Best restaurants in Melbourne 2026: 15 tables worth booking

The best restaurants in Melbourne in 2026 come down to 15 tables, chosen from this year's Good Food Guide and Gourmet Traveller awards and checked against official websites and recent reviews. If you can only book one, make it Yiaga, Hugh Allen's pavilion in Fitzroy Gardens, which Gourmet Traveller named Australia's best new restaurant in August.

Melbourne rewards range more than it rewards any single style. The list below runs from A$425 tasting menus in the suburbs to a A$60 chef's selection on Bridge Road, and from a Cantonese dining room that opened in 1975 to a Collingwood shopfront that is just over a year old. Every address was listed as trading on its own website or in reviews from this year when we checked on 23 September 2026.

What unites the best restaurants in Melbourne is not luxury but a clear point of view: a single cuisine, a single fire, a single chef's history. For the cheaper side of the city, from dim sims to banh mi, start with our guide to what to eat in Melbourne.

Melbourne rewards range more than it rewards any single style of cooking.

Yiaga, East Melbourne

Hugh Allen left the kitchen he made famous to open his own restaurant on 16 October 2025, inside a 1908 tearoom pavilion in Fitzroy Gardens restored with 13,000 handmade tiles. The room seats 44 around an open kitchen with floor-to-ceiling views of the park.

The only option is a 14-course tasting menu at A$295 per person before drinks, built on Australian produce, with a wine list that is about 70% Victorian. Gourmet Traveller named it Best New Restaurant in its 2026 awards. Bookings open online at yiaga.au.

Vue de monde, CBD

On level 55 of the Rialto at 525 Collins Street, Vue de monde kept its three hats in the Good Food Guide 2026. The restaurant lists Hugh Allen as executive chef and Chris Marshall as head chef.

There is one menu, the signature tasting menu at A$380 per person. Book for the view as much as the food: few dining rooms in Australia sit higher above their city.

Minamishima, Richmond

Koichi Minamishima's sushi counter at 4 Lord Street is the Japanese reference point in Australia and one of four Victorian restaurants that held three hats in the Good Food Guide 2026. The omakase, the only menu, costs A$325 per person.

Seats go quickly and the restaurant releases them through its own reservation page; the counter is the place to sit.

Amaru, Armadale

Clinton McIver's restaurant on High Street is the quietest of the three-hat group and arguably the most precise. Two tasting menus are offered; from 1 November 2026 the Insight menu costs A$295 and the Sensory menu A$365 per person.

Attica, Ripponlea

Ben Shewry's restaurant at 74 Glen Eira Road built its reputation on native Australian ingredients long before the idea became fashionable, and it remains one of the country's reference tasting menus. It is also the most expensive table on this list at A$425 per person.

Flower Drum, Chinatown

Opened by Gilbert Lau on 26 May 1975, Flower Drum at 17 Market Lane marked 50 years with Restaurant of the Year at the Good Food Guide 2026 awards. The Peking duck, wrapped in a pancake at the table by waiters in jackets, remains the order.

It sits in Gourmet Traveller's top price band ($$$$). Book by phone or online.

Zareh, Collingwood

Tom Sarafian's first restaurant opened in August 2025 at 368 Smith Street and has since won New Restaurant of the Year at the Good Food Guide 2026 awards and Gourmet Traveller's national Restaurant of the Year in August 2026. The cooking draws on Armenian, Egyptian and Lebanese family recipes, from a custom wood oven and charcoal pit.

Order the bastourma toast, the kafta nayyeh and the signature hummus. Around 40 seats, so book ahead.

Anchovy, Richmond

Thi Le, the Good Food Guide's 2026 Chef of the Year, runs Anchovy at 338 Bridge Road with Jia-Yen Lee. The menu takes deep cuts from Vietnam's regional cooking and pairs them with noodles and house-made cold cuts.

It is the best-value table on this list: dishes such as steamed clams cost around A$23 and the chef's selection is A$60 per person. The room suits one or two diners best.

Gimlet at Cavendish House, CBD

Andrew McConnell opened Gimlet in July 2020 inside the heritage-listed 1920s Cavendish House at 33 Russell Street. It works as a grand bistro: oysters, caviar service and wood-fired meat and seafood to share, plus one of the city's best bars.

It sits in Gourmet Traveller's top price band ($$$$); the bar is the easier walk-in.

Côte Basque, CBD

McConnell's newest room took over 25 Crossley Street, the address Becco held for nearly three decades. The 100-seat restaurant cooks over a wood-fired grill, with beef from a wagyu and rubia gallega cross aged in-house. Our report on Côte Basque's 70-year-old dining room has the full history.

Marmelo, CBD

Ross and Sunny Lusted opened Marmelo at 130 Russell Street in early 2025, a 90-seat Portuguese dining room with a charcoal grill and wood oven that traces Portugal's influence from Macau to southern India and South Africa. Gourmet Traveller files it at $$$.

Maison Bâtard, CBD

Chris Lucas spent eight years restoring three 1901 buildings at 19-23 Bourke Street before opening this four-level French house on 26 November 2024. It serves lunch and dinner seven days a week, with a rooftop terrace. Expect a $$$$ bill.

Embla, CBD

Dave Verheul and Christian McCabe opened Embla at 122 Russell Street in December 2015, and it remains the model for the Melbourne wine bar that cooks like a restaurant. Most dishes pass through the wood-fired oven; the wine list leans on smaller Australian producers. Price band $$$.

Lee Ho Fook, CBD

Victor Liong's modern Chinese restaurant at 11-15 Duckboard Place is the counterpoint to Flower Drum: the same city's Chinese cooking seen from a younger kitchen. Price band $$$.

Serai, CBD

Ross Magnaye's restaurant at 7 Racing Club Lane cooks Filipino food with Australian produce. Its sisig taco is the dish most tables order first. Price band $$$, with à la carte and set options.

Best restaurants in Melbourne: frequently asked questions

Which restaurants in Melbourne have three hats? In the Good Food Guide 2026, Vue de monde, Minamishima and Amaru hold three hats in the city; Brae, the fourth, is in Birregurra, in regional Victoria.

How much does a tasting menu cost in Melbourne? Among the best restaurants in Melbourne, tasting menus run from A$295 at Yiaga and Amaru to A$425 at Attica, before drinks.

How far ahead should I book? For Minamishima, Attica and Yiaga, book as soon as the restaurant opens its calendar; the CBD bistros and wine bars often keep bar seats for walk-ins.

Is there a good cheap option on the list? Anchovy's A$60 chef's selection is the best value; for dishes under A$20, use our Melbourne food guide.

How we chose the best restaurants in Melbourne

We started from the Good Food Guide 2026 awards (published 28 October 2025) and the Gourmet Traveller 2026 awards (August 2026), then kept only restaurants inside metropolitan Melbourne whose prices and addresses we could confirm on their own websites or in recent reviews. Last checked on 23 September 2026. Petit Crenn, due to open on Collins Street in October, will be considered at the next update.