What to eat in Melbourne: must-try dishes

This Chinatown hidey-hole makes one of the CBD’s best fish dumplings. Shandong Mama’s signature Spanish mackerel dumplings are best boiled (though the fried ones are great too), as the soft mousse-textured filling with ginger and coriander turns pillowy and super light after a flash in boiling water.

Where in Melbourne can you get a premium burger made with a mix of full and half-blood Robbin’s Island wagyu at midnight? Butcher’s Diner, that’s where. This all-day eatery from the Con Christopolous empire focuses on all things meaty, and this particular burger comes with a thick, juicy and cooked-to-medium 160g patty, a slice of aged cheddar, house-made pickles, tomato, iceberg lettuce, onion and just enough sauce and mayo to tie the whole tasty mess together.

The tajarin ragu is one of the Alta Trattoria's one of the restaurant’s most famous dishes and after just one mouthful, it’s not hard to see why. Luscious gamey rabbit and uniformly slim strips of tajarin made with egg yolks are tossed together to create a dish that’s somehow both satiny rich and delicate at the same time. It’s a ten out of ten. 

This outpost of a ramen chain is from Fukuoka chef Kousuke Yoshimura and it holds Huxtaburger-like status among Japanese ex-pats — and for good reason. It only serves up tonkotsu broth, and ou can see the giant vats in the kitchen where bones are cooked down to create a classic collagen-rich soup. It’s creamy and intensely porky without relying on salt as a crutch. If you can handle spice, order the bright red God Fire bowl served with tender pork cha-shu, black fungus and spring onions.

Run by brother-sister team Kate and Cameron Reid, Lune Croissanterie has lines snaking out of the store nearly every day and the pastries usually fly out of the shop by noon. Created in a climate-controlled lab, Lune croissants are almost mathematically perfect: crisp and golden with visible layers of delicate pastry.

There’s only one number you need in Melbourne and it’s 1800 Lasagne. You may already have these local legends on speed dial from their highly popular dial-for-delivery lasagne hotline, which popped off during lockdown. But phone friendships are a thing of the past, and 1800 Lasagne has gone back to slinging its signature slabs from a retro-inspired Italian restaurant and wine bar in Thornbury. 

Sitting pretty on Gertrude Street and named after owner Anthony Brem’s newborn son, Archie’s is from the team behind Bluebird Espresso. The fit-out is as cute as a button: whitewashed walls, yellow tulips in brown glass bottles, green and pink pastel ceramics and kitsch ’70s artworks. There's a lot of debate over the perfect hangover cure, but we reckon the huevos sucios or 'dirty eggs' here might take the cake. Fried eggs are served with tater tots, jalapeño cheddar, avocado and tomatillo salsa, black beans and chipotle mayo. 

Head to South Yarra’s Bacash restaurant for the ultimate seafood experience. Specialising in high-quality fresh seafood, restaurant owner Michael Bacash lives up to the hype by offering up a quality menu alongside helpful and attentive service. Bacash is an expert in seafood cookery and seafood suppliers worship at his feet. Whatever the day, order the whole fish, which is cooked in the best way possible to showcase the fish and served alongside a simple green salad and fries. Perfection. 

'Eating house' doesn't quite cut it. 'All-day diner' falls worryingly short. In fact, when trying to sum up the place Cumulus Inc plays in Melbourne’s hungry heart, 'favourite clubhouse' comes as close as any description. The lamb shoulder encapsulates the convivial nature of dining at Cumulus Inc by being a dish that must be shared. It speaks volumes that since day dot, the dish has barely changed and remains on the menu.

Doused in a sticky soy and red vinegar sauce, and scattered with little nubs of fried garlic and Sichuan peppercorns, the crispy eggplant here is a textural treat. A caramelised coating gives way to a fluffy, silken interior, so each bite is crunchy and soft, sharp and sweet. It's a must-order every time you visit Lee Ho Fook.

Legend has it, when MoVida first put the cecina on the menu, its wagyu supplier could not keep up with demand. This dish of air-dried wagyu topped with a soft poached egg obscured by a cloud of whipped truffle foam is the stuff that date nights are made of. 

It’s funny how sometimes the simplest of concepts have the greatest impact. Like Entrecôte, which was hailed in its Domain Road heyday for the audacious vision of serving steak frites and little else. But this vision worked, with punters coming from far and wide for a plate of the pasture-fed Cape Grim Angus porterhouse, hidden by a thicket of best-in-show frites. Blanketed in a “secret” herb butter sauce - green, tangy and mustardy in all the right places – it justifies the Entrecôte name.

As a general rule, your local pub shouldn't be doing food this good. Come here for the creamy drift of whipped cod roe with Turkish toast soldiers out on Gertrude Street; settle in by the windows for a Mountain Goat steam ale for super easy drinking or a sour and citrusy spelt ale from Two Metre Tall for driving flavour; spend an afternoon under the bougainvillea in the beer garden; or go an all-out fancy feast. 

Can you think of a name less appropriate for a Sichuan restaurant? The chilli is hot and the Sichuan pepper is tinglingly, numbingly fresh, not exactly what you’d call dainty. Order thin slices of lamb encrusted in cumin and laced with chilli. There are always dishes you'll want to try at Dainty Sichuan, but this is the one you will keep coming back for. Don't forget to order a bowl of rice.

When the W approached Adam D'Sylva, the local favourite behind Coda and Tonka, to deliver an eclectic celebration of multicultural Melbourne, we can only imagine the mere mention of D’Sylva’s headline creation – the ‘freshly baked to order’ Duck Lasagne – was enough to seal the deal. Fortuitously, it tastes even better than it sounds; not like duck at all, but rather a lavish spin on an Italian classic delivering oven-baked mounds of gamey flavour, topped with luxurious dollops of burrata and fragrant, fresh basil.

The Carlton Wine Room 3.0 is here, and it's redefining the wine bar as we know it. Over the years, this northside hotspot has perfected its focaccia recipe to contain both a strong, exterior crunch and light, interior airiness. It comes served in four fingers with a puddle of the soft, creamy and super lactic cheese stracciatella, plus a mound of shaved zucchini with a dose of bright chive oil. It’s bread and dip, but not as you know it and a must order on every visit.

Abla loved feeding people so much that meal-making for her family turned into hosting Sunday feasts for the community – and then came the restaurant. Abla’s opened in 1979 in the same location it’s in today and upon entry, you experience a pleasant time warp. Don't leave without ordering Abla’s signature pilaf, which is a majestic dome of rice flecked with minced spiced lamb and topped with cinnamon-pepped chicken and slivers of toasted almonds and pine nuts.

A grande dame of the Melbourne bar scene, this basement-level cocktail lounge has been keeping people loose and liquored for over 20 years. And it's the chicken sandwich that Gin Palace has been serving up all this time that has been saving lives after one too many martinis. Sandwiched between two heavily buttered pieces of white bread is a mayo-heavy chicken mix accompanied by bacon salt and a fistful of cornichons. Ask nicely for Tobasco and thank us later.

Cauliflower is the star of Eyal Shani’s menu. Baby brassicas adorn the walls of the restaurant before they’re brined and whisked into ovens, roasted whole with olive oil and salt until they’re crisp and deep brown. They’re served atop a thin sheet of paper for two or more diners to share.

Whatever the size of your night, you really can’t go wrong with a late-night souva. Luckily, Stalactites is open 24 hours, and its giro rotisserie set-up doesn’t stop spinning day and night. The prep game here is down to an art : souvas usually arrive at the table or are ready for takeaway in five minutes or less. The lamb souva comes with copious amounts of crunchy lettuce and yoghurt sauce – just the hit of freshness you need with the smoky lamb. 

This dish has carried over from Golden Fields, and Supernormal has been unable to remove it from its menu since flinging open the doors at its Flinders Street location. The New England lobster roll is a magical balance of soft, warm brioche and the cool, Kewpie mayo-slathered crustacean that makes eating in Melbourne feel like Maine.

Dumpling masters Din Tai Fung started in Taiwan in 1974 and now boast a swathe of foodie real estate across Asia and the US and seven outlets in Sydney. Its first foray into Melbourne is a utilitarian but fashionably customised 235-seat space above the Emporium shopping centre, where high-end Australian design co-exists with the puffer jacket. The signature xiao long bao, the steamed soup dumplings pleated to a perfect 18-fold pucker are the Platonic ideal of the XLB, all soupy explosion, non-gristley pork filling, and the non-negotiable ginger slivers and slosh of black vinegar. 

Having once won the World Pizza Championships, you’d expect 400 Gradi to know what they’re doing. And they do. With the pizza oven cranked up to 400 degrees, the bases are chewy and puffed up around the edges. It’s a beautiful canvas for the simple pleasures of a tomato base, fresh mozzarella and basil. Pop in on a Monday and you'll get one for $18.

Chef Federico Congiu, who has spent five years with Di Stasio, was tasked with the brand’s first pizza offering. He spent many months tinkering with the perfect margherita recipe, making his own jersey milk mozzarella fior di latte — and that same cheese is used in making Di Stasio's famed soft serve. Served in a green coupe, the scoop is salted and drizzled with olive oil resulting in the ultimate creamy, sweet and savoury treat.

Opened by ex-Rice Paper Sister chef Ross Magnaye with a couple of chef compadres, Serai’s fire-based cooking riffs on his Filipino heritage without suggesting anything like authenticity. Try the “McScallop”, a cheeky riposte to the golden arches starring a single fried scallop doused in deliriously rich crab fat sauce cut through with papaya pickle and sandwiched in a toasted pandesal bun.

Does Ben Shewry’s experimental and unflinchingly Australian ten-course degustation still live up to its original hype years later? The answer is yes – and while the menu changes seasonally, a recent must-try is the charred crocodile ribs. They're a revelation, coming to the table doused in spiced finger lime honey, topped with a fragrant smattering of Geraldton Wax needles and accompanied by crocodile XO, crocodile fat mayo, finger lime salt and native plum barbecue sauce.