Bluestone Restaurant

With its heritage-listed building and rough-hewn bluestone walls, this is one of Melbourne's enduring business eateries by day. The decor, with heavy gilt mirrors, has changed little in decades, but not so the menu. Chef Cody Cunningham has brought new geographies and vegetarian adventures to a menu that balances well-teamed contrasts. Alongside Hopkins River eye-fillet steak with goat's camembert butter you might find entrees like a sleek tuna tataki enlivened by wasabi emulsion and a gentle seaweed salad. You'll also find the signature dish of dill-and-parmesan-crusted baked Hervey Bay scallops; long-standing regulars demand they remain a menu fixture. Mains may be a sumac-dressed lamb rump uplifted by soft turmeric labna, or the ever-changing vegetarian tasting plate where you might find a vegan tagine, a pumpkin pastie or vegetable empanada. Dessert may be a rich, dense chocolate tart. And, in the bar downstairs there's more broad geography represented in tapas and pizza.