Time Out Food & Drink Awards 2022: People's Choice

It turns out the inhabitants of Time Out HQ weren’t the only ones in thrall to the charms of Gimlet. You’ve voted the upmarket bistro of our dreams as your number one Melbourne
restaurant, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Andrew McConnell has triumphed over the deprivations of the Covid era with a thrilling recreation of the glittering age of excess. We defy anyone to step inside and not be transported by the Art Deco spectacle that savvily combines occasion dining with a broad appeal. Snack at the bar or settle in for the full multi-course monty; either way you’re going to have the time of your life.

Come for the architecture, stay for the next-level food and drink. An address that deserves to be on any out-of-towner’s itinerary and a place in the heart of all Melbourne residents, Higher Ground has pushed the café envelope for six years. And there are no signs of it slowing down, as its gong as Melbourne’s favourite café shows. It’s easy to see why with Ash Hicks’ super smart modern menus, which segue as easily from day to night as the equally excellent coffee does to cocktails. As for the makeover of the heritage listed former electricity substation, it’s an exercise in pure wow.

Champagne towers. Cognac. Caviar blinis and lobster rolls. The Sydney-based Speakeasy Group has shown Melbourne how to up the luxe with Nick & Nora’s. Living up to its address at the posh 80 Collins development, this glam-o-rama bar dazzles with its conspicuous excess. Time Out readers clearly like to party like Jay Gatsby among its Art Deco-inspired design where velvet booths, a huge green marble bar and gold, gold, gold make a backdrop for a crowd that dresses to impress. Whether or not your night involves a Champagne tower, this is a bar that hits every pleasure receptor with its canny triangulation of snacks,
drinks and looks.

The McConnell factor triumphs again in the readers’ choice of their favourite Melbourne pub. Taking the Builders Arms well beyond the days it housed a flashing dance floor, the current guardian of this hallowed real estate has cannily kept the character of a classic front bar, albeit one with a drinks list boasting a bunch of new age producer names. Add a sprawl of kerbside seats in hot demand from humans and their canine companions, as well as a bistro delivering gold-plated comfort in the form of amplified pub classics, and it’s a place we’re proud to get behind.