The 100 Best Places to Eat and Drink in Melbourne

1. The 50 #19 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · International Bartender of the Year · Rob Libecans
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Bar Team

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.

1. World's 101 Best #62 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Tucked into a Melbourne shopping complex in a way that makes passersby do a double-take, Byrdi is a cocktail bar built around seasonality and local ingredients handled with the kind of precision that blurs the line between bar and kitchen lab. The team behind Singapore's Operation Dagger runs the show, and the drinks follow an almost culinary logic. It landed on the World's 50 Best Bars list, which tells you the curious head-twist is worth acting on.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The 50 #91 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – APAC

Champagne sabrage lessons are on the curriculum at this quietly chic Fitzroy wine bar, which says something about the crowd's commitment. The wine list is the real point, organized by style and leaning into macerated whites, orange wines, and chilled reds alongside the expected classics. The cocktail list is small and a little kooky, which is exactly right. Everything, down to the coffee beans, is sourced with the kind of care that borders on obsessive.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

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.

1. World's 101 Best #29 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

Raw plaster walls, hand-thrown ceramics, and aged timber floors set a quietly considered scene in this upscale tasting menu restaurant on High Street. Clinton McIver, formerly of Vue de Monde, builds long menus around texture and geography as much as flavor. The Sensory Menu is the full journey; a shorter lunch version exists for the commitment-averse. The kind of room where the lighting is obviously not an afterthought.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 19/20 · Four Chef Hats
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

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.

1. World's 101 Best #79 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

Twelve seats at a glossy wooden counter, and every one of them faces Koichi Minamishima like front row at a recital. This is an omakase sushi restaurant in a Richmond backstreet that has no interest in announcing itself. The chef trained through Japan's rigid kitchen hierarchy before bringing his shokunin philosophy, that relentless pursuit of craft, south. The room is quiet and focused in the way that tends to make people lower their voices without being asked.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 18/20 · Four Chef Hats
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Floor 55 of the Rialto Towers, with views stretching from the Docklands to the Dandenongs, and the interior lined in kangaroo leather and local stone. Vue de Monde is a fine dining tasting menu restaurant where the French technique that built its reputation has given way to something more distinctly Australian: macadamia, kelp, marron, Tasmanian mountain pepper. The room is theatrical enough that you'll want to dress for it.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 18/20 · Four Chef Hats
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 17/20 · Three Chef Hats
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Australian Good Food Guide 16/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 16/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 16/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 17/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 16/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat
2. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 17/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 17/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 17/20 · Three Chef Hats

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

The art on the walls at Di Stasio Città isn't decoration; it's the whole argument. This upscale Italian restaurant in the CBD is a personal project from the Di Stasio family, who have been a fixture in Melbourne's dining scene for decades, filtering Venetian cooking through something distinctly Australian. The room has a museum quality that makes you sit up straighter, and the food meets it there.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

Bare timber walls and a cellar curated by an Australian winemaker and a French natural wine specialist set the tone at this wine-forward bar and kitchen in Melbourne's CBD. The list wanders freely from Spanish cava to Mornington Peninsula bottles that rarely leave the maker's circle of friends. The kitchen runs on flame and ferment, small plates that earn their keep alongside a glass. Bookings are taken for lunch, which is worth knowing before you show up hoping for a table.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

Terrazzo tabletops and a wood-fired grill anchor this low-key bar à vins on Lygon Street, where the kitchen pulls from Chinese-Malaysian influences to land somewhere genuinely its own. The menu moves between Cantonese-style barbecue and chilli oil desserts without breaking a sweat, and the wine list rewards wandering. The kind of neighborhood restaurant everyone claims as their local, whether or not they live nearby.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat