Best restaurants
Melbourne's awash with high quality cafes and restaurants, so you're guaranteed to get a great meal. Sometimes you want more than a quick bite to eat and in Melbourne, you're in luck. It's simply the best place to be in Australia for a top table experience. World-class chefs, innovative cuisines, perfectly-matched wines and quirky venues characterise fine dining in Melbourne.
From restaurants awarded hats in The Age Good Food Guide, to those featured on Australian Gourmet Traveller's top 100 Australian restaurants list, with a collection of old favourites and new kids on the block, try the selection below and discover Melbourne's best restaurants.
City
Chef Teage Ezard combines the East and the West with verve and creativity, making this exciting menu a must-try experience for the visiting gourmet.
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Invent a special occasion to get yourself to Flower Drum and dig into the novel Cantonese fare that garnered two more hats in The Age Good Food Guide.
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Traverse the laneways for this jewel in the bluestone. Now prepare for rustic modern European food, an award-winning wine list and great service.
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Modelled on the street kitchens of South-East Asia, Teage Ezard's hip restaurant is less rustic authenticity and more opulent interpretation.
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Owner and executive chef Guy Grossi has created an atmosphere and a menu that is quintessentially Italian but unafraid to be innovative.
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Il Bacaro's the kind of the place that could have opened last week or ten years ago, which it did, and it's served exceptional Italian food since.
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Watch the chefs behind the bar as they artfully slice up tasty morsels, while roaming waiters pour imported Japanese beers or cool, dry sakes.
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Use your elbows to gain the advantage over friends when you tuck into the aromatic Thai sharing plates that have become a Melbourne dining staple.
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Scramble for an adjective to describe Melbourne's stalwart wine bar and you'll end up settling on 'European', before you settle on one more glass.
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Journey to the literal fire at the heart of MoVida and sample the Spanish love of cooking over coals, or a la plancha. Bring your mates for a banquet.
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Assembling the menu for Melbourne's favourite date restaurant, MoVida chef Frank Camorra scoured Spain for the finest bite-size comestibles.
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Start salivating as one of Australia's best chefs makes his first foray into Melbourne on the site of a disused post office in a hotel driveway.
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Remember Philippe Mouchel's take home rotisserie chickens for a lazy weeknight dinner, but don't miss the chance to dine in on the modern French fare.
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Tastefully decorated to create an authentic, old world bodega atmosphere, San Telmo is famous for its imported 2.5-metre parilla (charcoal grill).
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Cross your fingers that Sarti chef Riccardo Momesso's been hunting before your visit, and feast on the beast prepared with Italian-influenced flair.
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Experience the contemporary fusion of Japanese and Australian cuisine at one of Melbourne's most awarded fine-dining restaurants.
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Acquaint yourself with Melbourne's suave, impeccably presented Italian, where Italian classics are reinvented and embellished by a stellar wine list.
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Filling a niche for top-shelf Middle Eastern dining in the city, chef Shane Delia has set up Maha with George Calombaris of The Press Club.
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Your bucket list is not complete without a reference to dining at Vue de Monde at least once, because for once the hype is well and truly worth it.
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Northside
Treat the bar of the laidback Fitzroy eatery like it's your local, then swan into the dining room to feast on perfectly executed Italian classics.
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Since winning 'Best new restaurant of the year' in 2005, the bookings haven't stopped at Ladro. Their rustic pizzas covered in A-list toppings weave...
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Experience the finest local and organic produce in this urban setting. Choose from a range of Mediterranean and 'romantically seasonal' dishes.
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Check out Andrew McConnell's interpretation of Orwell's Moon Under Water, brought to life with perfect execution at the revamped Builders Arms.
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Andrew McConnell's restaurant is stunning, the contemporary cuisine faultless, the wine well matched and the service immaculate. Prepare to be wowed.
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Housed in a Fitzroy terrace, Matteo's is the share-house that grew up and got sophisticated. There's an Asian edge to the fare, and a fine wine list.
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Stroll up to the quiet end of Church Street in Richmond to find this understated gem and treat yourself to a dinner of sublime modern Italian cuisine.
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Take your tastebuds on a tour of north-eastern Thailand via Melbourne's suburbs, or opt for Thai standards plus a host of tantalising desserts.
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Treat yourself to authentic Italian food in the heart of Richmond and get cosy in the award- winning dining room of this converted Victorian hotel.
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Get a dose of old-school hospitality, progressive European flavours and fine Italian wines at this up-to-the-minute Melbourne hotspot.
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Southside
Geoff Lindsay's latest venture and the winner of The Age Good Food Guide's Dish of the Year, Dandelion, is a marvel of modern Asian cuisine.
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Assume the demeanour of a high roller at Crown's riverside seafood emporium and order royal caviar with panache, or just feast on fine fresh fish.
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Head Chef Jake Nicholson takes the best of Victorian produce to create innovative and absorbing dishes, all matched with the finest local wines.
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Put your dinner in the hands of people who know that taste comes first, and feel a tiny bit Mediterranean as you dine on Italian food by the water.
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Book in for an evening of degustation at this multi-award winning Melbourne restaurant. On a budget? Come for the Chef's Table on Tuesday night.
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Discover the magic of St Kilda’s Café di Stasio, from the classic Italian fare and inspired Italian wine list to the bow-tied waiters and white linen.
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Southbank becomes Rive Gauche as you prop up Guillaume's bar with a glass of Champagne or peruse a tight but trusted menu of French classics and wine.
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Feel at home in Jacques Reymond's stately Victorian mansion and match the degustation menu with wines for one of Melbourne's greatest indulgences.
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Bring an appetite for indulgence to Neil Perry's hyped Melbourne foray, with the wines as fine as the pampered meats and the sublime mac and cheese.
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Once you've tried Neil Perry's one-hatted take on Chinese food in the seductive surrounds at Crown you'll find it hard to go back to lemon chicken.
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Discover the definition of beach shack glamour upstairs at the Stokehouse, where a good time is infectious thanks to the vibe and the impeccable food.
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You're supposed to go for the beef at The Point, and it will knock your socks off, so you should make a repeat booking to sample the rest of the menu.
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Get the feeling you're visiting a familiar beachside home at Donovans – of someone who cooks to the level of one hat in the The Age Good Food Guide.
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Feast on a degustation at Koots and evoke the days when a French restaurant signified something special, when the food and service made the occasion.
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Combining retro fittings and modern Mediterranean cuisine, this St Kilda institution is a favourite with locals, celebrities and local celebrities.
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Come for the lobster roll and stay for the Asian-influenced menu with Andrew McConnell's distinctive stamp that won a hat in The Age Good Food Guide.
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