The Age Good Food Guide 2017: Victoria's top 10 hot and new bars, cafes and restaurants
Here are 10 of the best new restaurants to open in Melbourne this year, ranging from a bakery with queues out the door to the venture by an established name.
Bar Liberty
Melbourne's answer to Bar Brose, it's ex-Attica sommeliers pouring frontier wines, beers and spirits alongside a hot mix of dishes from Rockwell & Sons chef Casey Wall. Come on Sunday afternoons, when light pours over the minimalist room, to nerd out over bottles of Jura chardonnay and chicken skin crackling BLTs.
234 Johnston Street, Fitzroy, barliberty.com
Embla
The street-level wine bar is just stage one of the Town Mouse team's Russell Street project, but the wood and bronze room with ringside seats to the wood-fired kitchen already pulls huge crowds for chef Dave Verheul's wood-roasted chicken and Christian McCabe's idiosyncratic wine list.
122 Russell Street, Melbourne, 03 9654 5923, embla.com.au
French Saloon
It's the boho loft from a New York rom-com: all big windows, whitewashed walls and geranium-ringed terrace. The bistro menu favours freshness over Frenchness: opened-to-order oysters, butcher's cut steak with fat onion rings, and wines both edgy and stalwart.
380–384 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, 03 9600 2142, frenchsaloon.com
Heartbreaker
Masterminded by the Everleigh crew, this shambolic dive is like an uptown heiress slumming it at a downtown dive. The jukebox blasts Bowie, vinyl booths are bathed in red neon, and the drinks are shots, beers or the Everleigh's signature bottled cocktails.
234a Russell Street, Melbourne, 03 9041 0856, heartbreakerbar.com.au
Higher Ground
Even with 250 seats there's a line every lunchtime at this latest inner-city cafe by the team behind Top Paddock and the Kettle Black. Thankfully the hype is worth it for everything from their berkshire bacon sandwich to salty roasted sprouts as a drinking snack.
650 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, 03 8899 6219, highergroundmelbourne.com.au
Igni
It's fine dining at its most roll-with-it in the backstreets of Geelong, from the wines delivered by gun hospitality vets to the food. There's no menu. Just chef Aaron Turner (of much-missed Loam) serving a mystery mix of incredible ingredients all touched by his ironbark-fuelled grill.
2 Ryan Place, Geelong, 03 5222 2266, restaurantigni.com
Lune Croissanterie
Turns out, a background in aerospace engineering makes you a dab hand at pastry science. There's always a queue, starting at dawn, for Kate Reid's cult croissants and their almond-sprayed kin. The other option is book one of the nine seats for a $50 breakfast pastry deg.
119 Rose Street, Fitzroy, lunecroissanterie.com
Marion
Andrew McConnell's glowing white-and-tan wine bar is excellent. What a shock. Sommelier Liam O'Brien's award-winning list is natural, progressive, but classic too, while the kitchen serves a menu with the same produce-driven bent as Cutler & Co next door – plates of padron peppers, crab and avruga on rye crisps and a rosy steak.
53 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, 03 9419 6262, marionwine.com.au
Oter
Here in the Flinders Lane basement that once housed Japanese restaurant Yu-u, French-born chef Florent Gerardin is bringing back sexy symmetrical tarts and veal head terrines, but also grilling prawns on a Japanese binchotan grill. Mod-French at its finest, scythed by crazy exciting (and scary expensive) wines selected by Champagne Taittinger Sommelier of the Year Jordan Marr.
Basement, 137 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, oter.com.au
Soi 38
The full-on funk of real Thai boat noodles has found a place in a carpark in the CBD serving braised duck, pork, beef or tom yum bowls (pictured above) either wet or dry with your choice of egg or rice noodles.
38 McIlwraith Place, Melbourne, soi38.com
The Age Good Food Guide 2017 is on sale in newsagents and bookstores for $14.99 with The Age (usually $24.99), while stocks last. All book purchases receive free access to the new Good Food app.
Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.
Sign up- More:
- Good Food Guide