Melbourne’s most photogenic restaurants

Being a city largely bereft of Australia’s recognisable selling points – clement weather, renowned beaches, a dazzling harbour – Melbourne has a more handcrafted personality. Obsessed with music, sport, architecture, design and, particularly, food, the city’s identity is perhaps best captured in its restaurants. Here, food photography goes beyond a record of what you ate and becomes a way of documenting the whole experience around it. The meal on your plate is certainly worth capturing, but the design and ambience of the room where it happens offers the chance to document an essential part of Melbourne’s character. Discover 10 dining spaces that reflect what makes this city tick.

Carnation Canteen, Fitzroy

Minimalism is seldom associated with warmth but this backstreet restaurant in an old corner shop begs to differ. At lunchtime the space is flooded with leaf-dappled light filtered through Venetian blinds. Then, as the sun sets, the combination of artfully distressed walls, candlelight, lamplight, fresh flowers and a pink marble bar infuses the 20-seat dining room with a gloriously cosy creaminess. Owner-chef Audrey Shaw is a former architect, which helps explain the carefully considered details – something that’s echoed in her food. Simple dishes are assembled using superb ingredients, perhaps a salad of fresh figs and Spanish chickpeas glistening with cabernet vinegar, or charcoal-grilled baby snapper finished with lemon and olive oil. Warm minimalism is real. carnationcanteen.com

Di Stasio Carlton, Carlton

Restaurateur Rinaldo Di Stasio is one of Melbourne’s pioneers in the field of blending dining, design and art. His spot in the heart of the city’s Little Italy is a masterpiece of ambience and attention to detail. The inside rooms are energetic with vibrant, wall-sized art by Kamilaroi artist Reko Rennie, but it’s the restaurant’s courtyard – a sublime gravelled garden centred around a spotlit 17th-century Roman fountain – that provides the money shot. Where better to eat exacting Neapolitan-style pizza that runs the gamut from Margherita to lobster, or fior di latte gelato topped with olive oil and served in a glass the same shade of green as the servers’ Italo-chic uniforms? Stylish beauty, both on and around the plate. distasio.com.au/carlton

Gimlet, Melbourne CBD

Occupying a corner site in the 1920s-era Cavendish House, Gimlet is one of Melbourne’s most beautiful and popular restaurants. The room’s focal point, a central timber and marble bar, is surrounded by two tiers of seating that include leather upholstered horseshoe booths, banquettes and, on the upper level, linen-dressed tables perfectly positioned for people watching and photo taking. Dimpled glass panels, chequered tiled floors and chandeliers add to the Mad Men mood (especially after ordering a chilled martini). The food – from caviar service and chargrilled lobster to a cult favourite cheeseburger – and crisply uniformed waitstaff channel Melbourne’s ongoing love affair with Europe. gimlet.melbourne

Flower Drum, Melbourne CBD

Australia’s most celebrated Cantonese restaurant recently turned 50 and its meticulously maintained grandeur still brings the drama. A brief elevator ride from a laneway entrance opens on to a series of grand, flatteringly lit, lavish dining spaces, featuring shimmering lacquered screens, Chinese lithographs and sculptural flower arrangements. White-clothed tables sit like water lilies on a pond of plush red carpet. It brings a sense of occasion, even before the food arrives – including the signature Peking duck, constructed and served tableside. A newly added bar, curved scarlet velvet banquettes and golden lighting provides excellent cocktails and photogenic moments. flowerdrum.melbourne

Stokehouse, St Kilda

View-hungry Melburnians have been packing Stokehouse for years, perching above the boardwalk in the upstairs restaurant to gaze at the beach and bay, swarmed with people and glittering in summer or rendered hazy grey in winter. While the startlingly brutalist exterior of the building is imposing, the interiors have a softer appeal, channelling idealised beachside dining via a wall of retractable windows, sand-coloured timber floors and soft pink lighting clusters. It feels quintessentially Aussie, ably assisted by a menu of elevated classics including fish and chips, prawn cocktail and chargrilled fish and meat. Great panoramas, inside and out. stokehouse.com.au/melbourne

Zareh, Collingwood

This moodily lit, tightly packed shopfront restaurant on Collingwood’s hip Smith Street is as exciting visually as it is flavour-wise. At one end of the room-length bar, an open kitchen provides a kinetic focal point – chefs working over a charcoal grill and wood-fired oven, cooking Armenian, Egyptian and Lebanese-influenced dishes. Colour and movement are amplified by a long angled mirror, while surfaces are softened by lamplight and plush curtains. Dining here has the liveliness of a house party, the always exuberant crowd elevated by an all-vinyl soundtrack featuring vintage jazz and funk from artists with the same roots as the food. zareh.com.au

Geralds Bar, Carlton North

Geralds, a tiny, much loved neighbourhood wine bar, recently moved to significantly larger digs in a former 19th-century pub. The relocation has given the owners’ eclectic collection of art and kitsch more room to breathe, and their substantial vinyl stash now contributes to the vibe via custom-built joinery. More visual catnip comes from the series of arched windows with orange panes and a Mondrian-inspired glass entryway that splashes the tables, curvaceous timber bar and banquette seating with coloured light at sundown. A marvellous drumroll for a night of lingering over drinks and small plates. geraldsbar.com

Roma, Melbourne CBD

This is a restaurant ready for its close-up. An ode to the food and style of the Eternal City, Roma is located in a leafy, piazza-like space between a modern high-rise and a 19th-century church. An outdoor terrace leads to a beautiful dining room complete with a black-and-white tiled floor, vintage Italian light fittings and a central marble antipasto table – crowned with a massive arrangement of red roses. Even the crockery – exquisite pastel-coloured porcelain from storied Italian makers Ginori – is photo-worthy. The food includes classics from trippa alla Romana to cacio e pepe, proving that Roma is more than just a pretty face. romamelbourne.com.au

Entrecôte, Prahran

Decked out in antique chandeliers and wood panelling salvaged from a French château, with a Belle Époque-inspired bar, a fireplace and a grand piano providing a live soundtrack, Entrecôte is a lavish 200-seat love letter to the brasseries of Paris. It’s unashamedly theatrical, dishing up greatest hits including steak frites and crème brûlée in a vast space cleverly divided into intimate “rooms” by wafting linen curtains. With golden lamplight glinting off brass, mirrors and electric blue velvet, it feels like stumbling on to a film set – an ideal place (and lighting) for capturing that glamour shot. entrecote.com.au

Manzé, North Melbourne

There’s a charming homeliness to the dining room of this Mauritian restaurant, tucked into a compact Victorian-era shopfront. The shelves lining the 24-seat space are filled with jars of house-made pickles and preserves that feature on the menu, a well-thumbed collection of cookbooks, potted plants and bottles from its wine list. The floors are cork, the chairs wicker-backed, the tables chunky timber, while the walls are painted and tiled in soothing deep green. It’s a deftly assembled space, much like Mauritian cuisine, which melds influences from India, West Africa, China and Europe in dishes like the signature taro and ginger fritters, served with rhubarb hot sauce. manze.com.au