8 unforgettable experiences happening in Melbourne this winter

Jessi Singh's newest Melbourne restaurant doesn't serve 'authentic' Indian food, but that's the whole point. Traditional home-style Indian dishes are given a contemporary slant and an Aussie twist.

Daughter In Law is loud (literally), fun and in every way, a rule-breaker with its millennial pink and baby blue velvet upholstery, square tables jammed into the round booths, succulents mingling with orchids and natives and music played in a language that most patrons don’t understand but will still dance to in their seats. 

Dom's is a pizzeria and social club towering three stories as an all-in-one eating and drinking experience above bustling Swanston Street. Very few straddle that elusive line of tradition and innovation quite like Dom’s, where classically Italian, woodfired pizzas are available venue-wide, with some quirky toppings like pineapple salsa that set them apart from the pack. Head to level one for a wood-themed dining room, level two for social drinks and snacks, or the rooftop for after-dark drinks.

Out to impress? Then swoosh up to the ear-popping 55th floor of the Rialto. Instead of heading to dinner at Vue de Monde, take a sharp left towards the bar. Here at Lui Bar, among overstuffed lounges and flouncy lampshades, shiny folk sip Martinis as Melbourne twinkles below.

It takes a knockout food-and-drink offering to distract from that view. Fortunately, Lui is more than up to the task, with an Australian-accented selection that is deferential, rather than tongue-in-cheek. Polished staff take orders at the table, and may even prepare your drink there, too

Nobody would be shocked to hear that the cocktails at Bar Margaux are good. The CBD basement bar has excellent DNA, with a lineage that includes trophy-laden cocktail saloon the Everleigh and dive bar-esque Heartbreaker. What is perhaps more surprising is that the cocktails at Michael and Zara Madrusan’s third bar are only one part of a very smart equation that, in true Melbourne style, thoroughly and successfully blurs the lines between bar and restaurant.

A Melbourne take on a New York version of a Parisian bistro, Bar Margaux ticks all the right design tropes and deftly assembles them so that the space sidesteps cliché and becomes very much right place, right time.