Melbourne’s post-pandemic fine-dining scene is buzzier than ever

For two years Melbourne’s CBD restaurants had a rollercoaster ride of Covid closures with six individual lockdowns totaling 262 days of closed doors. Fine diners pivoted to extravagant take-away meals and pre-mixed cocktails, and when they finally reopened for good there was concern about what the future might hold. Luckily for hospitality businesses that had been pushed to the wall, what they found was a huge pent-up demand for dining out.

“We’ve only seen the energy of dining out grow week on week, not just in the demand for reservations, but also there’s been a noticeable increase in guests dropping by more spontaneously for drinks, late night supper and everything in between — it’s brilliant,” says Shane Lazzo, venue manager at Gimlet at Cavendish House.

Here are five of the best places to dine in the Melbourne city post-Covid.

Gimlet at Cavendish House

Gimlet is part of Melbourne chef and restaurateur Andrew McConnell’s Trader House stable that features some of the best restaurants in the city. Gimlet actually launched just before Covid hit and is now booked solid for months.

“We’re hearing international accents again, chatting to guests from interstate and seeing the return of ‘the long lunch’ during the week,” says Lazzo. “The vitality of the city is palpable, and I think restaurants play a big part in that magnetism.”

Spencer Gulf prawns (left) and a burger at Gimlet

Gimlet is housed in a classic 1920s building and leans into roaring ’20s glamour with checkerboard floor tiles and intimate booths. The wood-fired oven is the centerpiece with most dishes from the fresh Spencer Gulf prawns to the late-night burgers getting a lick of flame. 33 Russell Street

Victoria by Farmer’s Daughters

Located in Federation Square, Victoria by Farmer’s Daughters looks out on the Yarra River and celebrates Victorian produce with individual set menus focusing on a particular region (the current one is Ballarat) designed by chef Alejandro Saravia. “It was slow going because for two years the CBD was a desert but people coming back to restaurants, coming back to their favorite cafes and coming back to work has been fundamental for businesses like ours to bounce back,” says Saravia. “Melbourne’s CBD is so important, the theaters, the plays, the arts center, new precincts opening up, new developments and it is just pushing forward.”

The room is dominated by a huge map of Victoria and in addition to the regional “provenance” menu, you might find grilled Sher Wagyu in black garlic butter and barbecued leek or a smoked half duck in bone marrow and duck fat gravy. Federation Square

Cumulus Inc

Cumulus Inc has been operating in Flinders Lane for 14 years and Alexandra O’Reilly, venue manager, says that a loyal clientele meant that they have been busy since reopening even if the city’s foot traffic is down. Cumulus turns out a classic bistro menu in a timeless setting with Parisian touches. You might linger for a long lunch over tuna tartare, goats curd, green peas and mint or have a romantic dinner with the signature slow-roasted lamb shoulder for two.

Reilly is confident that the current dining boom will continue with the restaurant recently returning to seven-day trading for the first time post Covid. “We have great confidence that the city will continue to flourish over the next 12 months, and as all those supplementary entertainment and happenings continue to pepper the Melbourne calendar, then demand for restaurants to be open more will keep growing,” she says. 45 Flinders Lane

Bar Margaux

This late-night, basement venue is covered in 20,000 white tiles that gives it a subway-by-way-of-French-brasserie feel. It has a huge backlit bar that fills up pretty quickly with the after-work crowd. Bar Margaux is the sister venue of Fitzroy cocktail bar The Everleigh and dirty city rock bar Heartbreaker but takes its food far more seriously than its siblings.

The Parisian bistro theme is continued with oysters — plain and with red wine and shallots — and snails in Pernod butter. Mains might be a duck breast with duck fat chips or a classic steak frites, and drinks are as classic as the plates go, with martinis and Manhattans. Basement, 11 Lonsdale Street

Lollo

Housed in the W Melbourne and decked out in plush chairs, high-backed VIP booths and a club soundtrack worthy of Ibiza, Lollo is bold, brash and sultry like its namesake 1950s Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida. Melbourne chef Adam D’Sylva is best known for his modern Indian restaurant Tonka, still a city mainstay, but his new restaurant straddles two cultures and channels the chef’s Indian-Italian heritage. The signature lasagne for two comes baked to order and is packed with layers of rich minced duck; a creamy burrata is served with heirloom tomatoes and freshly made pesto; and a grilled cosberg is doused in a peppery Caesar dressing with sourdough crumbs. Service is slick, cocktails are top-notch and the wine list sizeable. 408 Flinders Lane