Melbourne Patron

Want Melbourne Patron blog posts delivered straight to your inbox? Click the "Subscribe" button at the top of this page and follow the simple instructions. Magic! Hana Restaurant A seafood tribute to Hawaii in Melbourne - with cocktails  One day in the middle of Melbourne winter, I went looking for Hairy Canary. I remembered a long, dark venue with cocktails, somewhere on Lt Collins. In its place, I found Hana (212 Lt Collins Street, Melbourne), a new restaurant I'd read about but hadn't realised it had replaced the long-standing Canary. I was intrigued, because HALLELUJAH, here was a new restaurant in Melbourne that was NOT yet another fried/slow-cooked/smoked/overdone tribute to Americana. Though technically still American, Hana celebrates and proffers the exotic flavours of Hawaii. Which basically means a lot of fish. Which is good. Because fish is good for you. And delicious. So anyway, cut forward a few weeks to when my equally-foodie-friend is...

Kisumé Japanese Restaurant The new fine-dining venture on Flinders Lane by the Lucas Group Any Melburnian foodie worth their salt is aware of the Lucas Group and its portfolio of very successful restaurants: Chin Chin , a loud hall of colourful South-East Asian food and cocktails on Flinders Lane that still attracts queues of several hours' wait, some six years after its opening Hawker Hall , a similar style venue to Chin Chin but on South Yarra's Chapel Street and with more of a focus on street food, that once infamously proffered a wait time equal to a return drive to Torquay with a beer stop in the middle Baby Pizza , quiet stalwart of the group, churning out delectable, fresh Italian food on Church Street, and  Kong , offering Japanese-Korean BBQ fusion also on Church Street, and perhaps the most casual venue of the lot.  And if you have read any of my posts before, you will know that I am utterly fed up with the 'Americana' craze, whereby every...

For months, there had been speculation about the newest dumpling joint to hit Melbourne: Tim Ho Wan (206 Bourke Street). This one was setting the bar high, even for Melbourne diners: it was one of an international franchise based upon the original, a Michelin-star awarded 20-seater restaurant in Hong Kong. Michelin star dumplings! Yes, please. The Queue usually runs around the corner, but moves fast Signs identified the Bourke Street location even before Christmas, so it was no real shock that upon its opening in March, Tim Ho Wan's first Melbourne site boasted queues around the clock. Fortunately, they've done this before (there are currently over 20 Tim Ho Wan sites in Asia and Australia, including four in Sydney), so the waiting area had been neatly sectioned off around the corner, and casual stool seating provided. Menus can be found dotted along the queue area, and in peak times, clipboards are handed out by staff, bearing checklist menus ready to be filled out an...