Serving food right through the night, these hunger-busters will have leave you feeling all right.
FRENCH SALOON
“There’s nothing I hate more than being told the kitchen closes at 10pm.
“We need places where you can grab a bite and bottle of wine late in the night,” says chef Ian Curley — and he’s making amends one late night at a time at his Euro-bistro French Saloon.
Head up the stairs where, in the stylish dining room, every weeknight a supper menu is served until 1.30am.
The Roquefort butter-topped steak served with excellent frites sates midnight hungers big, while the Saloon burger does meat in bun with proper class.
Smoked wagyu tongue is a nod to elegant France, while South Melbourne Market dimmies are a nod to late nights closer to home.
With a splash of something suitably — deliciously — on theme from the cellar, and French Saloon is upping Melbourne’s late-night liability quotient.
First Floor, 380 Lt Bourke St, city (via Hardware Lane).
BOUVIER
Bouvier is rakish Adrian Richardson’s rakish late-night bar that’s bringing some moody charm — and great eats — to Brunswick.
Open until 3am Thursday through Saturday, (1am other nights), this is the spot for a sloe gin fizz and a prawn cocktail, a brilliant bowl of meatballs washed down with a beer, and garlic prawn toasties that have quickly become one of the north’s cult snacks.
Charcuterie — house made and cured, of course — is expectedly excellent, while La Luna’s cracking crème brulee and tiramisu also make an appearance.
It’s cool and classy with food that’s equally so.
159 Lygon St, East Brunswick
BELLEVILLE
In all seriousness, is there anything better than roast chicken?
It’s a winner dinner any time of night, but at midnight?
It’s hard to beat and the rotisserie chook at Belleville, brined then roasted and miso-glazed moreishness, beats the best.
Beer-battered chips with a good shake of chicken salt seals the deal for top eats with beats in a quintessentially Melbourne space. Up late menu offered until 1am Thursday to Saturday.
Globe Alley, city
AUNTIE FRANKLEE
Open until 4am daily, Auntie Franklee serves up Malaysian hits with a twist to an eclectic crowd of Mahjong playing oldies who ignore the beer-drinking young ones who come for turmeric chicken and lamb and beef ribs on the grill.
Bak-kut-teh (pork bone broth) helps nostalgic expats to have sweet dreams, while the mother hen soup is a hug of comfort for all.
205 Russell St, city
auntyfranklee.com
DUTCHESS
Beers, beats and late-night treats — Dutchess has all bases covered.
This glam bar-slash-restaurant-slash-club might know how to throw a mean party, but with ex Royal Mail Hotel chef Dylan Kemp now on the pans the food that’s served until 3am (last orders 2am) on weekends is seriously good. Qt Hotel Food Mel
Oysters and champagne, lux crayfish mac and cheese and a line in excellent steaks make for a right royal night (or morning) out.
Level 2, 146 Flinders St, city
HOT SAUCE
With last food orders called at a very hospo worker-friendly 1.30am, Hot Sauce is the Japanese-Korean fusion bar that’s part of the funky QT Hotel complex.
Eel and chicken gizzard yakitori are authentic late-night snacks while beef and fried chicken burger baos are transcontinental mash ups bettered only by the novel caramel fried chicken that comes with a smoked whiskey and coke. Lots of fun.
QT Hotel 133 Russell St, city
GARDEN STATE HOTEL
It’s the pub that’s raised the bar for watering holes the city over, and just as it’s redefined the beer garden, so too has Garden State Hotel redefined the late night snack.
Settle into the subterranean Rose Garden with a warmed pretzel with sour cream and dill pollen, say, or a plate of smoked Alpine cheese.
Toasties from the kiosk upstairs — mozzarella-heavy bolognaise or green chilli-spiked avo and scarmoza — share the stage with miso roasted lamb rolls and sher wagyu hotdogs and do the meat-carb-cheese in ways that always please, but even more so late at night.
101 Flinders Lane, city
gardenstatehotel.com.au
SHUJINKO
Japan’s unbeatable contribution to the world’s culinary comfort cannon is ramen, that porky, noodle-y, egg-topped broth of restorative wonders, and there’s no doubting that restorative wonders are in short supply after midnight.
Shujinko, then, to the rescue; Melbourne’s first — and only — 24 hour ramen joint is a shining beacon to the soup deprived, where the slurptastic bowls of wonder have saved many a depraved drinker.
225 Russell St, city
OREE
Barbecued duck is never a bad idea, and when inspiration hits — whatever the hour — Korean BBQ joint Oree (meaning duck in Korean) is ready to fire up the coals (until 5am).
A range of options — garlic and ginger, smoked or spicy — flavour the DIY proceedings.
Oh and they have egg and spam — and at 3am this can seem like a very good idea indeed.
BOILERMAKER HOUSE
Open until 3am every night, this is one of the city’s best spots for a late night cheese platter made up of home grown and international hits.
A glorious selection of charcuterie — mortadella and chorizo, guanciale and wagyu pastrami and many more — served by weight is the perfect accompaniment.
And with 850 malt whiskies in the library, this bar has eat-drink covered with class all through the night.
209 Lonsdale St, Melbourne
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