The Best Restaurants In Melbourne To Try In 2022

Not that the gracious host won't seat you if you're late, or that anyone will lay the guilt on you for arriving on time. The staff here wear hospitality like a second skin, and you will feel comfortable and perfectly well cared for throughout your visit, no matter what time it is. You should do this because it is pleasant to relax in the sun-drenched room drinking extremely good wine in a comfortable chair and imagine yourself to be Brooke Astor, or Gloria Vanderbilt, or some fine dining sort of fabulously rich and glamorous person. Acclaimed chef Tomotaka Ishizuka’s ultra exclusive, hidden basement restaurant embodies the ultra-seasonal ‘kaiseki’ style of Japanese dining. Seating just 16 guests, everyone is served an 11-dish tasting menu displaying luxe ingredients, exceptional technique, and wow-inducing plating. Complex yet restrained dishes are a masterclass in Japanese perfectionism, changing day by day in accordance with the freshest produce on offer.
Located strategically on Spring Street, it’s become a fast favourite for long, boozy business lunches and after work mischief. A secret within Melbourne’s city centre, Ishizuka offers a refined kaiseki experience, reflecting the pinnacle of fine dining in an intimate, subterranean restaurant space. Epocha’s head chef is a European born and trained food preparation specialist.

Kazuki-san remains executive chef but has stepped onto the floor, mostly leaving kitchen duties to head chef Anthony Hammel, whose mentee status to Mark Best can be seen in the precise approach to the food. A “make everything count” ethos means even two-leaf chicory garnish to a nicely gamey slice of aged duck breast with shiitakes, radicchio and black garlic is there for its bitterness and not just its pretty red-stemmed green flourish. We are a European-inspired restaurant in Carlton serving exquisite food. Our menu is a unique mixture of Greek, Spanish, French, Italian and English influences.
Renee then progressed to Chef De Cuisine in a kitchen of 50 chefs at the Perth Convention Centre. A night at Amaru starts at 14 courses and $250, but at its casual sibling Auterra, you can call in for a prawn and kimchi sandwich and a glass of something fabulous and French for under $40. Chef and owner of both venues, Clinton McIver, applies the same dedication and eye for quality to snacks as he does to tweezered plates, so there are no losers. This once-esoteric fine diner has a more approachable format under executive chef Elijah Holland. It’s serving chic, accessible food that defies any one cultural influence. Nobuyuki Matsuhisa is the highly acclaimed and influential chef of Nobu restaurants, master of modern and traditional Japanese cuisine.

Located at the end of Station Pier in Port Melbourne, D’Lish Fish is arguably one of the city’s best fish and chips venues. Serving fish and chips, burgers and souvlaki, this little shop offers a ... Fitzroy’s, Young Bloods Diner offers a delicious range of fine food, coffee and cocktails.
Gimlet at Cavendish House is like stepping back into a bygone era. Sitting in the middle of the CBD on Russell Street, the charmful space has a classical art-deco fit with marble tiles, stained wood, and booth dining, harkening back to the early twentieth-century eateries of New York and Paris. Grill Americano is the eloquent bar and diner from Chris Lucas. Inside leather booth seating and an expansive marble bar lead your eyes down to the end of the diner which has been purposefully curated to affect a very New York and Northern Italian- inspired bistro aesthetic.
Thick, chewy, tubular rice cakes are fried before they’re married with a spicy gochujang sauce laced with shredded kale, crispy shallots and grated cheese, which sounds weird on paper, but is moreish in practice. There’s a $40 and $55 banquet option that gets you fed from each part of the menu. The only downside about this dining experience is the moment you have to leave, and walk to your Uber at the less favourable end of Greville Street, you are jarringly recoiled into the disappointing reality that you are not, in fact, in Paris. With heavy red curtains at half-wink and disco on the turntable, sessions stretch long in this low-lit cocoon from reality, famously fashioned from the plush remains of an illicit ‘80s gambling den.

You’d be brave or reckless to risk cooking a $128.80 platter of Kobe beef yourself, with more marbling than the Vatican, but the tradesman’s entrance to beefy good times is no slouch at a more wallet-friendly price of $16.80. It may be intimidating to get on the Eastern Freeway and drive 45 minutes out of the city, only to dine at a mostly self-service, all-Korean restaurant specialising in offal, where English is the second language. Venture outside of the city grid, prepare yourself to try something different and you’ll be rewarded with the perfect simplicity of Korean comfort food.
Chin Chin, we can almost guarantee you’ve seen the queue at the very least. This South-East Asian staple of restaurateur, Chris Lucas has become a landmark of Melbourne dining and its menu has Melburnians and out of towners lining up down Flinders Lane for a seat. Try the crispy skin duck with ginger, coriander, and black vinegar sauce, and the pork roll-ups are a must-have as well.

While the food is undoubtedly excellent, this farmhouse-fantasy is not as easy-going of an experience as it may seem from the outside. Second, the place is a little less willing to cater to dietary requirements as you may expect. But perhaps this is to their credit; at least they are unapologetically committed to their menu being served as it was designed to be eaten. By the glass, you can acquaint yourself with domestic takes on savagnin, an ancient varietal first grown in Australia only ten years ago.
From Gimlets to Americanos, cocktail-inspired-restaurant-names seem to be having a moment right now, and boy are we here for it. Think neon, bright lights, high energy, TikTok reels being made left-right-and- centre, and rotating NFTs. With the Lucas Group behind this joint, and Daniel Wilson running the kitchen, even the chaotic riot of colour and charisma is not enough to steal the spotlight from the food. Upbeat restaurant on Flinders Lane, serving contemporary cuisine with Middle Eastern accents.