The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Rare Hare
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Rank 1. Doot Doot Doot
Modern Australian
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Rank 2. Rare Hare
Modern Australian
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Rank 3. Port Phillip Estate Dining Room
Modern Australian
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Rank 4. Polperro Restaurant
Modern Australian
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Rank 5. Laura
Modern Australian
Sea urchin mousse arrives before flambéed rock lobster, which tells you most of what you need to know about Laura. It's a fine dining destination on the Mornington Peninsula, set among a vineyard and sculpture park with Western Port in the near distance. The menu takes its cues from the surrounding landscape, the wine list goes everywhere, and the service is the kind that makes a long lunch feel like the only reasonable use of a day. Three Chef Hats from the Australian Good Food Guide.
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Rank 6. Paringa Estate
Modern Australian
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Rank 7. Pt. Leo Restaurant
Modern Australian
Floor-to-ceiling windows frame a sculpture park rolling down toward Western Port, which sets up the dining room's whole argument before the menu arrives. This is a Modern Australian à la carte restaurant on the Mornington Peninsula, with a wine list drawn entirely from Victorian producers. The kitchen leans into local produce, and the service team seems to genuinely enjoy explaining what's on the plate, which is rarer than it should be.
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Rank 8. The Dining Room at Lancemore Lindenderry Red Hill
Modern Australian New American
Vineyard views through the dining room windows mean you're watching what's on your plate grow a few hundred metres away. This is a formal, sit-down restaurant on the Mornington Peninsula doing European-leaning seasonal cooking with a two Chef Hat nod from the Australian Good Food Guide. The wine list leans heavily into the estate's own bottles, which is either charming or convenient depending on how you feel about that sort of thing.
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Rank 10. Montalto
Modern Australian
Floor-to-ceiling glass frames the Red Hill vineyard and, on a clear day, Western Port beyond, which sets the tone for what Montalto is: a winery restaurant where the estate gardens supply the kitchen and the wood-fire grill does the heavy lifting. The menu shifts with the seasons and is designed to share, arriving in courses. Matt Wilkinson shapes the culinary direction. The Australian Good Food Guide awards it a Chef Hat.
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Rank 12. Ten Minutes by Tractor - Restaurant
Modern Australian
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Rank 13. Barmah Park Restaurant & Cellar Door
Modern New American
Vineyard views stretch out from the dining room at this cellar-door restaurant on the Mornington Peninsula, where the wine list draws from grapes grown on the property itself. The kitchen runs a modern Australian menu built around estate produce and regional seasonals, the kind of place where the sourcing conversation happens before you've ordered. An Australian Good Food Guide One Chef Hat sits on the record.
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Rank 14. Moke Dining
Modern Australian
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Rank 15. Cape
Modern Australian
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Rank 16. Barragunda Dining
Modern Australian
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Rank 17. O.MY Restaurant & Bar
Modern Australian
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Rank 18. Bottarga
Italian
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Rank 19. 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.
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Rank 20. Tulum Restaurant
Turkish
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Rank 21. Amaru
Modern Australian
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Rank 22. Donovans
Modern Australian
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Rank 24. UMINONO
Japanese
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Rank 25. 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.
- World's 101 Best #29 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats
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Rank 27. AOI.TSUKI.
Japanese
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Rank 28. 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.
- World's 101 Best #79 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat
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Rank 29. Atta Restaurant
Indian
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Rank 31. Bar Carolina
Italian
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Rank 32. Bacash
Modern Australian
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Rank 34. CHAE
Korean
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Rank 36. Minamishima
Omakase Japanese
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Rank 37. Sogumm
Korean
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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.
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Rank 39. Gimlet at Cavendish House
European
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.
- World's 101 Best #62 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Restaurant Bar – APAC
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Rank 40. Clover
Modern Australian
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Rank 41. Komeyui Restaurant
Japanese
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.
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Rank 42. Tomo-An
Japanese
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Rank 43. Vue de Monde
Modern Australian
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Rank 44. SUSHI ON
Japanese
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Rank 45. Victor Churchill
Steakhouse
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.
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Rank 46. Anchovy
Vietnamese
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Rank 47. Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne
Modern Australian
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Rank 48. From Here by Mike
Modern Australian
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Rank 49. Yiaga
Modern Australian
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Rank 50. Warabi
Japanese
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Rank 51. 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.
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Rank 52. Freyja
Modern Australian
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Rank 53. Kisume
Japanese
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Rank 54. MoVida Aqui
Spanish
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Rank 55. Lee Ho Fook
Chinese
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Rank 56. Ishizuka
Kaiseki Japanese
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Rank 57. Reine & La Rue
French
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Rank 58. Maha Restaurant
Middle Eastern
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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.
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Rank 60. Harriot
French
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Rank 62. Society
Modern Australian
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Rank 63. Nomad Melbourne
Modern Australian
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Rank 66. Cecconi's
Italian
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Rank 67. Cumulus Inc.
Modern Australian
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Rank 69. Marmelo
Portuguese
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Rank 70. Doju
Korean
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Rank 71. Di Stasio Citta
Italian
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Rank 72. Philippe
French
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Rank 73. 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.
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Rank 74. Flower Drum
Cantonese
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.
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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.
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Rank 77. Farmer's Daughters
Modern Australian
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Rank 78. Il Bacaro
Venetian
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.
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Rank 79. 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.
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Rank 80. Restaurant Gaea
Modern Australian
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Rank 81. Embla
Modern Australian
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Rank 82. IDES
Modern Australian
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Rank 83. Circl Wine House
Modern Australian
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Rank 84. Bar Lourinha
Spanish
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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.
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Rank 86. Sachi Japanese Restaurant
Japanese
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.
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Rank 87. Serai
Filipino
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Rank 88. Tipo 00
Italian
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Rank 89. Osteria Ilaria
Italian
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Rank 90. Ronin Omakase
Japanese
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Rank 91. Florentino
Italian
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Rank 92. Caterina's Cucina E Bar
Italian
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Rank 93. Askal
Filipino
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Rank 95. Longrain
Thai
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Rank 96. Saadi
Indian
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Rank 97. Enoteca Boccaccio
Italian
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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.
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Rank 100. Orlo
Mediterranean