• Melbourne's best outdoor dining

Unless you want waves, Williamstown Beach has it all. Cricket players leap for one-handed catches over shell-flecked sand. Bikini babes roast. Seagulls steal chips. Snorkellers bob at the bluestone breakwater. Nonnas walk arm-in-arm on the promenade. Kids complain about sunscreen. Babies scream in beach tents. Couples keep the flame alive with a cooler bag of oysters and champagne. Container ships creep across the horizon.

Walking east to west, a rotunda at one end of the beach serves fried food and fluorescent ice-cream. Nearby, Shelly's Beach Pavilion is the fancier option with its all-day menu and beachfront deck.

At the western end of the beach, adjoining the swimming pool and cute lifesaver's turret, is the new Kiosk d'Asporto, an Italian takeaway joint that's an offshoot of Willy's well-loved Pizza d'Asporto.

The shutters are up early for good coffee and pastries. I'm yet to find any better excuse for pausing a dog walk than an espresso (or classy Illy crema slushy) and a pastiera napoletana (baked ricotta cake with orange peel).

The lunch menu expands with panini, filled perhaps with spring onion frittata or chicken cacciatore. Salads are prepared on site: farro is tossed with nuts, red apple slivers, sultanas and heaps of herbs for healthy post-swim sustenance. Pulled pork, roasted capsicum and cous cous are a good salad combination but my cous cous was wet and lumpy.

Golden, cheesy arancini in bite-size and just-swam-two-K size emerge from the deep-fryer: they're delicious. Hot, crisp flake and chips are served in paper cones.

Gelati is squished into bread rolls as well as cups and cornets – try the tiramisu flavour.

There are picnic tables for perching but I only feel like I'm really eating on the beach when I garnish my snacks with sand.

Rating: Three and a half stars (out of five)