Chef Yu Orita passing one of eight rounds of sushi to Nidaime’s diners.
Good Food hat15.5/20

Is this hatted South Yarra spot Melbourne’s best value omakase menu?

Nidaime may be glitzy Yugen Dining’s diffusion label. But the South Yarra tea house,which morphs into an omakase restaurant at night,delivers value for money.

  • Larissa Dubecki
Bright blue noren (bunting) surrounds the bar counter.
14/20

One of the city’s standout Japanese cafes has a new home and new night moves

Asa yoru means day and night,which sums up the change for Ima Cafe,now in bigger premises with izakaya-style bar snacks.

  • Larissa Dubecki
Go-to dish:Margherita pizza.
13/20

This stylish Richmond newcomer boasts Milan supermodel looks,but are its Naples-style pizzas the goods?

Da Bruno Pizzeria serves extremely good pizza in an unusually stylish space. Meet you on the rooftop for a margherita and martini.

  • Larissa Dubecki
Bustling Bourke Street restaurant Thai Baan.
13.5/20

Queue for the $14.90 boat noodles,stay for everything else at this buzzy Bourke Street hotspot

Melbourne’s Thai Baan has punchy and affordable street food at its heart. And the boat noodles are the real deal. No wonder there’s always a line out front.

  • Larissa Dubecki
Cosy French Bar Magnolia
14/20

‘Honest,interesting,fatty’:This cosy Brunswick newcomer is the stuff of French bistro fantasies

This is real,unpretentious French cooking,and it’s ‘bloody lovely’,reviews Larissa Dubecki.

  • Larissa Dubecki
Advertisement
Good Food hat15/20

MoVida Aqui returns after renovation,older,wiser and better than ever

Thirteen years after opening,owners Frank Camorra and Andy McMahon have packed up their light installation and brought in the designers to their Bourke Street restaurant.

  • Larissa Dubecki
Agnolotti filled with Moreton Bay bug meat and served with a lobster bisque and butter sauce at Little Black Pig&Sons.
14/20

Little Black Pig&Sons is the sort of Italian local that will please everyone’s inner nonna

Inside us all there’s a headscarf-clad nonna with firm opinions on food. And she would approve of this hardworking suburban bistro.

  • Larissa Dubecki
Go-to dish:Half chicken with pickles,condiments and Lebanese bread.
14/20

The cult charcoal chook is only part of the story at Chapel Street’s shiny Sydney import Henrietta

The best advice for anyone heading to this glam modern Middle Eastern restaurant is to take your mates:the bigger the army,the better.

  • Larissa Dubecki
Behind the marble bench,chefs slice salumi and shuck oysters.
Good Food hat15/20

Climb the stairway to Italian snacking heaven at Balwyn’s Enoteca Boccaccio

It may be new,but this Balwyn wine bar packs 60 years of food and wine knowledge into a squeezy upstairs space.

  • Larissa Dubecki
Taste Port Douglas returns in August 2023.

Need a cure for the winter blues? Where to eat,drink and find great coffee in sunny Port Douglas

Tropical North Queensland is basking in a reinvigorated dining scene thanks to a burst of exciting arrivals.

  • Larissa Dubecki