The best things the Time Out Melbourne team ate this year

I'm calling it: 2025 will be the Year of the Finger Sandwich. If my prediction comes true, then the team at Scopri's classy sister wine bar are already off to a winning head start – all thanks to their soft and fluffy prawn tramezzini. Within weeks of the new bar pulling back its mysterious sheer white curtain, this moreish snack became a firm favourite. Crustless white bread triangles sandwich fresh sweet prawns, a creamy mayo-based salsa rosa and bursts of fried tropea onion. It'll take you only a hot minute to gobble this cool beauty down, but that minute will be marvelous. 

One dish has remained constant on Filipino fine diner Askal’s seasonally changing menu, and for good reason: the claypot rice featuring Wagyu oyster blade and an entire roasted log of spiced bone marrow. The rice is best when it’s had time to sit at the bottom of the claypot until increasingly crisp – spoon the unctuous bone marrow into the rice, mix it all up, and enjoy it alongside strips of immaculately braised, melt-in-mouth Wagyu beef strips. It’s a gastronomic melange of textures and flavours and one of the most memorable things I’ve eaten this year (hefty price tag and all). Askal waitstaff will tell you to order one claypot between two, but you can get away with one between four – so rich and indulgent this is (and you’ll have more space to try the other heavenly delights on the menu).  

Drop everything and sink your teeth into a Chicky Boi burger – you can find the pop-up at Pound Café on Friday nights from 5pm until late throughout the summer. Even the Colonel dreams about this fried chicken burg. It’s the perfect combination of fried chicken, slaw and dill, and each bite is even better than the last. Just take a look at that thing! 

Much like Reed House, this pasta is no wallflower – it's a bold, smack-you-in-the-face flavour bomb. Think cacio e pepe levelled up: buttery, cheesy and unapologetically rich, but just when it veers towards excess, zesty lemon swoops in to save the day. Black pepper bites, hazelnuts crunch and thick, chewy pici brings it all together. Rustic decadence with edge – it demands your attention and pays it back in full.

I was a little skeptical when I pulled up outside of South Melbourne’s Lucia, but the restaurant blew me away. However, there's one highlight from the night that I vividly remember – the Aylesbury duck, black pudding, beetroot and lilly pilly. The meat was cooked to perfection and it was an amazing balance of rich flavours – but not too heavy on the stomach.

My dish of the year came in hot at the tail end of 2024, but boy is it a sweet delight to finish the year on. The hype around Maison Bâtard – the new multi-level French diner from Chris Lucas – had been building for months, and I'd heard whisperings of a soft-serve sundae making an appearance on the menu. Well, the rumours are true, and this gorgeous-looking dessert is everything I craved and more. A simple combo of ingredients, it's loaded with ice cream swirled high, glistening ruby-red strawberries and raspberries, and lathered in a berry sauce for dramatic effect. Nostalgic, playful and most importantly, bloody delicious – I'll be ordering one all to myself next time. An honorary mention must go to the chocolate mousse, served tableside with a generous dollop of Chantilly cream and sprinkles of Belgian chocolate shards. A heavenly duo indeed; expect to see both of these delightful treats all over foodie TikTok this summer.

The Spice Bag from Northern Soul in St Kilda is next-level good. Crispy golden chips, perfectly seasoned chicken and that killer house curry sauce – it's got it all. Whether you're sharing or smashing it solo (no judgment here), this is comfort food at its finest. One bite, and you'll know why it's a St Kilda staple!

The sadya is a dish to behold: a range of vegetarian gravies, featuring a creamy and comforting perripu, a thick and spicy sambar (complete with delicious moringa stalks), a soupy and tangy rasam, and a tart and funky curd. Spread across the rest of the banana leaf is an assortment of vibrant vegetables and fruits in various preparations, from the sweet snap of the sharkara upperi banana chips to melt-in-the-mouth avial. In the centre, upon glossy pearls of tender Kerala matta rice, sits a crisp and nutty papad. The Indian culinary magic expressed here is that every gravy, side or pickle carries its own distinct flavour, its own colour, its own unique slurp or crunch. On a hot arvo out in Belgrave, I washed it down with a Kingfisher beer and thought, "Yeah. This is the life."

Believe it or not, my favourite dish was actually one I created at Brunswick Kitchen's Vietnamese cooking class with some expert guidance. The beef and betel leaf is simple, yet flavour-packed. Bonus points go to the top-tier dipping sauce, made with salty (and top quality) fish sauce and tangy lime juice.

If there’s one meal that never goes out of style with me, it’s a big ol’ plate of pasta. Studio Amaro’s rigatoni arrabbiata comes with woodfired chilli, olives and a generous amount of stracciatella – the perfect combo to refuel halfway through a southside bar crawl. I washed it down with a glass of dry white wine and emerged back into the seething masses of Chapel Street, ready to continue the crawl with renewed vigour. I think they call that carb loading.

While this is technically a side dish, as a long-time potato devotee (potatotee, if you will) eating this delectable fine-dining morsel was a memorable moment of my year. On sight alone, it's something special to behold – innumerable, incredibly thin layers of potato compressed into a crispy cube. And upon eating it, I was delighted by the combination of crunch and creaminess. I hope one day to be fortunate enough to eat it again.

A lunch at Brae is a day-long excursion, but when peppered with moments like this heavensent dessert, it's a day you want to last forever. Sweet marmalade made from Brae Farm's carrots and a vanilla citrus cream (courtesy of Schulz Organic Dairy) are piled into orange halves, then topped with sparkly citrus granita. My friend can attest that my eyes turned into love heart emojis.