More than a decade after its founder, Shannon Bennett, moved Vue de Monde into the Rialto Towers, the fine-dining restaurant is preparing to take a break to receive a facelift.

The restaurant, which initially opened in a Carlton terrace at the turn of the century, took a leap forward in 2005, relocating to the CBD’s Normanby Chambers with a ritzy new look, before literally moving up in the world, occupying the 55th-floor of the Rialto at the west end of Collins Street. In 2011, building the restaurant 240 metres above street level cost $10 million.

Now Bennett is no longer linked to the restaurant and one of his proteges, 28-year-old Hugh Allen, leads the kitchen. Five years into the top job, Allen earned the restaurant three hats in The Age Good Food Guide 2023.

“Getting the third hat comes with a bigger expectation,” says Allen. “We want to really elevate the experience again.”

Vue de Monde will close in July for more than two months, while an entirely new kitchen is installed and tweaks are made to the restaurant’s dining room, which looks out towards Port Phillip.

Its events spaces and destination cocktail bar, Lui, will be overhauled, with original architects Elenberg Fraser replacing the long central bar with a circular-shaped bar closer to the windows, so you feel as though you’re drinking in the clouds. Lui’s mishmash of vintage chaise longues and armchairs will be replaced with bigger lounges.

All up, the bill is expected to reach $3 million.

“Getting the third hat comes with a bigger expectation. We want to really elevate the experience again.”

Hugh Allen

Vue now competes with many more high-wattage restaurants than when its first diners took the elevators to level 55. These include Atria at the Ritz-Carlton, which offers sweeping views across Melbourne to rival Vue’s; the mid-century magnificence of Gimlet at Cavendish House; and the lavish Society at 80 Collins Street, with its rumoured $15 million price tag.

Allen says that once the builders clear away their tools, the restaurant will still feel familiar, with its use of Australian timber, wool and leather. “It’s following the same theme but really elevating it.”

The dining room’s striking kangaroo-hide tables and fur-backed chairs will be refreshed, tables will get new spotlights to aid the perfect TikTok shot, and new artwork will be hung. The 200-square-metre open kitchen with overhead mirrors will be further integrated with the dining room.

Allen says that Vue’s chefs are more involved than ever in the art of service, carrying dishes to tables and interacting with diners, and this will only increase as the struggle to find career waitstaff intensifies. A more open kitchen will better suit this shift.

How do you get a brand-new kitchen into a restaurant at the top of a skyscraper? Slowly.

A small goods lift will ferry the stainless-steel components up to level 55 piece by piece, along with single slabs of marble and stone. A restaurant in the sky is an expensive exercise.

“A lot of the costs are quadrupled due to being on top of a skyscraper and not having any carparks, the extra labour time that takes, and so on. It’s a huge fee for what we’re [actually] doing,” says the chef.

Bookings for the restaurant’s final sittings are thin on the ground, apart from a few lunch services. Allen says the waitlist is used regularly, though, as people with long-standing reservations realise the week before that their plans have changed.

Those wanting a first glimpse of the new dining room should mark early to mid-October in their calendars. But at this stage, Allen doesn’t want to give a firm reopening date.

“We’ve all seen Grand Designs,” he jokes.

Vue de Monde will close on July 22 for renovations; vuedemonde.com.au