Larissa Dubecki

December 2024: Summer in Melbourne is the time to shimmy out of those trackpants, off the couch and into a shiny new world. There's been a ton of exciting new restaurant openings to celebrate, while plenty of old favourites are still merrily thrumming along – all ready to welcome you with open arms. So put on something cute, grab a date and check out the best eating and drinking the city has to offer.  The continually evolving and expanding dining scene in Melbourne is both a blessing and a curse: how do you choose between so many incredible restaurants? Well, that's where we come in. Stop endlessly scrolling, and commit to making your way through Time Out’s list of the best restaurants in the state right now. Our always-hungry local experts, including Time Out Melbourne's Food and Drink Writer, Lauren Dinse, have curated 2024's most delicious and divine, innovative and imaginative, comforting and familiar, memorable and magical dining experiences right here at your fingertips. From culinary institutions like Attica, Stokehouse and Flower Drum, to emerging standouts and instant icons such as Serai, Gimlet and Amaru, we've got it all covered here. And as for the brand new restaurant and bar openings catching our eye? Check out this guide instead. Get out, and get eating! You've got a lot to get through!  RECOMMENDED READ:  Don't want to break the bank? Check out Melbourne's best cheap eats.

December 2024: "It's the most wonderful time of the yeeear" goes that old classic Christmas croon. But let's be real: it certainly doesn't feel that way when you're staring at a rapidly dwindling bank balance. The festive period in Melbourne can quickly rack up unexpected expenses, which is where our handy cheap eats guide comes in – a monthly-updated list to help you fill your social calendar with more affordable dining out options. The late and great respected chef Anthony Bourdain once famously said: “I'd rather eat in Melbourne than Paris." It goes without saying that Melbourne has long been revered as one of Asia Pacific's most exciting food cities, but that status isn't just attributed to our fancy restaurants – special as many of those upper crust institutions may be. Our laneways and hidden alcoves are brimming with cheap street eats, smashable pub deals and dinner options you can enjoy for $20, $15 or even under $10, so you can stop counting your hard-earned pennies and start eating instead. Lauren Dinse is Time Out Melbourne’s Food and Drink Writer, and has spent an impressive time scouting for the city's tastiest cheap eats – from her early student days spent wandering around Carlton and the CBD in search of a pocket change lunch, to the present day covering fun new openings for Time Out.  For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. If you'd rather not spend any money at all right now, we've got you covered with our guide on the best things to do f

Finding a stellar steak in a country with almost 30 million cattle is no hard task. But claiming your favourite to be the absolute best? That’s sure to stir some serious beef. Whether you’re into rib eye or rump, medium rare or well-done, smothered in peppercorn or chimichurri sauce, and paired with chips or mash – the ways to enjoy a steak are as endless as they are delicious. Our local expert writers have sliced into the best steaks across every capital city to bring you this list of our favourite steaks in Australia. Now, go get up in their grills. 🍔 The best burgers in Australia🥧 Australia's best pies🌭 15 mouthwatering sausage rolls in Australia

You know what makes food and wine taste better? An invigorating sea breeze, post-swim. Captivating sunset views also come to mind. If you're in the mood for a little romance or a celebration destination that's a bit more scenic, a great beachside restaurant always does the trick. That's why when the heat cranks up in Melbourne, coastal locals and those travelling from further afield love a seaside feast. The Time Out team know that beachside real estate is a precious commodity in a decidedly un-beachy city – so whenever a new restaurant opens along one of our shores, we race in as soon as we can get a table. We've kept an eye on what's hot over the years – from popular kiosk chippies that don't mind a bit of sand on your feet to swankier spots like Stokehouse and Totti's Lorne where you might want to wear a pair of good shoes. Just in time for summer, here are our top picks right now. St Kilda is one of Melbourne's most popular beachside suburb – if you find yourself in this 'hood, be sure to check out one of these top bars or restaurants.

Since the 1960s, Lygon Street has been known and loved as Melbourne's Little Italy precinct. Locals and tourists alike flock to the leafy strip – abuzz on weekends with the roaring of fancy cars and roaming of uni students, teens and families – for proper espresso, pasta and cake, and a true taste of Italian-style al fresco action.  Sure, you might get a bit of hassle from the sales-y footpath waiters trying to lure you in, but true Melburnians know that's a part of the street's charm. And though much has changed in the last decade, there's no doubt that if you want to sit out on a terrace with a pizza bigger than your head or sip Spritzes on a rooftop, Lygon Street is still the place to be.  In 2024, there's a much larger and more diverse culinary offering in this area than ever before. Particularly on the southern end of the Carlton stretch, you'll discover incredible eateries for Egyptian, Japanese, Indian, Thai, plus a variety of other cuisines. No longer just the domain of spaghetti and salumi, Lygon Street is now also worth heading to for a bangin' biryani or world-class Asian fusion. And that's not all. Take a stroll up towards Brunswick East and you'll discover trendy wine bars, pubs with live music, American barbecue, Polish dumplings, Sicilian food and one of the best taco joints in town. Hungry yet? Let's go for a wander! We've listed Lygon Street's best restaurants in Google Maps-checked order so you'll know where to find them. Looking for the cream of the crop?

We might be 16,760 kilometres from Paris, but geography cannot dampen Melbourne's love affair with la belle France. The city's leading French restaurants are a first-class ticket to the Old World — with just a little help from steak frites, crème brulée and all their delicious handmaidens.  For more food guidance, peruse our round-up of Melbourne's best restaurants – or take a trip down south to the best Italian restaurants.

Melbourne doesn't have a large South American food scene but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality. Thanks largely to expats looking to recreate a taste of home in Australia, you can eat your way through Colombia, Venezuela, Chile and Brazil within 10km of the CBD. We've rounded up the city's best for when you want to go on a dining chair tour of the continent. From arepas to ceviche and even Brazilian sushi, you can find it all here. Prefer a Euro getaway? Try Melbourne's best Greek restaurants. Or for something spicier, these are the city's best Indian diners. 

There's no cuisine that brings the sunshine quite like Spanish. From one-bite tapas wonders to a paella that demands a group of mates packing an appetite, it's a compelling way to travel via your stomach. Not booking a ticket to San Sebastian anytime soon? Fear not: our list of the eleven best Spanish spots in Melbourne will have you flying on wings of desire. Looking to eat well without breaking the bank? Check out our list of the best cheap eats in Melbourne. In need of a sweet treat to finish off your meal? Check out the best ice cream in Melbourne. 

Make no mistake: the fine dining gods have been smiling on Melbourne this year. We’ve had plenty of reasons to dress up for dinner and treat ourselves to something special, at just the time a bit of indulgence was needed most. But on this turn around the sun, the gods have a few tricks up their sleeves. The very notion of “fine dining” has slipped its moorings, resulting in a very different beast to the classical notions of starched white linen, stiff formality and best manners. Sure, you can still go full glam at Grill Americano or Gimlet, two CBD newcomers where the excellent crowd-watching is all part of the fun and the menus, fit-out and sheer attitude will whisk you to yesteryear Paris and New York. Chris Lucas’ glamazon Society fits the bill, too. Perhaps the top hat or tiara will be a little OTT, but they’re all places begging you to dress to impress. But beyond those age-old certainties of caviar, Champagne and Instagram, we have Ben Shewry’s Attica remaining the benchmark for envelope-pushing food interrogating the very notion of “Australian” cuisine. There’s also the long-awaited arrival of Nomad, which has deformalised the dinner but kept up the flame-grilled excellence and produce-driven perfection. In the red corner, the hallowed beauty of Warabi showcases the meticulous Japanese art of omakase. And what would people a century ago have made of a place called Enter Via Laundry, where the barrier between chef and guests is whittled down to a mere nub? So what is fi

All hail the cheap eat. The stuff of life, the stuff of deliciousness, the saviour of students and the lifeblood of the city. Given the current state of play – geo-political turmoil, severe weather events, supply chain issues, rents, staff – hell, even the price of lettuce is out to get us – it’s a near miracle that we can eat well for the amount of money found down the back of the average couch. So what makes a cheap eat? There’s no real prescription here. We don’t require an entrée- main double-header or anything as strict as that, although the phrase “would you like to upsize your fries?” is cause for immediate disqualification. All we’re looking for is a place where you can eat your fill for $30 or under. Cheap in the context of excellent eats isn’t a dirty word. As the late Anthony Bourdain proved on his travels, often the best, most exciting food in each city is delivered without bells and whistles, marketing budgets and “concepts”. A place you might walk past without a second glance – or a place you might not even find without local knowledge, a GPS and a whistle – could be the home of astoundingly good food, with a bit of local history thrown in to boot. Our ten cheap eats contenders have little in common except delivering comfort, calories and X-factor. The budget-friendly end of Melbourne’s dining scale includes Penang-worthy char kway teow at cultish Lulu’s, the mackerel dumplings of our dreams at ShanDong MaMa and elegant Euro breakfasts at Florian’s, then stretch

Casual dining is something at which Melbourne has always excelled (sorry but not sorry, Sydney). While some other cities exhibit a gulf between the heady heights of fine dining and the ground floor entry point of a cheap eat, Melbourne’s restaurant landscape stops at all floors. And that’s why Time Out’s shortlist for the Best Casual Diner in 2022 had to sadly leave many beloved restaurants by the wayside in order to anoint the incredible achievements of a hugely disparate group of cuisines: Thi Le’s Laotian triumph Jeow, Khanh Nguyen’s wild Oz- Vietnamese experiment Aru, the New Nordic stylings of Freyja, neo-Filipino Serai and the Chinese Moonhouse, as well as Hardware Club, Osteria Renata and Hope St Radio doing it for the Italians and Victoria by Farmer’s Daughters doing it for the state. So what unites these nine contenders? You could call them all serious diners in casual clothing. They all approach the restaurant dark arts with a steely commitment to excellent food. Yet they pack it with plenty of personality. Call it fun dining if you will. We’re becoming used to hearing soundtracks heavy on the hip hop or whatever the kitchen wants to play (that’s why Shazam has become the most useful app to use at the dining table). Sharing is de rigueur as the ye olde notion of individual dishes gets jettisoned for a democratic free-for-all (although please, we don’t need the “concept” explained anymore). As for snowy white linen, who needs it? If you’re lucky you’ll be a regular w

Melbourne is a better place after Ross Magnaye saw a Filipino-sized hole in its eating culture. Sure, there were casual Pinoy eating places in the `burbs, mostly catering to a grateful audience of expats. But as for a bigger format restaurant playing with its cultural traditions and taking them to a wider audience… no dice. “When I was younger and started cooking fine dining, I thought, ‘I wish I could put my ownculture into it,’” says the former Rice Paper Sister chef who opened Serai with chef partnersShane Stafford and Ben Waterslate last year to instant acclaim. “As my career progressed, I got my confidence up that my culture is delicious. It’s all about having that knowledge and knowing that you can spin it in a way you’re proud of.” As my career progressed, I got my confidence up that my culture is delicious Time Out’s Restaurant of the Year (also our Best Casual Dining Venue) is a shot in the arm for the city’s food culture. Riffing on Magnaye’s Filipino heritage without suggesting anything like straightlaced authenticity, the fire-licked food is irreverent, playful and fun while also introducing the non-Filipino Melbournians to a new world of flavour. “I definitely want more people to try Filipino food, but I don't do it just because of that," says Magnaye. "My main aim was just to open a restaurant people enjoy visiting." Mission accomplished. Backed by a pithy, natural-leaning wine list and a whole lot of buzz, the menu is a tour-de-force of things we want to eat. 

Update October 2024: This review was originally written in 2018, so please be aware that some elements may have changed since. Time Out Melbourne never writes starred reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills for reviews so that readers can trust our critique. 'Eating house' doesn't quite cut it. 'All-day diner' falls worryingly short. In fact, when trying to sum up the place Cumulus Inc plays in Melbourne’s hungry heart, 'favourite clubhouse' comes as close as any description. And maybe that’s the thing about our winner of the 2018 Time Out Food and Drink Legend Award. Cumulus Inc is so many different things to so many different people. For city office workers, it’s the perfect show-off gaff for meetings with out-of-towners (bonus points for feigned nonchalance in the face of its boast-worthy fabulousness). For solo lunchers, it’s a place where singleton status is never a problem (all the better to study the grooming habits of fellow diners). Come evening, it’s the kind of place you want to think about sensible footwear to endure the inevitable queue. And you can’t really lay claim to being a true Melburnian if you haven’t been in for late-night Negronis and the fuzzy memory to go with them the next day. Legend status is warranted for Andrew McConnell being the first chef in Melbourne to think of serving a tin of Ortiz anchovies. It comes with the tuna tartare with goats’ curd and crushed peas that has spawned a thousand imitators. It trails

Update October 2024: This review was originally written in 2022, so please be aware that some elements may have changed since. Time Out Melbourne never writes starred reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills for reviews so that readers can trust our critique. Melbourne loves to talk big about its multicultural credentials but until now, there’s been a Philippines-sized gap in the city’s eating CV. We’re totally down with Thai jungle curries, Shanghainese xiao long bao and Malaysian char kway teow, but the Filipino dinuguan, kinilaw and sinuglaw have flown under the popular radar in defiance of Australia’s fifth-largest migrant community.  It’s double the reason to immediately fall in love with a restaurant delivering such a catchy modern hook on Pinoy cuisine you can almost dance to it.  Tucked down a dead-end laneway off Little Bourke, the good-looking room has a series of heavy rust-coloured doors (pro tip: choose the first one) that perplex newcomers but entertain the smug folk already seated inside the latest addition to the canon of Melbourne’s great semi-industrial restaurant spaces.  The entrance/exit scenario is too clever by half, but the rest of the package is just clever.  Opened by ex-Rice Paper Sister chef Ross Magnaye with a couple of chef compadres, Serai’s fire-based cooking riffs on his Filipino heritage without suggesting anything like authenticity.  In this spirit, Serai is aligned with Khanh Nguyen’s Sunda in its confident

Update October 2024: This review was originally written in 2022, so please be aware that some elements may have changed since. Time Out Melbourne never writes starred reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills for reviews so that readers can trust our critique. Public Wine Shop is the very model of the modern-era wine bar. There’s soul spinning on the turntable, rows of wine bottles lining the brick wall and a communal table to rule them all. Altogether, it adds up to that incalculable feeling that you’ve somehow stumbled into a mate’s place rather than the new haunt of one of Australia’s most promising chefs. On Fitzroy North’s increasingly interesting St Georges Road shopping drag, Public Wine Shop would probably prefer top billing for its wine. With award-winning sommelier Campbell Burton as its owner and an impressive quiver of natural, organic, oxidative and all-round minimally messed-with wines at the disposal of staff (including Sarah Fitzsimmons, co-founder of Hobart’s equally impressive Dier Makr), it could live and die on the booze alone. But Ali Currey-Voumard (ex-Agrarian Kitchen) steals the show without betraying the un-shouty beauty that made her one of Australia’s breakout chef stars of recent years. Her food leans towards Italy and France and is unfancy and as wine-friendly as it gets. Start with Sydney rock oysters with a squeeze of lemon and a wodge of baguette that also proves the perfect super-soaker to the ouefs mayonnai

September 2024 update: Shock! Horror! We've just heard word that Soi 38 is moving from its beloved carpark digs! But there's no reason to panic. It's only moving just around the corner to 235 Bourke Street, in order to have better cooking appliances and larger seating capacity. Watch this space for more details as they unfold. Time Out Melbourne never writes starred reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills for reviews so that readers can trust our critique. Having trouble finding Soi 38? Just follow your nose. While the address is equal parts intriguing and perplexing, the heady scent of Thailand – its star anise, galangal, chilli, lime and herbs – will lure you inside the multi-level poured concrete carpark down a laneway off Bourke Street. Don’t go thinking this cheap-eat champion is big on the novelty and low on the substance. The brightly coloured haunt in the middle of the urban jungle can claim to have introduced Melbourne to authentic Bangkok-style boat noodles. Lurking in a pungent, funky soup brothwith a host of add-ons (braised pork or beef, a pork ball and crackling, bean sprouts andcoriander), the springy noodles ballast the sort of one-dish wonder that encompasses theentire food pyramid, big on flavour and even bigger on comfort. Owners Andy Buchan and Top Kijphavee kicked off in 2015 serving just boat noodles and prawn wontons in tom yum soup. But the people have spoken, and they’ve incrementally added more menu items (all hail

Amid a time of deep division and uncertainty, food on sticks remains a failsafe solace to the ills of the world. And few do it better than the Japanese, whose pursuit of grilled stick perfection has seen countless trees meet their end. This might explain why Melbourne is experiencing a micro-trend of Japanese grilling over charcoal, otherwise known as robatayaki. Chris Lucas’ Yakimono has flicked its Bic lighter up at the top end of Collins Street, and a few blocks downhill at the corner of Flinders and Exhibition, the group responsible for San Telmo have for the first time in their decade-long history turned their sights from South America to Japan. It’s less revolution, more evolution at the former home of George Calombaris’ Gazi. Partly that’s thanks to a more-dash-than-cash makeover of the proud industrial space, where the terracotta pots that once undulated across the ceiling have been replaced by a colourful phalanx of lightboxes in a convincing simulation of the Tokyo subway system. Also playing its card is the fungible nature of charcoal grilling, the Esperanto of the food world, which switches out its national colours as easily as the Russians at the Olympics The easygoing pleasures of yakitori cooked cleanly over binchotan charcoal deserve credit for a happy dining room rumble. Take your pick of the chicken: juicy thigh threaded with spring onion, chewy hearts with a bracing sprinkle of togarashi, or a charry meatball, turned from meh to must-do thanks to its side

2024 update: The below review was written in 2019, and some details may have altered since then. Bring us the snacks, all the snacks and nothing but the snacks. Snacks are the stars of our dining age, the George and Amal of gastronomy, the mark of any chef trying to raise their flag over a crowded restaurant landscape.  At Shane Delia’s Maha East, the racier little sibling to his city den, the snacks are so fine the mains might seem like less of a headline event. Or maybe you simply forget to leave stomach space amid the happy hoovering. Ahem. Apologies for this dereliction of duty. We shall forge on regardless.  Sleek, dimly lit and wearing the studied élan that indicates a no-expense-spared policy, this slip of a place looks like a wine bar and acts like a wine bar with its high-low mix of seating. But does it quack like a wine bar? No. There are some serious food moves here at some serious prices. It’s not really a place for a quick bite and a drink before heading home in time for Q&A. You probably won’t get a seat on a whim, anyway – it’s packing a full house across two sittings – but it’s definitely a place for sipping rather than swilling.  The pitch is right for this bit of Chapel Street, better known as the home of conceptual hotdog eateries than serious restaurants. Maybe we can call it a small-R restaurant. You won’t find fries loaded with zaatar and kefalograviera cheese at Maha city. Just sayin’.  All along the bar prettily attired people nurse cocktails and pick

2024 update: The below review was written in 2022 and some menu items and offerings may have changed. We've since attended the restaurant for a hosted Mughlai-style set menu in winter 2023 as part of the restaurant's rotation of seasonal offerings, which we highly recommend.  Spoiler alert: you don’t enter via laundry anymore. The success of Helly Raichura’s tiny at-home Box Hill restaurant has precipitated her move to more “serious” Carlton North digs,although the laneway entrance retains the enticing air of mystery (as does finding out theactual address only after booking). But while the location has changed, the brief of one of Melbourne’s most singulardegustations remains the same: to explain and explore the food of her Indian heritage.Not, the record should note, that it’s possible to condense the immense nation’s fiveregions, 29 states and their myriad sub-groupings into anything approaching a single meal,even one packing almost 20 dishes. Hence the lengthy meal changing its focus seasonally. Winter was all about seafood-centricBengal and spring has seen a deep dive into the cuisine of Kashmir, the meat-heavynorthern region. As an added curveball, Raichura’s menu flirts with Australian nativeingredients, bringing the occasional introductions from the waiter about colonialisation andglobalisation into a local context. Sound heavy? The communal table with its “dinner party at a friend’s home” vibes does itsbit to bring the pressure down (although there’s another room for

2024 update: The below review was written in 2022, and some details may have altered since then. Freyja is the Norse goddess responsible for a smorgasbord of exciting things: love, fertility, battle and – eek – death. Her dance card sounds full, but her list of responsibilities now extends to uniting Danish culinary traditions with Australian ingredients in the heart of the financial district. Tucked inside Collins Street’s heritage listed Olderfleet building, the street visible through a trio of ecclesiastical windows, Freyja is a restaurant immune from any accusations of culinary copying. Under the leadership of Jae Bang, formerly head chef at Norway’s two-Michelin-gonged Re- Naa, Freyja swings from daytime smørrebrød, the traditional Danish open sandwiches we prefer to think of as a full meal on rye, to a dinner menu packing cool Scandi sophistication. Anyone who frequents this part of Collins Street might already have become acquainted with Freyja’s dark and mysterious sibling bar Valhalla, cloistered a level underground, where furthering your Norse myth education comes in the form of ethereally arty cocktails. The drama continues at street level where the OTT gothic architecture, including three impressively ecclesiastical windows looking over Collins Street, dovetails with the moody fit out of timber, metal and raw brick, with bareback tables and modern artwork saving it from the realm of medieval cosplay. There’s no need to worry the new Nordic tag means ingredients be

2024 update: The below review was written in 2016, and some details may have altered since then. You probably haven’t heard of Peter Gunn but here’s a tip: remember that name. Ides represents not only the long-time Attica sous chef’s first restaurant but a Platonic ideal of modern fine dining. We reckon you’re going to be hearing a hell of a lot more about him. But first some introductions. For the past 18 months the expat New Zealander has been running a once-a-month residency at East Melbourne’s Persillade. It went so well he’s struck out on his own, backed by with restaurant soothsayers Peter Bartholomew and David Mackintosh (they of MoVida, Pei Modern, Rosa’s Kitchen & Canteen and Lee Ho Fook fame).  Gunn and Ides have taken over the Smith Street space vacated by Lee Ho Fook, virtually unrecognisable after the wand of designer Grant Cheyne magicked it into a carpeted, elegant, dim-lit room of charcoal greys, leather-coated tables and so much sound baffling you can eavesdrop on the next table. The oldies will love it, but the essential hip factor is sewn up, too: chefs perform plating as performance art on a central bench, and a moody black-and-white portrait of a chip fryer hangs elegantly on the back wall; the soundtrack is '90s hip-hop, and sommelier Raffaele Mastrovincenzo keeps things as interesting (translation: plenty of low-intervention stuff) and plain crazy as he got at Kappo.  So you might get a fantastically original, lightly sparkling Peek-a-Boo Pet-Nat Grenac

July 4 update: French Saloon is back! After two and a half years of existing as a functions-only venue on Hardware Lane, hospo legend Con Christopolous has reverted the space back into the European bistro and bar Melburnians missed so dearly throughout the lockdown age. Pop into sister wine bar Kirk's and ascend the staircase to see what remains – and what's changed. The below review was written in March 2016. He’s collected almost the full quiver, including but in no way limited to: an Italian (Emilia), a couple of wine bars (Neapoli, City Wine Shop), a rooftop haunt (Siglo), a supper club (the Supper Club), and a European (the European). It was only natural the hospitality industry’s King of Moomba would declare himself dissatisfied and decide to add something French to his happy family. French Saloon, housed above Kirk’s Wine Bar – a Christopoulos production in Melbourne’s 6th arrondissement around Hardware Lane – doesn’t beat diners about the head in some clichéd So-Frenchy-So-Chic kind of way. It’s typically understated, with a curving red timber ceiling, a long zinc bar, a winsome little terrace with umbrella-covered tables. It looks and feels like it could have been serving oysters – natural with a tiny bottle of Tabasco, or punchily flecked in bottarga and horseradish – at the dawn of existentialism. On the negative side there’s also a 20th-century approach to sound baffling, so it can sound like a small revolution is fomenting beneath the lazily twirling fans.  Execu

Behold the crab omelette. A cloud-like union of sweet crab meat and an egg scramble hovering somewhere between liquid and solid, it’s a dish of such disarming simplicity it will make you forget how hard it is to get so right.  Served just with black pepper and sea salt, it’s not only exhibit A for the pitch-perfect Cantonese cooking at Benyue Kitchen; it’s a talisman of the baton-passing from Lau’s Family Kitchen. Opened by a group of chefs central to the much-missed St Kilda favourite that closed earlier this year, this is the kind of restaurant phoenix operation we can all get behind. Planting their flag in suburban Aberfeldie has meant a boon for the locals and a study in geography for others who have never had cause to head to this northwestern `hood before.  You’ll want to order the Lau’s favourites. Those lamb spring rolls are here, all shattery shell and grunty, cumin-fragrant filling. The volcanic-looking siu mai is a faithful rendition of dumpling excellence made with Queensland prawns and pork. The salt and pepper squid, a lesson in the beauty of a clean fry.  The word is out that some of Melbourne’s best suburban Canto can be found behind this unassuming brown brick façade. The split-level room and its high-gloss wooden chairs and tables fill quickly. There are multi-generational groups and date nights; it’s a place that ticks a lot of boxes for a lot of people.  Word is also out about the soy poussin, which is served in limited numbers (plus it takes a half hour t

The bad news is the closing of Anchovy, otherwise known as chef Thi Le’s personal exploration of Vietnamese cuisine. The good news is its replacement by the Laos-leaning Jeow, a switch-out that has happened so fast the sign for Anchovy still hangs from the Bridge Road awning. Take it as a signal that Jeow is about evolution not revolution – a step to the right to zero in on flavours that have flitted through Le’s menus for the past seven years. So. Blood sausage out; steamed tapioca pearl dumplings in. A controlled exercise in textural shock, the gummy orbs give way to innards of Jerusalem artichoke, cashews and salted turnip, with the outer wrapping of crisp lettuce leaves adding their own crisp oomph.  You’re likely to find some familiarity here. Fish cakes stuffed with lemongrass. Slivers of fried pigs’ ear with a black vinegar and chilli dipping sauce giving off perfect bar snack vibes. A scampi, split and waved somewhere near a grill so the sweet flesh retains its gelatinous gorgeousness, with a zesty green smoosh of chilli, coriander and lime. You’ll want to get down with the laap, the chilli heat-packing national dish of Laos that Le constructs with the aspirational building blocks of Warialda beef and tripe, or Murray cod and smoked eggplant. Extra points for authenticity if you consume it with a side of the sticky rice (pro tip: do) and eat with your hands. Another palate party comes in the form of the crisp rice salad known as nam khao, with crisp nubbles of ferment

The bad news for Sydney is that Sepia’s closing. The good news for Melbourne is that Sepia’s Martin Benn and Vicki Wild will be moving south next year to join serial restaurateur Chris Lucas in a new venture. Speculation has been rife for some time that the acclaimed five-star fine diner at the top of the Sydney dining tree would be moving, and possibly changing its focus, with the lease soon to expire on its Sussex Street home.   However, Benn and Wild, who opened their restaurant eight years ago, pulled out a wildcard with the Lucas union, which will see them move to Melbourne ahead of the projected opening in the second half of next year of a venture that has yet to find a name, or a home. “The ball really starts rolling at the end of the year,” says Lucas, founder and owner of The Lucas Group, which operates Melbourne hotspots Chin Chin, Hawker Hall, Baby and Kong and is in the latter stages of opening the ambitious, multi-tiered Japanese restaurant Kisume on Flinders Lane next month. It will also open Chin Chin Sydney in Surry Hills’ 100-year-old Griffiths Teas building in August.  “We’re busily running around looking for the right site. The CBD at this stage is the obvious choice.” The new venture will not simply be Sepia Mark II, although it will be the home of adventurous dining. “One of the things that brought us together is that restaurateurs and chefs are very like minded. I want to keep building amazing restaurants, he wants to keep being creative. Martin, like an

The bad news for Sydney is that Sepia’s closing. The good news for Melbourne is that Sepia’s Martin Benn and Vicki Wild will be moving south next year to join serial restaurateur Chris Lucas in a new venture. Speculation has been rife for some time that the acclaimed five-star fine diner at the top of the Sydney dining tree would be moving, and possibly changing its focus, with the lease soon to expire on its Sussex Street home.   However, Benn and Wild, who opened their restaurant eight years ago, pulled out a wildcard with the Lucas union, which will see them move to Melbourne ahead of the projected opening in the second half of next year of a venture that has yet to find a name, or a home. “The ball really starts rolling at the end of the year,” says Lucas, founder and owner of The Lucas Group, which operates Melbourne hotspots Chin Chin, Hawker Hall, Baby and Kong and is in the latter stages of opening the ambitious, multi-tiered Japanese restaurant Kisume on Flinders Lane next month. It will also open Chin Chin Sydney in Surry Hills’ 100-year-old Griffiths Teas building in August.  “We’re busily running around looking for the right site. The CBD at this stage is the obvious choice.” The new venture will not simply be Sepia Mark II, although it will be the home of adventurous dining. “One of the things that brought us together is that restaurateurs and chefs are very like minded. I want to keep building amazing restaurants, he wants to keep being creative. Martin, like an