AÑADA BAR & RESTAURANT
197 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy, Victoria 3065 Wemail the restaurant contact only not for bookings T +61 3 9415 6101 OPEN 6.00pm till late 7 days Read their full review
Bar Lourinhã
37 Little Collins Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000 Wwww.barlourinha.com.au Euse the email form on their web site T +61 03 9663 7890 OPEN 12.00 noon – 11.00 pm, Monday to Wednesday
12 noon – 1.00 am, Thursday to Friday
4.00 pm – 1.00 am Saturday
This is a great little restaurant; vibrant a little cheeky and fun this young
ownership team have managed to get the tone just right. As for getting the food
just right, Matthew McConnell is tops. Read
the full review
Café Di Stasio
31a Fitzroy Street St Kilda Victoira 3182 t +61 3 9525 3999
When the best home–cook you know (and the most pernickety diner
we know) rates a restaurant as his favourite in Melbourne you have
to sit up and take notice – we also particularly like the philosophy ’if
a chef can’t make something from the bones he shouldn’t
be working for us’. This is old fashioned Italian cuisine,
run in the true Italian manner with the patron very often present,
a wine list to break the bank and male waiters unashamedly flirtatious
regardless of theirs or your sexual preference. Tips must be good,
or perhaps their wait staff appreciate being allowed to play a little,
but most have been working at Di Stasio for years. Note the door
handles, Italian sign language for ’cuckold’.
CITY WINE SHOP
159 Spring Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000 W www.citywineshop.net.au E info@citywineshop.net.au T +61 03 9654 6657 F +61 03 9654 5377 OPEN Monday to Friday 7.00am until late, Saturday and Sunday 9.00am until late. Read their full review
Crystal Jade Restaurant
11 Waratah Place Melbourne Victoria 3000 t +61 3 9639 2633
Famous for its Foie gras
and snow crab this restaurant comes highly recommended by Rockford
Wines’ Grant
Dixon.
CUMULUS INC.
Eating House Bar
45 Flinders Lane
Melbourne Victoria 3000 W
www.cumulusinc.com.au — cool web site with all info but don't be impatient it takes a while to get in! T +61 3 9650 1445 OPEN Monday to Saturday 7.00am to 11.00pm and Saturday 9.00am to 11.00pm — breakfast cuts off at 11.30am (grrr!) but there is food all day and no rules other than that! Read their full review
France–Soir Restaurant
11 Toorak Road South Yarra Victoria 3141 t +61 3 9866 8569 — www.france-soir.com.au
They peel their brains, anyone who peels their brains rates with us.
Old fashioned French with a tome for a wine list, they stay open very
late; we love this restaurant for it’s complete lack of pretension
and one of the most fab wine lists in Australia
I CARUSI II
231 Barkley Street
St Kilda Victoria Australia 3182
W www.icarusiii.com.au T +61 03 9593 6033 bookings and take–away OPEN 7 days from 6pm Read their full review
Longrain Restaurant & Bar
40–44 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000 W
www.longrain.com.au E melbourneinfo@longrain.com.au T +61 3 9671 3151 F +61 3 9671 3152 OPEN Lunch Tuesday to Friday 122 noon till 2.30 pm, dinner 7 days 5.30 pm kitchen cooks late business depending but usually until around 10.00 pm
This barn of a restaurant delivers inexpensive generously portioned Asian cuisine that is basically Thai. If only other franchise restaurants where half this good the world might be a better place. Read the full review
Movida Bar De Tapas and Movida Next Door
1 Hosier Lane, Melbourne Victoria 3000 Wwww.movida.com.au E info@movida.com.au (email bookings not taken) T +61 3 9663 3038 OPEN Movida Bar de Tapas Open daily, noon to late.
Movida Next Door Tuesday to Saturday 5.00 pm to late. Closed
Sunday & Monday. Office open 10 am – 6 pm Monday to Friday
Everyone loves Movida for its lack for formality and devotion to good
food, wine and service. It might be a few tapas and a glass or two
of wine or tackling the entire menu and trying to drink their cellar
dry. Movida Bar De Tapas doesn’t have rules and we just love
it! Read the full review
Pearl
631 – 633 Church Street
Richmond Victoria 3121 W
www.pearlrestaurant.com.au
E
eat@pearlrestaurant.com.au
T +61 3 9421 4599 F +61 3 9421 0908 OPEN Dinner 7 days, lunch Sunday to Friday, bar 7 days 9.00 am till 11.00 pm, brunch Saturday and Sunday
Fabuloso modern cooking with Asian influences and a wine list to die for. Read the full review
Rockpool Bar & Grill
Shop1/ 8 Whiteman Street, Southbank Victoria 3006 (part of the Crown Complex) W
www.rockpoolmelbourne.com E reservations from their web site in form format T +61 3 8648 1900 OPEN Lunch Sunday to Friday 12.00 noon till 3.00 pm, Dinner 7 days 6.00 pm till 11.00 pm
A passion for produce shapes Perry’s restaurants and none more so than
his Melbourne restaurant. Air aged beef is hard to go past because
it is so hard to find and so perfectly cooked here, but make sure to
leave room for their Passionfruit delicious which was sublime. Read the full review
Stokehouse
Upstairs 30 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda Victoria 3182 W
www.stokehouse.com.au E
stokehouse@theprince.com.au T +61 3 9525 5555 F +61 3 9525 5291 OPEN Upstairs 7 days lunch from 12 noon and dinner from 6.00 pm reservations highly recommended weekends, especially public holidays
Anthony Musara is the most under celebrated chef in Melbourne. Stokehouse
might be in need of a revamp but Musara’s food is always wonderful.
Weekends are best avoided too many annoying children in the restaurant.
Read the full review
Vue de Monde
Normanby Chambers
430 Little Collins St
Melbourne VIC 3000 W
www.vuedemonde.com.au refer to web site for opening hours T +61 3 9691 3888
If you don’t love degustation, don’t like formality then
do everyone else trying to get a booking a favour and go somewhere
else. Modern French, intelligent use of molecular cuisine without sacrificing
flavour or texture. We have not tried their other levels of dining
but assume they are approached with the same obsession. Unless you
are at least a booking of six and can explore several bottles allow
the sommelier to match your courses. Food is sometimes challenging
(as one would expect it to be), but always executed with great skill
and intelligence.
Complaints; too much food! Read the full review
april and may feature
Marian Clarkin takes a look at some of the international name chefs that took part in the recent
Melbourne Food and Wine Festival click here
wireless internet
If you’re looking to collect your email and get pissed at exorbitant hotel charges for Internet, there is free wireless access and plenty of spots for coffee or a drink while you collect and send your emails in the central part of Federation Square.
One of our number was just ever so slightly hungover, so we had great well–priced hamburgers and beers and sparkling wines within the wireless zone at Beer DeLuxe
We also loved a little rest in the free deck chairs dotted around the square — what a cool idea and so clearly enjoyed by northern European tourists basking in the warmth of the sunshine.
Drinks The Melbourne Supper Club and Bar
161 Spring Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 t +61 3 9654 6300
The smoking Nazis have had their way and somehow the Melbourne Supper
Club isn’t just quite the same without the fragrance of those
big fat Cuban cigars. The Australian non-smoking rules have seen the
invention of outside drinking spots open and the roof of the Supper
Club now hosts a cute little bar were fags can be consumed. Bound to
be packed in summer, even in winter with their heating it is very comfortable
and of course packed. We never go to Melbourne without visiting the
supper club, but try to stage out visits mid-week when it is much easier
to get in the door.
Tony Starr’s Kitten Club
Level 1 267 Little Collins Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 t +61 3 9650 2448 —
www.kittenclub.com.au
This is a cool dude 60s bar and dining, even Tony Starr wears retro
gear you’ll want to rip from his body and adorn your own with…..fun!
We’re
mad about Melbourne
Certainly
it does not have the brazen showgirl beauty of Sydney but there is
a pulsing beating heart in Melbourne that is as exciting and vibrant
as some of our favourite international cities. There are wine lists
to die for and some of the most intelligent and interesting cooking
in Australia today. Great galleries and a tram service that gets you
just about anywhere within the city. Good beach side and docklands
locations, great accommodation that doesn’t
break the bank. Part of this cultural diversity can be directly attributed
to migration. The early Chinese migration brought about by the gold
rush means that Australian Chinese are among the oldest generations
of Australians. Chinese food in Melbourne encompasses a depth and breadth
that is really worth exploring from the less refined but good cheap
food in China town to those high–flying establishments serving
Chinese haute cuisine. The acknowledged financial center of Australia
has meant Melbourne has always had restaurants with incredible wine
cellars and a depth of recklessness about the spend in Melbourne’s
best restaurants.
A new generation not comfortable with formal surroundings might have
changed the dining experience to less formal circumstances but they
have not tolerated a quality drop or a demeaned wine list.
The big spend is there for the taking but we feel our recommendations
utterly rewarding.
BYO is an anathema to most tourists
but means ’bring your own’ wine and whilst it can be found throughout Australia and great restaurants throughout the world will always accommodate special bottles from private cellars, BYO is something peculiar to Melbourne where there is an abundance of good BYO restaurants and cafés.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper
The European Restaurant
161 Spring Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 t +61 3 9654 0811
The European is an institution for good reason. One of the first Italian
imports into Australia it has maintained the standard since for ever
and probably has the widest age demographics of any Melbourne eating
establishment. Coffee is (maybe) the best in Australia, wine list fab,
food old–fashioned Italian. Read the full review
