It’s that time when catch-ups with best friends, long-lost friends and your friend’s friends are happening every second day. And now it’s your turn to find somewhere for dinner – somewhere casual, not too expensive, with enough room for a group of 10 (or maybe 12, if your mate’s cousin visiting from the UK comes with their partner). There’s a gluten-free diner, three vegetarians and someone who doesn’t eat pork.

Before you give up and have yet another backyard barbecue, take a look at these group-friendly (and often wallet-friendly) places to eat across Melbourne, picked by the reviewing team of The Age Good Food Guide 2024.

Goldy’s Tavern

When the DJ is in full swing and punters spill out onto the street, the energy at Goldy’s is unlike anywhere else in town. There are cheffy takes on dude food, from fried pickles to pecan pie, but the indie kids are here for the 1970s aesthetic, the by-the-glass pet nat, and the ultra-local taps pouring Bodriggy, Co-Conspirators and more. The wide-hipped footpath and courtyard are a natural gathering place for friends, especially the four-legged kind.

Best dish to share: Do not pass go without trying the Goldy’s roll, a riff on the Chiko Roll that contains all the savoury mince goodness you remember in a special house-made pastry that’s deeply golden.

66A Gold Street, Collingwood, goldystavern.com.au

Seven Star Pocha

Open until 3.30am, this isn’t just a place that’s good for groups; it’s better with them. Friends crowd around enormous bubbling cauldrons of jjigae (Korean stews), their tables dotted with bottles of soju, imported Korean lager and the lighter rice wine makgeolli. For every cheese-stuffed omelette or sizzling bulgogi, there are harder-to-find dishes such as ganjang gejang: raw soy-marinated crab, split for harvesting the sweet gelatinous meat. Get into it.

Best dish to share: Army stew – named for the American ingredients such as Spam introduced by US soldiers during the Korean War – is a perfect introduction to modern Korean food.

Locations on Little Lonsdale Street and Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, se7enstar.com.au

Harley and Rose

Amid the dining room’s hubbub, friendly staff shake cocktails to a disco beat and flames dance inside the burly pizza oven. Before the main event, snack on two-bite anchovy-parmesan flatbreads, or tapioca croquettes, salty with taleggio and sweet with peppered honey. When it comes to the pizza, crusts are blistered and blackened, perhaps finished with caramelised onion and pipis, or broccoli with smoked garlic and chilli. Did we mention there’s a dog-friendly courtyard?

Best dish to share: Cod dip with smoked garlic flatbread, or pizza that takes your fancy.

572 Barkly Street, West Footscray, harleyandrose.net.au

Bun Ngon

A neon-lit exterior prefaces the bold flavours and lively atmosphere that await inside this jam-packed Springvale favourite. A testament to Melbourne’s rich Vietnamese community, the large menu proudly champions region-specific dishes. The fermented fish noodle soup bun mam is both delicate and pungent, generously topped with fish, prawns, squid and crispy pork belly. Other dishes draw from China and Laos, so fans of lemon chicken will also be smiling.

Best dish to share: Bun dau mam tom – a platter of lettuce, fishcakes, house-made hams and a fiercely funky dipping sauce of fermented prawn paste. It’s great snacking while you make menu decisions.

266A Springvale Road, Springvale, 03 8510 4317, no website

Stokehouse Pasta & Bar

This is exactly what a long lunch with friends should look like: sipping a spritz with bay views, swiping airy focaccia through bagna cauda and anticipating king prawns tickled with ’nduja. Given the location, seafood is the natural skew, but the wood-grill means this is also a great place to snag a steak. Family-size pastas – perhaps crab and chilli spaghetti – will feed a party. The canny all-$79 wine list means that, like everything here, it’s easy to go right and hard to go wrong.

Best dish to share: Whole market fish with peperonata.

30 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda, stokepastaandbar.com.au

Seafood Street

At this chef-approved late-night destination, the more, the merrier. Luminescent tanks of crustaceans are the welcoming party to a small yet thrumming dining room, where large groups take advantage of family-style dining and a BYO licence. The menu has many familiar dishes, including beef in black bean sauce, but the star is in the restaurant’s name. Hand select mud crab and have the kitchen prepare it to your liking, be that stir-fried with ginger and spring onion or topped with golden-fried garlic crisps. Order another round of crumbly spring onion pancakes and dive in.

Best dish to share: Everything should be shared here, but deep-fried salt-and-pepper pork ribs are a great snack with a Tsingtao while you wait for your seafood.

167 Russell Street, Melbourne, 03 9041 0605, no website

Village Wine Bar

This is a restaurant that’s proud to give people what they want and confident enough to tempt them with something they might not immediately gravitate towards: sardines, perhaps, or panettone pudding. Gnocchi made with roasted potatoes is caramelised in the pan, then tumbled with bagna cauda and cavolo nero. Mascarpone for a tiramisu is folded with zabaglione to make it fluffier and boozier. Nothing here will startle, but you can’t knock a restaurant that delivers joy seven days a week.

Best dish to share: For meat-eaters, beef carpaccio dotted with horseradish creme fraiche and crisp fried shallots. For vegetarians, herby pea and taleggio arancini.

117 Dundas Place, Albert Park, villagewinebar.com.au

Union House

Pubs are meant to mean many things to many people, but the Union is a rare chameleon. After a fireside feast (the stellar sirloin often outshone by the accompanying mash) and maybe a meat raffle, it’s likely a D-floor will devour you and your mates downstairs. The menu rivals that of the surrounding Swan Street restaurants. Between the chicken schnitzel, roasted cauliflower with pearl couscous, and $24 steak night on Wednesdays, it keeps carnivores, vegans and those on a budget happy.

Best dish to share: A bowl of chips at the pub is never a bad idea.

270 Swan Street, Richmond, unionhouse.com.au

Bekka

Decisions and group dining rarely go hand-in-hand. Luckily, Bekka’s popular banquet guarantees a satisfying cross-section from the homely Lebanese menu, whether it’s zaatar-spiced lamb fillet cooked exactly to the right shade of pink, or chicken tawook, an Ottoman-era dish of skewers marinated in lemon and garlic, spiced with cinnamon and paprika, then grilled until just-charred. Throw in the generous fattoush salad and, if baklava isn’t sweet enough, perhaps mahalabia, too: thick and honey-rich custard with the contrasting pop of fresh berries.

Best dish to share: If you’re not doing the banquet, the mixed grill is the next best thing when it comes to group-friendliness.

22-24 Hall Street, Moonee Ponds, bekkarestaurant.com.au

Hai Di Lao

Dinner is the show at this playful international hot pot institution. You and your group will select your broth base and customise it to your preferred concentration and heat, then gaze at neighbouring tables while inspiration brews. Will you add the premium Kobe beef, signature house-made shrimp paste, bamboo shoots or all of the above? The excellent service is marked by fun and gimmicky details – from complimentary manicures to tableside noodle-pulling performances – that’ll have you planning your next visit.

Best dish to share: Sharing is the name of the game at hot pot.

Locations in Box Hill, city and Glen Waverley, @haidilaohotpot_australia

Tippy Tay

Good times roll thick and fast at Flinders Lane’s lively Garden State Hotel, but it’s at Tippy Tay – discreetly tucked inside the multi-level venue – that they really flourish. This pastel-hued Italian trattoria is both easy on the eye and the wallet, with a $69 feed-me menu packed with Italy’s greatest hits. From generous pastas to pork cotoletta and, yes, burrata, followed by a ’grammable dessert trolley, your whole table will be upbeat. Or perhaps that’s the negroni fountain talking: flowing cocktails are all yours at the mere push of a button. Dangerous? Maybe a little. Fun? Absolutely. But that’s amore, right?

Best dish to share: The lamb shoulder pappardelle ($39) is silky, rich and bold – a bit like some of the Garden State punters elsewhere in the building.

Inside Garden State Hotel, 101 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, tippytay.com.au

Warung Agus

Family owned-and-run since 1989, this is one warm hug of a restaurant. Set menus (with options for vegans, pescatarians and the gluten-challenged) are excellent value, and milder dishes for kids are just $15. Prawn crackers with satay sauce kick off most banquets, then comes steamed fish pumped up with lemongrass sambal, and grilled chicken with caramelised tamarind. But the roast pork alone could keep this place in business, its skin cellophane-thin, the meat imbued with candlenut and shrimp paste.

Best dish to share: One of the generous $60 set menus.

305 Victoria Street, North Melbourne, warungagus.com.au

Grazia

Find Roman-style pizza, pasta both low-key and luxe, and family-friendly desserts in a sun-drenched former beauty parlour that’s now a split-level restaurant kitted out in rattan, marble and sage green. Pappardelle pasta with lobster is doused in a luscious bisque, and vitello tonnato is one of the best in town. End on an outrageous lemon bombe Alaska, or a simple bowl of very good house-made gelato. Service is eager and charming, and the Italian and Australian wines will please a crowd.

Best dish to share: In summer, you can’t go past the ripe, plummy tomatoes of a Caprese salad and a serve of house-made focaccia.

159 Burke Road, Glen Iris, graziarestaurant.com.au

Ras Dashen

For those uninitiated to Ethiopian cuisine, laid-back owner Wondimu Alemu is your menu guide. Wats (stews) and tibs (stir-fries) arrive with spongy, fermented injera flatbread doubling as cutlery. Use it as a vehicle for doro wat, made with fall-apart chicken and boiled egg, its gravy fragrant with warming ginger, fenugreek and coriander. Beyaynetu is a tasting plate of wholesome, spice-laden vegetarian dishes, with vegan options available. Ethiopian coffee is a highlight, the beans ground to order, the liquid presented in traditional clay vessels.

Best dish to share: Choose one of the two platters available for a decision-free snapshot of the menu.

247 Barkly Street, Footscray, rasdashenethiopianrestaurant.com

Jim’s Greek Tavern

The rules at Jim’s are: there are no rules. Or at least not to the naked eye. You want to BYO? Go nuts. Slabs of beer are slung over diners’ shoulders and walked to the fridges, where you’ll later get your own refills. You want to see a menu? It’s in your waiter’s head, but don’t worry – he’ll look after you. Dips, grilled morsels (octopus, perhaps; kefalograviera cheese, definitely), fish and various lamb cuts will keep coming, long after you’ve had enough. Bread baskets are refilled. Water needs to be asked for. The room is raucous, the chat is easy and, somehow, it’s nearly midnight and your hand-scrawled bill seems far too cheap. You’ve successfully navigated Jim’s.

Best dish to share: You’ll most likely share everything, but if your group doesn’t eat meat, saganaki will be popular, or there’s the platter of dips with fluffy triangles of pita.

32 Johnston Street, Collingwood, 03 9419 3827, no website