What's good in Melbourne CBD?

[dochoch]

We are coming to Melbourne for a week in December, staying at a hotel in CBD. What are suggestions for B,L,D while we are in town? Our wallets are not too fat, but we do like good seafood, Chinese, Aussie food (whatever that is). What should we check out for sure?

[irisav]

Where to start?
Breakfast/Lunch:

Mr Tulk's (State Library - Cnr Swanston & La Trobe)

Sally's Kitchen (Exhibition St near Lt Lonsdale)

Cumulus Inc - 45 Flinders Lane (Open from breakfast through to dinner well known for oysters)

GingerBoy 27-29 Crossley St (Sth East Asian food)

Melbourne is very good for very cheap chinese dumpling places of note are:

North East China Family - 302 Flinders Lane (Good dumplings, particularly the leek & shrimp ones)

Camy Shanghai Dumpling and Noodle REstaurant (Tattersalls Lane - off Lt Bourke close to Swanston St) - This place kind of defines Melbourne's Dumpling restaurant scene, it's a bit rough an ready, perfunctory service and always packed at meal times but you can't argue with the cost. I recommend the chilli oil dumplings along with a serving of the shanghai noodles.

For general Chinese Restaurants there are:

Supper Inn (12 Celestial Avenue) Open until 3am, reasonably priced and something of an institution - be prepared to queue on the stairs for a table.

If you have some money to burn then Flower Drum (12 Market Lane) if the institution of choice for up-market chinese restaurants.

Check out Seamstress (113 Lonsdale St) for a contemporary take on Cantonese.

For Yum Cha I recommend Red Emperor (3 Southgate avenue, Southbank - on the 2nd level) - always reliable food and service - bookings at the weekend are essential.

To be honest I could go on and on I haven't even got to the restaurants at Crown, Gertrude St, the various MoVida's, Vue de Monde's, Press Club, Grossi Florentino - Basically the CBD and surrounding areas are jam packed with great dining experiences and everything is a convenient tram/jaunt. In fact you don't want to limit yourself to just the CBD - there are many great restaurant/cafes within 5-20 minute tram rides.

Personally I would recommend checking out the food blog Melbourne Gastronome - she has a CBD index as well as a quick tips set on indexes (such as cheap lunches, great brunches etc) and is a reliable source.

Also there are some truly amazing bars that serve great food, not to mention pubs. Oh I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it... Enjoy your time in this fair city!

Oh don't miss out on a lunch/dinner/supper at Pellegrinis (66 Bourke St, an Italian Institution - sit at the bar, watch the coffee theatre and enjoy a watermelon granita on a hot day/evening - or any of the pastas/cakes)

[mr_gimlet]

It's an impossible question to answer. There are so many styles, types and price levels of restaurants here so perhaps you could be a bit more specific in what you are looking for

There have been lots of posts on Melbourne CBD restaurants in the past six months, particularly by PhilD, and our restaurant scene doesn't change that quickly. A good starting point would be to search the board and come back with more specific questions.

[MaestroSid]

As others have said, the Melbourne CBD is packed with wonderful places. You could stay for three weeks and still not eat your way through all the best ones. But here are my Top 5 for lunch and dinner in the CBD:

LUNCH
Cumulus Inc
Von Haus
Journal
Yu-U
The European

DINNER
Coda
Becco
Bar Lourinha
Gills Diner
Movida

All of these are reasonably affordable, but if you want to splash out one evening then my Top 5 splurges in the CBD would be:

SPLURGES
Vue de Monde
MoMo
Ezard
Taxi
Press Club

And personally, I'd skip Flower Drum for Chinese. The quality's gone downhill in recent years. The best Chinese in the CBD these days is at Idea Fine Food & Wine, and Supper Inn.

[Kaaren]

I agree, skip Flower Drum. All Maestro's other ideas are good!