The best restaurants in Melbourne, according to me, don’t always come with a Chef’s Hat (Australia’s equivalent of a Michelin star). I worked in marketing and PR for the hospitality industry in Melbourne for three years (and now do the same, but in New York), so eating at restaurants around the city was as much a personal passion as professional research.

My favourite restaurants in Melbourne range from historic, 100+ year old institutions like O’Connell’s, to game-changing contemporary restaurants that have stood the test of time like Movida, to new kids on the block who are charting their own path, like Atlas Dining.

I’ve handpicked restaurants that I really believe add to the soul of Melbourne, and offer a memorable and genuine dining experience for locals and travelers alike.

Explore More: Melbourne Travel Guide 

Bar Lourinha

Bar Lourinha was the first “good” restaurant I visited in Melbourne, courtesy of my uncles Matt & Thomas, who took me for dinner when I was visiting Melbourne, a couple of years before I moved there. I’ve returned several times since and it never fails to surprise and delight. This tiny Iberian tapas bar has been a mainstay on Little Collins for more than a decade – not an easy feat in Melbourne’s competitive and fickle hospitality landscape. Book a table or try your luck with a walk in for tapas and raciones such as queso san simon & congo potato cigars, spring bay mussels with fino, mojo picon & spicy crumbs and  morcilla & walnut migas.

It’s owned by Chef Matt McConnell, who is one of the three chef-restauranteur McConnell brothers. While his brother Andrew McConnell has more restaurants, a higher profile and is generally more celebrated, Matt’s tiny Little Collins St restaurant is my favourite from their family.

Trattoria Emilia

There is no shortage of great Italian food in Melbourne, but Trattoria Emilia is my absolute favourite. Opened in 2015 by Chef-Owners Francesco Rota and Luca Flammia, Trattoria Emilia is exactly as the name suggests: a trattoria is a slightly more casual and inviting version of a restaurant, and the cuisine focuses on Emilia-Romagna, Italy’s most celebrated food region. It manages to make every meal feel like a special occasion, at the same time as nailing that perfect warm, inviting and unfussy atmosphere that makes you want to linger for hours. In true Melbourne style, this cosy restaurant can be found down a CBD laneway – in Gills Alley off Little Collins Street.

Da Noi

Housed in a narrow Victorian terrace house on South Yarra’s Toorak Road, Da Noi is an elegant and yet homely Sardinian restaurant that is perfect for a special occasion. Chef-Owner Pietro Porcu draws on his childhood growing up on a farm in Sardinia, to inspire his farm-to-table Italian cuisine at Da Noi.The menu changes daily, and you won’t see a menu (unless you ask for the a la carte, few do). Instead, the opt for the tasting menu and wait for what comes out of the kitchen. Most of the produce comes from the family’s farm in Victoria, and you’re in very good hands. This is where my boyfriend and I celebrated when we found out that he had been approved for a transfer to New York City, so Da Noi has a very special place in my heart.

Lesa

Lesa was one of the most anticipated restaurant openings in Melbourne in 2018. It was preceded by it’s wine bar sibling Embla, which won a string of awards when it opened and is widely regarded as one of the best bars in Melbourne. When co-owners Chef Dave Verheul and restaurateur Christian McCabe announced they were opening a restauran upstairs, Melbourne waited with baited breath. Whereas Embla is noisy and buzzy and busy, Lesa is quiet, elegant and relaxed. It bucks a few major Melbourne dining trends, too. First, rather than hip hop blaring from the speakers, it goes old school with some quiet jazz. Next, save for the bread and the salad, nothing is shared. You’ll wish you weren’t sharing the bread – the two-day potato flatbread comes with a ramekin half filled with pearly macadamia cream, and half with smoked shiitake mushrooms. It’s a modern restaurant, with the atmosphere of a dining room from yesteryear. Lesa serves a four-course tasting menu, with three options for each course. I am still thinking about my dessert, which was cherry four ways.

Osteria Ilaria

Can’t get into Tipo 00? Little sister Osteria Ilaria is much more than just a consolation prize. This stylish Italian restaurant also books out early, but you’ve got a better chance of getting a table, as well as still enjoying a very special meal. The modern Italian restaurant is the second from Executive Chef Andreas Papadakis (ex-Vue de Monde), Luke Skidmore and Alberto Fava, and takes a more open-minded approach to European cuisine, borrowing ideas from here and there, to support it’s solid Italian foundations.

O’Connell’s Centenerary Hotel

O’Connell’s is a gorgeous, historic gastropub in the quiet, leafy backstreets of South Melbourne There are always beautiful, produce-forward dishes for veggie-heavy and pescatarian diners, like me, but my boyfriend and my Dad (and most of Melbourne’s top businessmen) are big fans of their longstanding classics like beef & guinness pie, the veal schnitzel and a variety of steaks and beef sharing boards.  Full disclosure, I used to be the marketing manager for O’Connell’s, but it is genuinely my favourite venue I’ve ever worked with in Melbourne, and will visit every time I’m back in town.

Tokyo Tina

Much more casual than any of the other entries so far on this list, Tokyo Tina is a irreverent, upbeat, loosely Japanese restaurant on Chapel Street in Windsor. The neighbourhood boasts a glut of trendy, modern Asian restaurants, but Tokyo Tina is favourite of them all. The restaurant is part of Commune Group, which own a handful of popular restaurants on Melbourne’s southside, including nearby Hanoi Hannah and wine bar Neptune. Head Chef Sushil Aryal has done stints at Melbourne icons like Cutler & Co and Cumulus Inc, and spent 12 months travelling through 22 countries in search of fresh flavour ideas. Needless to say, it pays off on the plate.

MoVida

MoVida is a Melbourne icon, and is credited with introducing Austalian diners to authentic tapas and raciones since opening in 2003. Barcelona-born, Australian-raised Chef-Owner Frank Camorra has become one of the city’s most celebrated modern chefs, and the restaurant’s popularity has endured to this day, nearly twenty years later – no small feat in a fickle, big-city dining scene. It’s success has led to two additional Movida locations in Melbourne and one in Lorne on the Great Ocean Road. If you’re in Melbourne, you can’t beat the location of the original Movida in graffiti-covered Hosier Lane, the city’s most famous (and tourist-clogged) laneway. The newfound popularity of tapas and raciones also played no small part in driving Melbourne’s obsession with small plates and restaurants tucked away in laneways and alleyways.

Las Tapas

I adore this tiny, neighbourhood Spanish restaurant in St Kilda. Yet another wonderful restaurant introduced to me by my two in-the-know uncles, I’ve had dinner at Las Tapas a few times and love it each and every time. There’s no menu on the tables, but the daily menu is written on the chalkboard above the bar. The owners are Spanish, and it always feels lively and unpretentious, and the food is superb.

Mamasita

Mamasita is often credited as starting the craze for modern Mexican restaurants in Melbourne, and has inspired dozens of imitators since opening in 2010. Argentinian Head Chef Martin Zozaya draws upon his childhood in Mexico and what’s current in the Mexican food scene, to deliver a modern and slightly experimental take on regional Mexican cuisine. My favourite dishes are the street style corn on the cob, the crab & prawn tostaditas and the fish tacos. Mezcaliers (like sommeliers, for mezcal) will happily guide you through their lengthy tequila and mezcal lists, but don’t skip their signature tamarind margarita.

Owners Nick Peters & Matt Lane were among the first to institute a “no bookings” policy, which is now the norm across Melbourne. There’s still a line out the door every night, so put your name down early and then head to a nearby bar to wait it out – if the weather is nice, try the nearby rooftops at Siglo or Imperial Bourke Street. If it is not (and it’s Melbourne, so that’s likely), hole up in cocktail bar Romeo Lane while you wait.

San Telmo

Named after the bohemian barrio in Buenes Aires, San Telmo is a lively and romantic Argentinian steakhouse, tucked away in an alleyway off Little Collins Street. I don’t even eat meat, but I still found so much to love on the menu, especially the selection empanadas and ceviche. The owners, brothers Dave & Mickey Parker and Jason and Renee McConnell, started with San Telmo and have since brought the flavours of other parts of South America to Melbourne with Palermo and Pastuso.

Pastuso

Pastuso comes from the same team as San Telmo, and has a similar upbeat energy and ethos, despite offering a different South American cuisine. Tucked away at the end of famous AC/DC Lane, off Flinders Lane, Pastuso is a gorgeous restaurant that celebrates the food of Peru from the coast, to the mountains, to the jungle. Peruvian-born Executive Chef Alejandro Saravia is widely credited with introducing Peruvian cuisine to Australian dining, and Head Chef Juan Berbeo, has been recognized in a leading newspaper in his native Colombia, as pioneering the cuisine in Australia.

What’s your favourite restaurant in Melbourne? Are any of these restaurants on your list?