A Thai café serving pies, toast and jaffles with fillings and toppings ranging from massaman curry chicken and Thai tea kaya to chilli paste and pork floss, Udom House catapulted to the top of my list after I spied someone in my Instagram stories having chicken liver and sticky rice (!!!) there.
Gray and Gray is a restaurant established in 2021 by three-Michelin-star pastry chef Boris Portnoy and winemaker Mitch Sokolin in a space that was formerly a solicitor’s office.
Each dish at Big Esso contains three to five native ingredients – they’re not an afterthought or an adjunct, they are the dish.
Warmly lit but bright enough that you can read your menu, filled with a pleasant din instead of the raucous cacophony of noisy diners, Bincho Boss strikes the perfect balance for a dinner out.
I loved my visit to Karlaylisi and would order a spicy noodle next time, watch out for any tomatoey repetitions – tomatoes are a central ingredient in many Uyghur sauces – and order the manti or gosh nan to sample Uyghurs’ unique take on dumplings and pastries.
Terry’s Kitchen is a no-frills Malaysian restaurant situated within a church complex in Wantirna South in a cafeteria-style setting. We’ve been twice, and each time has made it into my top 10 Malaysian food experiences in Melbourne.
I loved our time at Sleepy’s so much – the food menu was small but lovingly curated to showcase an interesting take on familiar east Asian ingredients, the drinks were bomb, our waiter was the best and the cosy interiors were perfect to spend a drizzly Wednesday night in.
Parcs is a zero-waste restaurant from the same team behind Aru and Sunda with a menu designed by Furrmien’s Dennis Yong.
Unlike Warung Agus and Makan which specialise in Balinese food, Kenangan serves up dishes from across Indonesia.
My parents and I have a newfound weekly routine where we visit a different Malaysian restaurant every week. For our first place, I suggested we visit CC Wok after reading Jess Ho’s glowing review. It opened in November 2021, shortly after the last of our many, many lockdowns drew to an end.
Each time I’ve visited Capitano, I’ve had a wonderful experience. It’s reasonably priced, it has a great vibe, the seasonal changing menu is always exciting – there’s never fewer than five things I’d like to order – and as proven with my most recent visit, they’re great with dietary intolerances.
A family-run business, YOI has quintessential Indonesian dishes like mie goreng, nasi goreng and rendang, but also a selection of Japanese like gyutan don, chicken katsu curry and chicken teriyaki.
Mr Lee hit the ball out of the park with every dish we ordered, and I can’t wait to revisit for a sweet taste of home away from home.
Chef David is serving up a diverse mix of charcoal barbecue and hot pot-like fish dishes that are gaining fans far and wide due to the restaurant’s TikTok notoriety
A family-run Balinese restaurant that’s been open since 1989, Warung Agus has been a lifesaver for so many in lockdown with their home delivery of food boxes and their consistently generous offers of mutual aid for members of their community who are in financial strife.
Egg hoppers, string hoppers, biryani, kothhu roti – Lankan Tucker’s menu is a stunning riposte to your typical eggs on toast (though they have that too).
What started out as a pop-up is now a cheery, brightly lit permanent storefront on Lygon Street in Brunswick East.
Ranging from traditional Cantonese dishes to English-influenced ones, Hong Kong cuisine is a veritable treasure trove of varying influences, and it has found its latest home in Plus 852 Café.
Whatever Floats Your Bloat 