Grossi Florentino’s chocolate souffle has been served at 80 Bourke Street for so long, one diner who celebrated her 90th birthday with the dish also enjoyed it when she was a teenager. While the Grossi family only took over the Florentino in 1999, they inherited dishes with legacies stretching back to the ’20s, including the chocolate souffle, which is still on the menu.

It belongs to a special club of dishes that diners are so attached to, restaurants don’t dare retire them.

“You just don’t do it,” says Carlo Grossi.

While his family have tweaked the dish over the years, the essential components remain the same: fluffy souffle, a pot of chocolate sauce and ice-cream on the side.

“A lot of the fun is that it comes to the table and you finish the dish yourself,” says Grossi.

Playfulness is an ingredient common to many of Melbourne’s favourite dishes. Supernormal’s lobster roll is an eat-with-your-hands cornerstone of the restaurant Andrew McConnell opened as a pop-up in 2013.

A sandwich has also brought Rocco’s Bologna Discoteca in Fitzroy most of its attention. A meatball sub that began as a lockdown pivot was retired to the lunch menu when dine-in was again possible. Co-owner Emilio Scalzo says making the subs along with the pasta-heavy dinner menu was difficult with their kitchen set-up.

But some tables would arrive for dinner, discover the sandwich wasn’t available, and leave without ordering a thing.

Two weeks ago, the restaurant rebooted its dinner menu – and the kitchen set-up – and added the meatball sub to the dinner menu. Scalzo estimates 60 per cent of tables add a sandwich to their dinner order now.

Other signature dishes reinstated due to diner demand include the confit chicken wings with smoked eel at South Yarra bistro Omnia, and Firebird’s fire-tossed pipis served with Chinese doughnuts.

Simon Blacher, owner of Firebird in Prahran, thinks that unique flavour combinations or a novel way to eat a dish are a common denominator of must-order items.

Chef Dave Verheul has created many signature dishes at his restaurants Embla and the now-closed Town Mouse, including one that made red cabbage appealing. He believes there’s no secret formula. “I think people crave dishes that represent the season they’re in, such as fresher dishes in spring.”

Patrons at Marios in Fitzroy bucked that trend when it came to the Italian cafe’s pan-fried chicken livers with marsala sauce. Originally introduced in 1993 as a winter dish, Mario Maccarone recalls customers kept asking for them during warmer months until eventually the restaurant relented.

He thinks the dish is popular because it’s distinctive, unlike lasagne or carbonara, which can be found at many Italian restaurants.

“It’s become this thing. You’ll get a table of four show up and they all want the livers.”

Consistency is also key. “It’s easy enough to come up with a great dish, but can you keep pushing it day in, day out?” says Maccarone.

History isn’t the only thing that confers cult status. Lagoon in Carlton, which opened in 2019, already has three well-known dishes to its name: Taiwanese-style fried chicken on the bone, char siu pork, and a shredded potato salad with a hot-and-sour dressing.

Co-owner Chris Lerch says when he mentioned to some regulars the potato salad might be changing, their reaction was swift.

“They jokingly responded by saying, ‘We won’t come back’, but there’s probably some truth in this!”

He says it was never his intention to keep staple dishes on Lagoon’s menu, but seeing the customers’ attachment changed his mind.

Blacher agrees the customer is (sometimes) right. “Every now and then restaurants definitely have to listen and not be so steadfast.”

But Verheul warns against becoming too reliant on singular dishes. “My personal stance is that you need to move them on and replace them with something better.

“It’s much better in the long run that your customer comes to dine with you because the food is of a generally high standard, rather than for one dish they have seen on social media.”

10 cult bites to try around Melbourne

MoVida’s anchovy with tomato sorbet
Before anchovies were draped on everything, Frank Camorra crafted this perfect bite.
1 Hosier Lane, Melbourne, movida.com.au

Lee Ho Fook’s crispy eggplant
Long batons of eggplant are fried until shatteringly crisp and bursting with sweet-sour-salty flavours.
11-15 Duckboard Place, Melbourne, leehofook.com.au

Aru’s pâté en croute with flavours of banh mi
A shuttered restaurant in 2020, French training and Vietnamese upbringing all collided to bring us this mash-up that’s a must-order.
268 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, aru.net.au

Marios’ pan-fried chicken livers
Cooked with bacon and masala cream sauce, served with toast. Comfort at its finest.
303 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, marioscafe.com.au

Tipo 00’s tagliolini al nero
Ebony strands of pasta flecked with pale squid, underscored by a briny sauce you just don’t want to end.
361 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, tipo00.com.au

Supernormal lobster roll
The roll that kick-started the sandwiches-in-restaurants trend.
180 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, supernormal.net.au

Grossi Florentino’s chocolate souffle
Almost as iconic as the ceiling at this restaurant, which has traded in some form since the 1920s.
80 Bourke Street, Melbourne, florentino.com.au

Vue de Monde’s souffle
Not quite as longstanding, it’s been on the menu since doors opened in Carlton in 2000, whether raspberry, passionfruit or chocolate.
55 Rialto Towers, 525 Collins Street, Melbourne, vuedemonde.com.au

Napier Quarter’s anchovy toast
Rain, hail or lockdown, this petite cafe has found a way to get its smash-hit tartine into the hands of fans.
359 Napier Street, Fitzroy, napierquarter.com.au

Cumulus Inc’s lamb shoulder
A rugged thing that wasn’t typically seen in restaurants in 2008, when it first debuted, it’s now been endlessly mimicked.
45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, cumulusinc.com.au