Time Out Melbourne Food & Drink Awards 2025: Fine Dining Restaurant Nominees

From the moment you book the full seasonal tasting experience on Amaru’s website, you know you’re in for an odyssey. It’s the restaurant’s most extravagant offering, after all – with five snacks, seven courses and petit fours, plus optional drink pairings. Skipping brekky isn’t a bad idea, but that’s not to say the food at Amaru will be dense or cumbersome – the progression of light to heavier dishes is carefully designed, a thoughtful pacing that allows you to take as long as you please in comfort.

It’s easy to scrunch your nose up when you hear the name ‘Greasy Zoe’s’. It sounds like an American diner, the type of highway-side joint famed for Sloppy Joe sandwiches and sunny side-up eggs rather than sophisticated and inventive produce-driven cuisine. But the latter is exactly what Greasy Zoe’s is, an unexpectedly thrilling dining experience curated on the outskirts of Melbourne. It’s spearheaded by the wildly creative chef Zoe Birch (ex-Courthouse Hotel and Healesville Hotel) and her intelligent hosting partner and sommelier, Lachlan Gardner. 

Searching for Ishizuka feels a bit like geocaching. On a stroll up Bourke Street, you take a sharp right into a nondescript apartment building and then punch a code into a lift before being buzzed in. Down you plummet into a subterranean foyer and even then, the restaurant is still concealed behind an ethereal white dome that’s like a giant Japanese lantern. It’s otherworldly down here. But once your host checks your reservation and lets you in, you’re met with a familiar sight: a long wooden counter behind which chefs busily prepare food and serve just 16 customers at a time. At each setting, we note beautiful bonsai structures releasing scented vapours. Our senses are already being charmed, though nothing yet has met our lips.

When imagining the perfect restaurant location, the base of a high-rise office building isn't exactly top of the list. Arriving at Lucia, nestled on the ground floor of the Eleven Eastern in South Melbourne – just a stone's throw from the Princess Highway – sets off a few alarm bells. It's not a question of aesthetics; the space is undeniably stunning: spacious, plush, and breezy. Yet, the unmistakable "hotel restaurant" vibe raises the concern that this might be a case of style over substance. Luckily, Lucia proved us wrong in mere seconds. You see, the essence of Lucia is its exceptional staff and impeccable food. 

Don’t give up if you’re finding it difficult to get a table at Navi. Once you’ve scored a booking, you’re in for a first-rate culinary adventure that’s both rare and engaging – all while being joyously laidback. Navi is referred to on the website as head chef and owner Julian Hills’ "dream" and you can taste how much heart he’s poured into it – from the use of native seasonal produce (which Hill learnt about directly from Indigenous foragers) to his ongoing relationships with sustainable and ethical farmers. There’s no doubt this restaurant is at the pinnacle of Melbourne’s growing conscious dining scene. 

Rocketing up to the highest floor of the Rialto Tower, your ears might pop and your stomach drop, but the destination is well worth the ride. At dusk, the rapidly fading sunlight in Vue de Monde bounces off the CBD’s skyscrapers, and the twinkling lights and far-off ranges are so very, very beautiful. It’s a dramatic entrance, and one that sets the tone for your meal to follow. After all, this experience feels just as much like a work of theatre as it does a restaurant.