The Best Restaurants for Wine Lovers in Melbourne

Attica

Melbourne, Australia

Attica sits in Ripponlea, south of Melbourne's CBD, where Ben Shewry's tasting menu draws on native Australian ingredients — from outback flora to local rivers and farms — in compositions that have placed the restaurant inside the World's 50 Best Restaurants list every year from 2013 to 2018. La Liste awarded 96 points in 2025 and 95 in 2026. The format is formal, the commitment to indigenous produce is foundational, and bookings require significant lead time.

Also recognized by Chef's Table, La Liste, We're Smart World, World Culinary Awards

Bistrot d'Orsay

Melbourne, Australia

On Collins Street, Bistrot d'Orsay occupies a quietly confident position among Melbourne's French-leaning dining rooms, sitting closer to the brasserie tradition than the formal French fine-dining tier. Where peers like Florentino orient toward Modern Italian formality and Attica toward progressive Australian, Bistrot d'Orsay holds the French bistrot register — a format with its own discipline and its own loyal audience in this city.

Bottarga

Melbourne, Australia

Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence

Bottarga sits on Bay Street in Brighton, one of Melbourne's more considered dining suburbs, and carries a White Star recognition from Star Wine List — a signal that the wine program is taken seriously here. The kitchen draws on the Mediterranean tradition of ingredient-led cooking, with the cured roe the name implies setting the tonal register: saline, precise, and built around provenance.

Also recognized by Star Wine List

Caterina's

Melbourne, Australia

On Queen Street in Melbourne's CBD, Caterina's occupies a position in the city's Italian dining tradition that rewards those who know where to look. The address places it among the denser professional lunch and dinner circuits of the central city, where the Italian name signals a particular register of hospitality. Booking details and current hours are best confirmed directly with the venue before visiting.

Centonove

Melbourne, Australia

A neighbourhood Italian address on Cotham Road in Kew, Centonove occupies a corner of Melbourne's inner-east dining circuit that rewards those who know to look beyond the CBD. The setting suits occasion meals without the formality of a city fine-dining room, placing it in a bracket of destination suburban restaurants that Melbourne does better than most Australian cities.

CIRCL Wine House

Melbourne, Australia

On a narrow lane just off Melbourne's CBD core, CIRCL Wine House occupies a distinct tier in the city's wine bar scene — a venue shaped by sommelier-level rigour where the list is the kitchen and the glass is the plate. It sits close to Sunda on Punch Lane, making it a natural anchor for an evening that moves between serious drinking and serious eating.

Also recognized by Star Wine List

Cumulus Inc.

Melbourne, Australia

Cumulus Inc. sits on Flinders Lane in Melbourne's CBD, a Star Wine List White Star recipient and 3-Star Accredited address that positions itself in the serious end of the city's all-day dining tier. Its wine credentials are formally recognised, and its format reflects the broader Flinders Lane tradition of rooms that work from early morning through late evening without losing focus.

Also recognized by Star Wine List, World's Best Wine Lists Awards

Di Stasio Citta

Melbourne, Australia

Di Stasio Citta occupies a considered position in Melbourne's Italian dining tier, where the Spring Street address places it among the CBD's most formally minded rooms. The kitchen works within a tradition-respecting Italian framework at a moment when the city's better Italian tables are increasingly interrogating sourcing provenance and seasonal discipline. For Melbourne Italian dining at this register, it belongs on the same shortlist as Florentino.

Embla

Melbourne, Australia

Embla is a small wine bar on Russell Street that has won Star Wine List's number-one ranking in both 2021 and 2022, placing it at the front of Melbourne's natural and low-intervention wine scene. It runs largely as a walk-in space, which shapes its atmosphere as much as its list. The food program is tight and produce-driven, designed to move alongside glass pours rather than compete with them.

Also recognized by Star Wine List

Florentino

Melbourne, Australia

One of Melbourne's most enduring Italian dining rooms, Florentino on Bourke Street carries decades of institutional weight in a city where restaurant generations are earned rather than granted. Recognised in La Liste's global rankings across consecutive years, it occupies the tier where formal tradition and modern Italian technique converge. For visitors and locals alike, it functions as a fixed point on Melbourne's upper-end dining map.

Also recognized by La Liste, World's Best Wine Lists Awards

France Soir

Melbourne, Australia

The room runs on well-worn ritual: long-staying tables, a wine list weighted toward Burgundy and Bordeaux, and cooking that answers to Paris rather than the local trend cycle. Book ahead and expect a full house most nights.

Also recognized by Star Wine List

Gimlet

Melbourne, Australia

Housed in the grand Cavendish House on Russell Street, Gimlet is Andrew McConnell's all-day Melbourne CBD institution where European elegance meets an open-fire grill programme built around dry-aged Victorian and South Australian beef. The wine list spans serious Australian producers and European labels, and the room — velvet banquettes, mirrored walls, vintage chandeliers — delivers the kind of atmosphere that makes a Tuesday lunch feel like an occasion.

Also recognized by Australian Bar Awards, Star Wine List, World's Best Steaks, World's Best Wine Lists Awards

Grill Americano

Melbourne, Australia

Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence

Grill Americano in Melbourne is a Northern Italian-inspired steakhouse that places premium Australian beef over a hand-built wood oven and Josper charcoal grill. Must-try offerings include the 1.2kg Bistecca alla Fiorentina, the 650g Rib-eye on the bone and the 200g Wagyu Eye Fillet MB 4+. Each cut arrives with finishing touches such as black truffle butter or a green peppercorn and Cognac sauce, and sides like Parmesan-crusted onion rings and truffle mac & cheese amplify the flavors. Owned by restaurateur Chris Lucas, Grill Americano pairs its wood-fired steaks with an extensive wine list of more than 2,000 bottles, creating a bold, tactile dining experience on Flinders Lane that suits celebrations and serious steak lovers alike.

Also recognized by World's Best Steaks, World's Best Wine Lists Awards

Kazuki’s

Melbourne, Australia

Kazuki's on Lygon Street holds a 2-Star Accreditation from the World of Fine Wine & Lifestyle Awards, placing it among a small tier of Melbourne restaurants recognised for sustained quality. Carlton's most internationally cited dining strip provides the address; the cooking earns its own standing within the city's competitive fine-dining bracket.

Also recognized by World's Best Wine Lists Awards

Kisumé

Melbourne, Australia

Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence

Kisumé holds a 3-Star Accreditation from the World of Fine Wine & Lifestyle Awards and occupies a prominent position on Flinders Lane, Melbourne's most concentrated strip of serious dining. The restaurant operates across multiple levels, combining Japanese-inflected technique with a kitchen format serious enough to draw comparison with the city's top European and modern Australian programs.

Also recognized by World's Best Wine Lists Awards

Maison Bâtard

Melbourne, Australia

Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence

Maison Bâtard on Bourke Street holds a 3-Star Accreditation and Australasia Regional Winner status from the World of Fine Wine & Living Awards, placing it among Melbourne's most recognised dining addresses. Book well ahead.

Also recognized by Gourmet Traveller, World's Best Wine Lists Awards

Masani

Melbourne, Australia

Masani occupies a terrace address on Drummond Street in Carlton, Melbourne's most Italian of inner-city neighbourhoods. Recognised with a 3-Star Accreditation from the World of Fine Wine & Living Awards, it sits within a Carlton dining scene that has spent decades evolving from red-sauce trattorias toward something more considered. For visitors tracing Melbourne's Italian dining lineage, Masani represents a current marker in that ongoing shift.

Also recognized by World's Best Wine Lists Awards

Matilda 159 Domain

Melbourne, Australia

Scott Pickett's South Yarra restaurant makes a direct argument for fire as the defining technique of Australian cooking. A Josper oven, rotisserie, and wood-fired grill anchor a menu built on wet- and dry-aged beef and local produce, all inside a room fitted with Otway Blackwood tables and seasonal botanical installations. At 159 Domain Road, the kitchen is the spectacle.

Also recognized by World's Best Steaks

Old Palm Liquor

Melbourne, Australia

A White Star-listed wine bar and restaurant on Lygon Street in Brunswick East, Old Palm Liquor has earned recognition from Star Wine List for a program that sits well outside Melbourne's city-centre mainstream. The address places it in one of the inner north's most food-literate neighbourhoods, where sourcing credentials and a serious cellar carry more weight than formal dining ceremony.

Also recognized by Star Wine List

Osteria Ilaria

Melbourne, Australia

On Little Bourke Street in the heart of Melbourne's CBD, Osteria Ilaria occupies the quieter, more neighbourhood-facing end of the city's Italian dining conversation. The room draws a returning crowd that values restraint over spectacle, and the kind of Italian cooking that earns loyalty through consistency rather than reinvention. For those who already know it, the question is never whether to go back.

Society

Melbourne, Australia

Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence

Society at 80 Collins Street occupies the upper tier of Melbourne's formal dining scene, drawing a crowd that arrives dressed for the occasion. Across the Society Dining Room, Lillian Brasserie, The Lounge, and several private dining rooms, the venue holds a 3-Star accreditation from World of Fine Wine and a Regional Winner designation for Australasia. The ritual here begins with a prohibition-inspired cocktail and moves through a service style notable for its anticipatory precision.

Also recognized by Star Wine List, World's Best Wine Lists Awards

Steer Dining ROOM

Melbourne, Australia

Steer Dining Room in South Yarra, Melbourne is a precision-driven Wagyu steakhouse celebrating Australian and Japanese beef. Must-try plates include A5 Kobe Wagyu, Stone Axe Wagyu tenderloin and the Wagyu tataki with yuzu kosho and sesame. The kitchen pairs wet- and dry-aged cuts with high-temperature broiler and hibachi grill techniques, while an exacting wine list — more than 400 selections and 60+ by the glass — elevates each bite. Recognised in 2025 for Wagyu excellence, the room is sleek and intimate, with warm lighting, polished service and dishes that balance silky fat, smoke-charred edges and bright, textural accents.

Also recognized by World's Best Steaks

Supernormal

Melbourne, Australia

Supernormal on Flinders Lane sits inside Andrew McConnell's broader restaurant portfolio as his most direct engagement with Japanese and Asian-influenced formats. The large glass-fronted room on the 171 Collins Street development carries crimson neon, an open kitchen, and a wine list that holds a 3-Star accreditation from the World of Fine Wine. It occupies a distinct tier in Melbourne's CBD dining scene.

Also recognized by Star Wine List, World's Best Wine Lists Awards

Tedesca

Melbourne, Australia

A 1920s farm property in Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula, Tedesca is chef Brigitte Hafner and photographer James Broadway's answer to the farm-to-table retreat format: a small menu driven largely by produce grown or sourced on the property, served in surroundings that make the 90-minute drive from Melbourne feel deliberate rather than incidental. The experience sits closer to a private lunch at a well-stocked farm than to a conventional restaurant booking.

Also recognized by Star Wine List

The Ritz-Carlton, Melbourne

Melbourne, Australia

The Ritz-Carlton, Melbourne holds a 2-Star Accreditation from the World of Fine Wine & Luxury Awards, placing it in a select tier of properties where beverage programming meets the standard of the dining offer. Situated on Lonsdale Street in the CBD, it operates within one of Australia's most competitive luxury hotel markets, where the bar for both food and wine credentials has risen sharply over the past decade.

Also recognized by World's Best Wine Lists Awards

Tipo 00

Melbourne, Australia

Tipo 00 holds a 2-Star Accreditation from the World of Fine Wine & Lifestyle Awards, placing it among Melbourne's most recognised pasta-focused restaurants on Little Bourke Street. The format rewards planning: demand consistently outpaces availability, and walk-ins are a poor strategy. Regulars arrive knowing what they want and book well ahead.

Also recognized by World's Best Wine Lists Awards

Tonka

Melbourne, Australia

Tucked into Duckboard Place in Melbourne's CBD laneway grid, Tonka brings Indian-inflected modern cooking to one of the city's most atmospherically charged addresses. The kitchen draws on subcontinental spice traditions while anchoring its output firmly in Australian produce, placing it in a dining category that Melbourne's restaurant scene has made distinctly its own. Reserve well ahead for evening service.

Victor Churchill

Melbourne, Australia

At 953 High Street in Armadale, Victor Churchill extends the legacy of the Sydney butcher into full-service fine dining, anchored by a 28-day self dry-aged beef programme and a charcoal grill that draws serious carnivores from across Melbourne. Glass-walled ageing chambers display prime cuts in full view of the dining room, making the case for butchery as both craft and spectacle before a single dish reaches the table.

Also recognized by World's Best Steaks

Vue de Monde

Melbourne, Australia

Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence

On the 55th floor of Rialto Towers, Vue de Monde occupies one of Melbourne's most altitude-defining dining rooms, pairing Australian fine dining with a wine list of 2,000 selections spanning Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Australia's own regions. Rated 97.5 points on La Liste's 2025 global ranking, the restaurant under chef Hugh Allen draws serious attention from both the local and international dining circuit.

Also recognized by La Liste, Star Wine List, The Best Chef