5 Best Fine Dining Restaurants in Melbourne

Inconspicuously tucked on High Street in Armadale is an intimate contemporary Australian eatery named Amaru – one of Melbourne’s newest fine dining restaurants to make this list. Seating just 34 guests, Amaru was brought to life by Clinton McIver who has a long history of working inside some of the world’s best venues. If its anything to go by, within the second year of opening Amaru scored two chef hats receiving its third in 2023. Open for lunch and dinner, there’s over 700 bottles of wines to pair with your visit.

For a funkier fine dining experience in Melbourne, Attica will be your best bet. The restaurant front is adorned with Attica’s signature pink graffiti-like signage and inside, the pops of colour certainly do not stop. With Ben Shewry at its helm, Attica is friendly, innovative and certainly not as pretentious as other famed restaurants of the same calibre can seem. Although landing a booking will be hard, finding one bad thing to say about the dining experience will seem just as mind boggling.

Treat your tastebuds to something truly spectacular thanks to Brighton’s hatted restaurant Bottarga. The cuisine is best described as three-in-one: think traditional Italian dishes brought to life by Australian native ingredients and vibrant Asian flavours. An innovative dining experience, here at Bottarga guests can choose from either a two- or three-course menu. Alternatively, for a unique culinary journey, guests can opt to sit alongside the kitchen for their Tasting Experience with just 18 seats per sitting available.

If you’re wandering through the streets of Chinatown, you may just miss one of our favourite fine dining restaurants in Melbourne, Flower Drum. But, if you’re lucky to stumble across the front door, you may be met with an unexpected wait time (three months to be exact). However, once you do land a booking, it all seems worth it. The original eatery opened back in 1975 and since moving to Market Lane, Flower Drum continued to blossom serving up the best Chinese, in, what critics say, is all of Australia.