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Favourite local restaurants of top Melbourne chefs and Good Food Guide reviewers
Michael Harry
Photo: Joe Armao
Ben Shewry, Attica
France-Soir is just super consistent, and that s an underrated commodity in restaurants. We focus so much on newness but this place does not vary at all and holds its standard so well. They import a lot of wine and the wines by the glass are excellent. I love the room and watching all the people who come in – you ll see everyone from young couples on a date to people in their 80s just sitting down for dinner at 9pm or 10pm. There s nowhere else in Australia quite like it.
Richmond restaurant Hanoi Hannah reboots as New Quarter
Roslyn Grundy
Photo: Parker Blain
Richmond restaurant Hanoi Hannah New Quarter has rebooted as New Quarter, serving food its owners describe as Melbourne Vietnamese .
Lockdown provided owners the Commune Group with an opportunity to sharpen both the space and the menu. It wasn t fulfilling what we wanted it to be, so we ve started again, says Simon Blacher of the Commune Group, whose hospitality roster also includes Firebird, Tokyo Tina and Neptune Food & Wine. New Quarter s crumbed chicken terrine with Laughing Cow cheese and nuoc mam caviar.
Photo: Parker Blain
Former Sunda sous chef Scott Lord has returned to head the kitchen, ousting Hanoi Hannah street food signatures such as pho and rice-paper rolls and honing the menu to a shorter list of contemporary Vietnamese-inspired dishes that might be more at home in a wine bar, including snack-sized banh mi with whipped paté, and bee
Middle Eastern restaurant Bar Saracen to close in Melbourne s CBD
Roslyn Grundy
Photo: Supplied
Melbourne CBD favourite Bar Saracen has announced it will close on January 30, almost three years after opening.
In a post on Instagram, owner Joseph Abboud (who also owns Rumi and the Moor s Head) said the effects of COVID-19 on trade at the top end of the CBD, including the loss of international guests, city workers and passing foot traffic, had left the restaurant in a precarious financial situation.
When Abboud opened in the Punch Lane site in March 2018 – originally in partnership with front-of-house pro Ari Vlassopoulos – he set out to create an experience more refined than at his 15-year-old Brunswick restaurant Rumi.
In case you missed it: Melbourne s best new openings of 2020
Gemima Cody
Photo: Supplied
While some operators put their plans on hold until 2020 played itself out, plenty of new openings went ahead. Here are a few of our favourites.
Two years in the making, Fitzroy s luxurious new restaurant and bar by Emilio Scalzo and Zoe Rubino can finally serve its prawn cocktails, and Poodle cocktails. It s all about seafood platters on the terrace this summer, but expect chef Josh Fry s obsession with dry-ageing and updates on hotel classics like club sandwiches and vol au vents to make a big play.