These are the restaurants in Melbourne that the major lists rate, plus the local institutions the press keeps returning to, on one map. Filter by list, tap a pin for the details, and follow the links on each card to the award or article behind it.
Key takeaways
- Strongest list standing: Yiaga, Minamishima and Amaru.
- 26 places: 22 from other guides, 4 local institutions.
- Best-covered local institutions: Lune Croissanterie, Pellegrini's Espresso Bar and France-Soir.
- Every award and article is linked on its card, so you can check it yourself before booking.
Places are ordered by list standing, then press coverage. This is not a ranking of our own. Last checked October 26, 2026.
Screenshot of yiaga.au East Melbourne · Contemporary Australian
3 hats · The Age Good Food Guide 2027Restaurant of the Year 2027; Chef of the Year 2027 (Hugh Allen) · The Age Good Food Guide 2027Best New Restaurant · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards 2026Listed in Australia's 100 best restaurants · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2026Hugh Allen's restaurant in a former tea room in the Fitzroy Gardens serves 12 courses of Australian produce. It was the Age Good Food Guide's Restaurant of the Year 2027 and Gourmet Traveller's Best New Restaurant 2026.
Covered by Broadsheet and Gourmet Traveller
Fitzroy Gardens, East Melbourne VIC 3002
Screenshot of minamishima.com.au Richmond, Melbourne · Japanese omakase sushi
3 hats · The Age Good Food Guide 2027Listed in Australia's 100 best restaurants · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 202686.5/100 · La Liste 2026Koichi Minamishima's omakase sushi counter in Richmond, now in its second decade, where he cuts and serves the catch himself. It holds three hats.
Covered by The Age (Good Food), Broadsheet and Gourmet Traveller
4 Lord Street, Richmond VIC 3121Amaru
Armadale, Melbourne · Contemporary Australian tasting menu
3 hats · The Age Good Food Guide 2027Listed in Australia's 100 best restaurants · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 202680/100 · La Liste 2026Clinton McIver's Armadale restaurant serves a set menu of 15-plus dishes built around native ingredients, such as coral trout with green ants. It holds three hats.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Broadsheet
1121 High Street, Armadale VIC 3143
Screenshot of saadimelbourne.com Melbourne CBD · Indian
1 hat · The Age Good Food Guide 2027Best New Talent (Saadi team) · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards 2026Listed in Australia's 100 best restaurants · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2026Saavni Krishnan and her co-chef husband turned their pop-up into a pan-Indian restaurant on Punch Lane, in the former Sunda site. Gourmet Traveller gave the pair its 2026 Best New Talent award.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Broadsheet
18 Punch Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000
Screenshot of zareh.com.au Collingwood, Melbourne · Lebanese, Armenian, Egyptian
Restaurant of the Year (national) and Victoria Restaurant of the Year · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards 20261 hat · The Age Good Food Guide 2027Listed in Australia's 100 best restaurants · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2026Tom Sarafian's Smith Street restaurant draws on Lebanese, Armenian and Egyptian cooking, with a signature hummus topped with spiced prawn and crab. Gourmet Traveller named it Australia's 2026 Restaurant of the Year.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Gourmet Traveller
368 Smith Street, Collingwood VIC 3066
Screenshot of embla.com.au Melbourne CBD · Wine bar, wood-fired
1 hat · The Age Good Food Guide 2027Listed in Australia's 100 best restaurants · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2026Wine bar and restaurant with an open wood-fired kitchen led by Dave Verheul, open until midnight most nights.
Covered by The Age (Good Food), Broadsheet and Gourmet Traveller
122 Russell Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Screenshot of flowerdrum.melbourne Melbourne CBD · Cantonese
2 hats · The Age Good Food Guide 2027Listed in Australia's 100 best restaurants · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2026Cantonese restaurant in a Chinatown lane that has traded for more than 50 years, known for suited waiters, Peking duck pancakes and a long wine list.
Covered by The Age (Good Food), Broadsheet and Gourmet Traveller
17 Market Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000
Screenshot of gimlet.melbourne Melbourne CBD · European
2 hats · The Age Good Food Guide 2027Listed in Australia's 100 best restaurants · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2026Restaurant and bar on the ground floor of 1927-built Cavendish House, open from noon until late, with a classic-meets-contemporary wine list and steaks on most tables.
Covered by The Age (Good Food), Broadsheet and Gourmet Traveller
Cavendish House, 33 Russell Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Screenshot of attica.com.au Ripponlea, Melbourne · Contemporary Australian, native ingredients
Ben Shewry's Ripponlea restaurant serves a set menu of a dozen-plus courses built on First Nations ingredients, from emu to Kakadu plum.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Broadsheet
74 Glen Eira Road, Ripponlea VIC 3185
Screenshot of cutlerandco.com.au Fitzroy, Melbourne · Contemporary Australian
Andrew McConnell's Gertrude Street flagship runs across three dining rooms, with dishes such as cioppino with crab toast and a floating island dessert.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Broadsheet
55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Screenshot of ettadining.com.au Brunswick East, Melbourne · Contemporary, Chinese-Malaysian influences
1 hat · The Age Good Food Guide 2027Listed in Australia's 100 best restaurants · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2026Under chef Lorcan Kan, this Brunswick East restaurant cooks with wood fire, ferments and chilli, using Chinese-Malaysian traditions as a starting point.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Broadsheet
60 Lygon Street, Brunswick East VIC 3057
Screenshot of restaurantnavi.com.au Yarraville, Melbourne · Contemporary tasting menu
2 hats · The Age Good Food Guide 2027Listed in Australia's 100 best restaurants · Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2026Julian Hills' tasting-menu restaurant in Yarraville makes wide use of native produce; his black garlic and salmon roe macaron has opened the meal since 2018.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Broadsheet
83B Gamon Street, Yarraville VIC 3013
Screenshot of shop225.com.au Pascoe Vale South, Melbourne · Wood-fired pizza, gluten-free
Lorenzo Tron's neighbourhood pizzeria was the first in Australia to be gluten-free accredited by Coeliac Australia, per Time Out, and uses a 72-hour rested dough in a wood-fired oven. It placed 42nd on 50 Top Pizza World 2026.
Covered by Time Out Melbourne and Time Out Australia
225 Melville Road, Pascoe Vale South VIC 3044
Screenshot of vuedemonde.com.au Melbourne CBD · Contemporary Australian
Fine diner high in the Rialto tower, now led by chef Hugh Allen, with native ingredients such as kangaroo on the tasting menu and a balcony view of the city. It holds three hats.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Broadsheet
Rialto, 525 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Screenshot of 48h.com.au Elsternwick, Melbourne · Neapolitan pizza and gnocchi
Pizzeria named for the 48 hours its dough takes to rise, with sites in Elsternwick and South Yarra per Time Out; it also serves gnocchi, including gluten-free versions.
Covered by Time Out Melbourne
15 Gordon Street, Elsternwick VIC 3185
Screenshot of cumulusinc.com.au Melbourne CBD · Contemporary all-day
One of Melbourne's first wine-bar-restaurants, per the Good Food Guide, now cooking under head chef Hannah Holleran with dishes such as tuna tartare over goat's curd.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Broadsheet
45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000
Screenshot of distasio.com.au Melbourne CBD · Italian
Gallery-like Italian dining room on Spring Street with video art by Shaun Gladwell, a long marble bar and dishes such as prawn pasta and zabaglione with brioche.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Broadsheet
45 Spring Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Screenshot of leehofook.com.au Melbourne CBD · Modern Chinese
Victor Liong's modern Chinese restaurant moved from Smith Street to a CBD laneway more than a decade into its run; dishes include prawn toast with sea urchin and sweet and sour pork with lychees.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Broadsheet
11-15 Duckboard Place, Melbourne VIC 3000
Screenshot of movida.com.au Melbourne CBD · Spanish tapas
Spanish restaurant in Hosier Lane where the bar suits a glass and tapas, such as single anchovy croutons with smoked tomato sorbet, and longer meals run to bomba rice.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Broadsheet
1 Hosier Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000
Screenshot of supernormal.net.au Melbourne CBD · Pan-Asian
Group-friendly Asian restaurant on Flinders Lane with an open kitchen; its New England lobster roll has been on the menu for 12 years, per the Good Food Guide.
Covered by The Age (Good Food) and Broadsheet
180 Flinders Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000Florentino
Melbourne
La Liste places it in its Top 1000 restaurants worldwide, with a score of 75.
80 Bourke St, Melbourne, 3000 MelbourneMarmelo
Melbourne
La Liste places it in its Top 1000 restaurants worldwide, with a score of 80.5.
Ground Floor/130 Russell St, Melbourne, 3000 Melbourne
Screenshot of lunecroissanterie.com Fitzroy, Melbourne · Croissant bakery
Local institutionKate Reid's croissant bakery, started in Elwood in 2012, now bakes in a climate-controlled glass cube inside a Fitzroy warehouse. A 2016 New York Times piece said its butter croissant may be the finest in the world, as reported by ABC News and Broadsheet.
Covered by Broadsheet, Time Out Melbourne and ABC News
119 Rose Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065Pellegrini's Espresso Bar
Melbourne CBD · Italian espresso bar
Local institutionEspresso bar serving Italian food and coffee since 1954, little changed since the 1950s with its heritage-listed neon sign, red vinyl stools and chequerboard floor, per Broadsheet.
Covered by Broadsheet, Time Out Melbourne and SBS Food
66 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Screenshot of france-soir.com.au South Yarra, Melbourne · French bistro
Local institutionJean-Paul Prunetti's French bistro has traded on Toorak Road since 1986, and Broadsheet calls it one of the more important dining rooms in Melbourne.
Covered by Time Out Melbourne and Broadsheet
11 Toorak Road, South Yarra VIC 3141
Screenshot of shandongmama.com.au Melbourne CBD · Shandong dumplings
Local institutionYing Hou and her mother Meiyan Wang serve recipes from Yantai on the Shandong Peninsula in a Bourke Street arcade, with mackerel dumplings made from scratch as the signature.
Covered by Time Out Melbourne and Broadsheet
Shop 7, Mid City Arcade, 200 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Booking tables in Australia?
Reservations, maps and a ride back to the hotel all need data. The Australia eSIM installs before you fly, so you land already connected.
Get the Australia eSIMHow we chose these restaurants
A place gets in one of two ways. It holds an award in a 2024, 2025 or 2026 edition of a recognised list, or it is a local institution that at least two established outlets have covered. We do not rank, and nothing here is paid for. The order on the page follows list standing first, then press coverage. The full method is in the note at the end.
More food guides
- Best restaurants in Australia, every city on one map
- Best restaurants in Sydney
- The best restaurants around the world, every country in this series
Frequently asked questions
What is the best restaurant in Melbourne?+
What are the most famous local restaurants in Melbourne?+
Is this a ranking?+
Methodology
How we did this comparison
This guide aggregates; it does not rank. A restaurant in Melbourne is included if it holds a place on a recognised list in a 2024, 2025 or 2026 edition (The Age Good Food Guide 2027, Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards 2026, Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2026, 50 Top Pizza World 2026, 50 Top Pizza Asia-Pacific 2026 and La Liste 2026), linked to the list publisher's own page, or if it is a local institution covered by at least two established outlets, each linked on its card. A single blog post or a review-site rating is not enough.
Places are ordered by list standing (MICHELIN stars, 50 Best, Tabelog Gold and Black Pearl three diamonds first, then other awards and Bib Gourmand), then by how much press they have. Summaries paraphrase the cited sources. Map positions come from OpenStreetMap. Price bands run from $ (casual) to $$$$ (tasting-menu fine dining) and are our reading of each place's menus and sources; places without one had no price source.
Every entry was checked against its sources on 26 October 2026. Lists change every year and restaurants close, so check opening days and book directly before you travel.
Sources & references
We verify carrier and regulator pricing directly from primary sources before publishing. Pricing is current as of the article's last update — always confirm rates on the carrier's site before you travel.
About the author
Lotsotravel Team
The Lotsotravel editorial team writes hands-on guides for international travelers. We test eSIMs on real devices in real destinations, monitor Canadian and U.S. carrier pricing weekly, and compare coverage across local network partners before we recommend a plan. Every comparison post is updated when carriers change their rates so the numbers you read here match what you would pay today.
Last updated: October 26, 2026