Monday, August 31, 2026

The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Bansho


  1. Rank 2. Amaru

    Modern Australian


  2. The glass-walled dry-ageing chambers aren't decoration; they're the thesis statement. Victor Churchill is a steakhouse-meets-butcher-shop in Armadale where premium Australian beef is aged, cut, and grilled with the kind of restraint that lets the meat do the talking. The amber-lit interior runs to polished timber and bronze detailing, and it lands on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list. The wine programme skews deep and serious.


  3. Rank 4. UMINONO

    Japanese


  4. Rank 5. Steer Dining Room

    Modern Australian

    A wagyu-focused fine dining room in South Yarra where the menu is essentially a graduate seminar on breed, marbling, and provenance. Australian and Japanese A5 cuts are aged in-house and cooked over a hibachi grill, served simply enough that the beef does the arguing. The room is warm and understated, the sommelier knows when to stop talking, and the service hits that rare register of polished without stiff. Ranked 29th on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.


  5. The name is a timer: dough ferments for 48 hours before it ever sees a flame, which gives the crust at this Neapolitan-style pizzeria in South Yarra its particular lightness. Exposed red brick, an informal room, and a menu that splits into classic, gourmet, and seasonal pies, including one topped with kangaroo salami and macadamia pesto via a collaboration with Aboriginal producers. Homemade gnocchi round things out. It ranked 93rd on 50 Top Pizza World.





  6. Rank 10. Attica

    Modern Australian

    Ben Shewry's fine-dining room in a quiet Ripponlea street is the kind of place where a spoonful of native honey arrives as a course and somehow that feels completely logical. The degustation menu moves through ingredients most menus have never heard of, leaning hard into Australian native produce and the kind of sourcing that borders on obsessive. It holds three chef hats from the Australian Good Food Guide. Clear your evening and your card.


  7. Rank 11. Matilda 159 Domain

    Modern Australian

    An open fire grill anchors everything at Scott Pickett's modern Australian restaurant in South Yarra, where dry-aged beef meets live coals with the kind of discipline that makes you stop mid-bite. The room runs to warm wood and natural textures, the wine list leans Australian, and the service has that easy confidence that never tips into theatre. Ranked among the World's Best Steak Restaurants, it holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat too.


  8. Rank 12. Minamishima

    Omakase Japanese




  9. Andrew McConnell's fine dining room inside the grand Cavendish House on Russell Street turns on an open fire grill and dry-aged Victorian and South Australian beef, which landed Gimlet a spot on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list. The room manages to feel glamorous without feeling stiff, and the wine list reads like someone actually thought about what goes with the food rather than just buying everything.



  10. Rank 17. Clover

    Modern Australian


  11. Rank 18. Bacash

    Modern Australian


  12. Rank 19. Donovans

    Modern Australian


  13. Rank 20. Anchovy

    Vietnamese



  14. Rank 22. Yiaga

    Modern Australian



  15. Rank 24. Vue de Monde

    Modern Australian



  16. Rank 26. IDES

    Modern Australian


  17. Rank 27. SUSHI ON

    Japanese


  18. Rank 28. Restaurant Gaea

    Modern Australian


  19. Rank 29. Ishizuka

    Kaiseki Japanese



  20. Rank 31. Kisume

    Japanese


  21. Rank 32. Society

    Modern Australian





  22. Rank 36. Cumulus Inc.

    Modern Australian



  23. Rank 38. Akaiito

    Japanese

    A red thread of light twists across the ceiling of this moody Japanese fine dining room on Flinders Lane, its glow picked up by red plates below. Black marble, dark granite, and plush banquettes set the tone for a seasonal Kojin menu that moves between small plates and larger composed dishes. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it two chef hats, and the room feels like it was designed with that ambition in mind from the start.


  24. Flower Drum has been a Melbourne institution long enough that regulars book the same table year after year and the staff already know what they want. It's a formal Cantonese restaurant tucked into a lane off Chinatown, white-tablecloth serious, where the roast duck is carved tableside and the service runs like the dining room has something to prove. The Australian Good Food Guide awards it two Chef Hats, and the room's quiet confidence suggests it has never needed to mention that.




  25. Rank 42. Circl Wine House

    Modern Australian


  26. Rank 43. Marmelo

    Portuguese


  27. A Josper grill anchors the kitchen at this Latin American fire-cooking restaurant near Smith Street, where the smoke and the playlist both run loud. Tasting menus, à la carte, bottomless brunch on weekends, tacos on Tuesdays, Wagyu on Wednesdays: they keep the calendar full enough that regulars barely need to think. The cocktails have attitude to match. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.


  28. Rank 45. Nomad Melbourne

    Modern Australian



  29. Rank 47. Orlo

    Mediterranean


  30. Hand rolls you build yourself, from platters of seafood and Wagyu laid out at your own pace, served on ceramics the kitchen threw in its own pottery studio. Temaki Sushi is an intimate omakase-style hand roll restaurant on Little Collins Street, running a seasonal menu tied to produce from the team's farm in the Dandenong Ranges. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat, which feels about right for a place this quietly sure of itself.



  31. Rank 50. Warabi

    Japanese






  32. Rank 55. Farmer's Daughters

    Modern Australian


  33. A plant-only Sichuan restaurant in an industrial Collingwood space, Shu has been quietly dismantling the assumption that vegan dining means polite and beige. The kitchen leans into the bold, numbing heat of southwest Chinese cooking, and the ten-course degustation does the convincing. There's also a cocktail bar tucked inside, which helps explain the crowd's relaxed commitment to staying a while. The Australian Good Food Guide gives it two Chef Hats.



  34. The charcoal Josper grill does a lot of the heavy lifting at this sleek Japanese restaurant in South Melbourne, where the kitchen leans on technique rather than theatrics. Black leather, potted greenery, and quiet minimalist bones make it feel composed without trying too hard. The chef is from a fishing village in Hokkaido, and that background shows in cooking that takes handmade Japanese food seriously. An Australian Good Food Guide Hat is on the record.



  35. Exposed brick and copper fittings across two levels, with furniture shipped over from India, set the tone at this Indian-inspired bar and restaurant on Gertrude Street. The kitchen moves between tradition and improvisation, pairing familiar subcontinental flavors with the kind of lateral thinking Fitzroy restaurants tend to reward. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat. Go when you want spice with your natural wine.



  36. Rank 62. Freyja

    Modern Australian


  37. Rank 63. Embla

    Modern Australian



  38. White linen and polished service set the tone at this long-running Venetian Italian in the heart of the city, where the cooking stays close to the lagoon, pasta and all. The menu leans into the kind of regional specificity that doesn't need to announce itself, and the room runs with quiet assurance. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.


  39. Rank 66. Maha Restaurant

    Middle Eastern


  40. Rank 67. Askal

    Filipino


  41. A high-glam modern Pan-Asian restaurant on Flinders Lane from the team behind Cha Ching, where share plates move through bold Eastern flavours grounded in local ingredients. The room leans into occasion, so the crowd tends to dress accordingly. Clay pot duck and scallops with coconut bisque show the kitchen's range. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat.



  42. Rank 70. Tomo-An

    Japanese


  43. Rank 71. Saadi

    Indian



  44. Rank 73. Serai

    Filipino



  45. Rank 75. Tipo 00

    Italian




  46. Rank 78. Luci

    Modern Australian

    The art deco bones of Equity Chambers on Bourke Street give this contemporary Australian restaurant more grandeur than it probably needs, and it leans in accordingly. The menu runs Italian-inflected, from breakfast through dinner, with the kind of crowd that treats eggs Benedict as a reasonable way to start a Wednesday. Evenings shift toward crudo and house-made pasta with enough anchovy to mean it.


  47. Dry-aged seafood sits at the center of everything here, a Japanese restaurant on Queen Street where the counter omakase and chirashi bowls draw a quiet, loyal lunch crowd from the surrounding offices. The menu runs from quick sashimi plates to a full omakase sitting, so the room works for both a grabbed weekday meal and something slower. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat, which tracks with the precision on the plate.


  48. Rank 80. Doju

    Korean



  49. Rank 82. From Here by Mike

    Modern Australian


  50. Rank 83. Bar Liberty

    Modern Australian



  51. Rank 85. Zareh

    Middle Eastern


  52. Rank 86. Lagotto

    Italian


  53. Rank 87. Atria

    Modern Australian

    Fire anchors the kitchen at this hotel fine dining room in Melbourne's CBD, where the menu moves through Australian land and sea with the restraint of a place that doesn't need to shout. The produce comes from named farmers and fishermen around the country, and the cooking lets that lineage do the work. An Australian Good Food Guide Two Hat restaurant, with a wine list that takes provenance as seriously as the food does.


  54. Vivid wall murals and a glowing open bar set the mood at this Asian small-plates restaurant inside the Mövenpick Hotel, where the menu wanders from Vietnamese to Sri Lankan without apology. The kitchen leans on traditional techniques while nudging dishes in unexpected directions, beef rendang alongside ceviche with desert lime preserve. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat, and the Vietnamese espresso martini is a reasonable way to start.


  55. Rank 89. Oxi Tea Room

    Modern Australian

    Whole-leaf oolong and black teas sourced from Kenya and Taiwan are the anchor here, not a backdrop to something else. Oxi Tea Room is a high tea spot in Carlton where the tea is treated with the seriousness usually reserved for wine, and the housemade desserts lean into native Australian ingredients, lemon myrtle, green ants, and all. It holds two Chef Hats from the Australian Good Food Guide, which tracks for a room that takes the kettle this seriously.


  56. Rank 90. Kazuki's

    Japanese



  57. Rank 92. Scopri

    Italian


  58. Rank 93. Bistra

    Modern Australian








  59. A converted warehouse down a graffiti-tagged South Melbourne laneway, ST. ALi is a specialty coffee roaster and all-day café that has been part of Melbourne's coffee furniture long enough to have trained half the baristas in the city. The space runs loud and industrial, the roasting operation sits in plain sight, and the breakfast crowd tends to arrive with opinions about extraction. Come for the coffee; the food menu is serious enough to make that harder than it sounds.


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Eat Score

The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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    Drink Score

    The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

      How we score →

      Stay Score

      The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

        How we score →

        Do Score

        The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

          How we score →

          Best Place Score

          The Best Place Score rates the area around a point, not any one place. It runs on the scored places nearby: more good stuff within reach, higher score. If it looks low, we probably haven't found enough critics out here yet.