Star Wine List Restaurants in Melbourne
Start with these 22 Melbourne restaurants listed by Star Wine List, including Flower Drum, Gimlet and Vue de Monde. Star Wine List is an independent guide to wine lists and wine bars. Several venues also have recognition from the World's Best Wine Lists Awards. We choose venues by weighing recognition from independent critics, guides and awards.
The entries are in alphabetical order. Each shows the venue's town or city, a short description and awards from independent sources, with a link to its full guide page.
How this list is chosen: Every restaurant here is listed by Star Wine List, the independent guide to wine lists and wine bars. When more qualify than the list can hold, En Primeur Club chooses among them by weighing recognition from independent critics, guides and awards. Entries appear in alphabetical order.
Amaru
Melbourne, Australia
Amaru on High Street in Armadale puts Australian produce at the centre of a menu shaped by techniques drawn from multiple international traditions. Chef Clinton McIver's cooking has earned consecutive La Liste recognition — 76.5 points in 2025 and 80 points in 2026 — placing it firmly in the upper tier of Melbourne's fine dining circuit.
Also recognized by La Liste, Star Wine List, The Best Chef
Aru Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia
Aru Melbourne operates at the intersection of live-fire cooking and bold, unconventional flavour combinations, making it one of Little Collins Street's more compelling options for diners who take ingredients seriously. The wine list skews international and considered, pairing well with a menu built around the drama of open-flame technique. It is the kind of room that rewards curiosity over caution.
Also recognized by Star Wine List
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
Brico
Melbourne, Australia
A wine-forward neighbourhood spot on Nicholson Street in Carlton North, Brico draws a crowd that takes what's in the glass as seriously as what's on the plate. The room reads as unpretentious but deliberate — the kind of place built by people with deep wine knowledge rather than a design brief. It sits comfortably in Melbourne's growing tier of producer-focused, low-intervention dining rooms.
Also recognized by Star Wine List
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
Coda Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia
Few Melbourne addresses have held their ground as consistently as Coda on Flinders Lane. Set below street level in one of the city's most concentrated dining corridors, the restaurant has been a reference point on the scene since around 2009. Its basement position, long track record, and proximity to the CBD's restaurant cluster place it alongside Flower Drum and Florentino as a venue that serious visitors to Melbourne factor into their planning.
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
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
Entrecôte
Melbourne, Australia
On Greville Street in Prahran, Entrecôte operates as one of Melbourne's most consistent French brasserie addresses, built around the discipline of a single format: steak frites, served well, in a room that handles both business lunches and leisurely weeknight dinners without straining at either. The format is classically French, the execution is Melbourne-sharp, and the crowd reflects both.
Also recognized by Star Wine List
Flower Drum
Melbourne, Australia
One of Melbourne's most enduring Cantonese restaurants, Flower Drum has held a place in the city's serious dining conversation since long before Australian fine dining attracted international attention. The ruby-carpeted dining room on Market Lane trades in ceremony as much as cuisine, with a produce-led menu anchored by tableside Peking duck carving and a wine list that has earned White Star recognition from Star Wine List.
Also recognized by Opinionated About Dining, Star Wine List, Tatler, World's 50 Best
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
Freyja Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia
Freyja Melbourne occupies a considered position on Collins Street, recognised by Star Wine List with a White Star designation for its wine program. The kitchen and floor operate as a cohesive unit, with the wine list functioning as a genuine collaborator to the food rather than an afterthought. It sits within Melbourne's mid-to-upper tier of wine-forward dining rooms where program depth shapes the experience as much as the plate.
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
Lee Ho Fook
Melbourne, Australia
Lee Ho Fook sits on Duckboard Place in Melbourne's CBD, operating at the junction where classical Chinese technique meets Australian produce and contemporary kitchen discipline. The result is a dining room that consistently draws comparisons to the city's serious fine-dining tier rather than its Chinatown strip. For anyone tracking how Australian-Chinese cuisine has evolved over the past decade, this address is the argument in concrete form.
Also recognized by Star Wine List
Magnolia
Melbourne, Australia
Bar Magnolia on Sydney Road operates Thursday to Saturday only, and those three nights fill quickly with a crowd that has planned ahead. Brunswick's bar scene tilts toward the neighbourhood local, but Magnolia sits in a smaller tier of serious drink-led rooms where the format itself is the draw. For Melbourne bar coverage, see our full guide.
Also recognized by Star Wine List
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
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
Steak Ministry Bar & Grill
Melbourne, Australia
Steak Ministry Bar & Grill sits in Glen Waverley, one of Melbourne's most densely populated eastern suburbs, operating as both a wine bar and grill. Recognised by Star Wine List with a White Star designation in December 2021, it occupies a format that pairs serious wine programming with red meat cookery — a combination that has found a clear audience well beyond the CBD.
Also recognized by Star Wine List
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
VEX
Melbourne, Australia
On High Street in Northcote, VEX has earned attention for a wine list that prioritises precision over breadth — a concise, carefully assembled selection that consistently draws comparisons to the inner north's most considered neighbourhood rooms. The food program sits alongside a list where almost every bottle earns its place, making VEX a reference point for how a smaller list can outperform a longer one.
Also recognized by Star Wine List
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