Nine new casual spots in Melbourne are turning heads

Melbourne has no shortage of great bars, restaurants, bakeries and coffee shops. But if you ask me, what makes the city’s food and drink scene truly exceptional is just how great our more casual restaurants are. This year, we’ve seen Good Days transport its excellent pho to Smith Street, Apa’s Canteen bring Bhutanese food to the CBD, and a new generation transform Richmond’s Burmese House. But these nine newcomers – including two Korean soup shops and a new ramen spot from Kantaro Okada – really

caught our attention. Aftermath Diner, Prahran The team behind Hawthorn’s Whiplash is also behind Aftermath, one of Melbourne’s most exciting new breakfast spots. The Greville Street cafe is spearheaded by Jordan Faulkner and retired AFL defender Jordan Roughead, and sits at the intersection of two worlds: nostalgic English greasy spoons and Mexican-influenced LA diners. The food line-up is as exciting as the 2016 Western Bulldogs premiership team: in-house cured pork belly for British-style sangas, slow-cooked chipotle baked beans and exceptional braised beef tacos. But the

star is the hulking hotcake with maple-miso butter. Settle into one of the low-lit booths inside to a high-rotation soundtrack of blues and ’70s rock, or head out to the courtyard and soak up the sun alongside the neighbourhood dogs. – Steph Vigilante, head of social media Aunty’s Dumplings, Carlton Sometimes I can’t believe Aunty’s Dumplings exists. The small Carlton shop has so much heart, it feels like it’s been ripped out of a Pixar film. Running the show are Joris Zhao, her mother Guixia

Li (or Aunty Li) and her father Hua Zhao. Li goes to the Queen Vic Market five days a week to source ingredients for the more than 1000 dumplings she and Joris – who deserves some kind of Daughter of the Year award – handfold per day, with only occasional help from one of Joris’s friends. The dumplings come boiled or fried, stuffed with wonderful combinations of beef and onion; pork, chives and mackerel; or pork, dried shrimp and northern Chinese-style sauerkraut. A green capsicum

special has been my unexpected favourite so far. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food & drink editor Cafe Ogawa, Ascot Vale The bar was quietly raised for Melbourne’s ramen scene when Kantaro Okada (Le Bajo Milkbar, Hareruya Pantry) teamed up with Tokyo ramen royalty Atsushi Ogawa to bring Cafe Ogawa to Ascot Vale. There are no bookings at this intimate spot which commands lines down the street for its Yokohama iekei and deeply rich tonkotsu bowls. The kitchen serves up viscous soup bases loaded with custom-stretched

noodles, smoky pork chashu, and gooey ajitama eggs – and if you happen to score one of the elusive one-in-10 smiley-face eggs, consider yourself very lucky. Snag a spot at the bar counter and you can fix your phone to the overhead roof mount to capture a perfect bird’s-eye snap of your steaming bowl, and your dining companions, below. – Steph Vigilante, head of social media Chicky Boi, Fitzroy There’s no shortage of hulking fried chicken sandwiches in Melbourne. Luckily for me, I never get

sick of them, though I do look for places that approach the sanga menu staple in a different way to their peers. Chicky Boi nails that brief. Adriel Reddy doesn’t give much away in regard to his “secret concoction” chicken brine for good reason – the extra crunchy double-dredged coating gives way to tender meat I can barely wrap my mouth around and a flavour I can’t put my finger on. And Chicky Boi takes a stance: no cheese, no fries. Instead you’ll get crisps

coated with a house dill seasoning. And they pair perfectly with the sandwich. – Scott Renton, Hot List editor Gamja Hotteok, West Melbourne If you get excited by street food, then stumbling upon a hotteok stall is one of the best parts about visiting South Korea. Chef Sangsoo Kim (formerly head chef at James) has brought some of that delight to West Melbourne with his shop Gamja Hotteok. Kim’s take on the chewy griddled then fried pancakes is made with potato dough rather than the

typical fermented wheat flour, leading to a somewhat bouncier texture. They come filled with beef bulgogi; potato and egg salad; pepitas, brown sugar and sunflower seeds; or even japchae (stir-fried sweet potato starch noodles). Whichever hotteok you choose, make sure to pair it with one of Kim’s Favi Ade drinks inspired by cheong, a traditional Korean preparation of fruit preserved with sugar. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food & drink editor Gaon Gamasot Gomtang, Carnegie Koonang Road in Carnegie is a culinary hub so, for something

to stand out, it has to be truly excellent. Gaon Gamasot Gomtang is it. The seven-month-old restaurant from husband-and-wife team Hyunjin Kim and Kyung Lee centres around two soups, both made using giant 240-litre gamasots (cauldrons) sourced from South Korea. Gomtang is made with beef and water, simmered for four to five hours, finished with ginger and ginseng. Seolleongtang has a deeper flavour and is made from beef bones and water, and cooked over two days. Both are deceptively simple, but steaming hot bowls –

served with wheat noodles, sliced beef and spring onion – are a labour of love. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food & drink editor Sagye, CBD When a restaurant only has a small menu, it’s usually a good sign. A tight menu means there’s no room to hide. And that’s exactly the case at Sagye, a new Korean restaurant on Russell Street with just five dishes on offer. The house-made pork mandoo arrives plump and juicy, and the bulgogi, made from Wagyu chuck eye roll, is

restrained, letting the quality of the meat speak for itself. Both those dishes make Sagye worth visiting, but the signature gomtang – a clear beef soup that’s simultaneously nourishing and delicate – is what secured its place as one of the year’s best new openings so far. If you visit, be prepared to wait in line. But it moves surprisingly fast, and your patience will be well rewarded. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food & drink editor Santito, Collingwood Smith Street’s old Hotel Jesus site now

belongs to Santito. The kitchen team will easily win you over with its house-made nixtamal tortillas and stellar produce that’s left to speak for itself. Two dishes have particularly stuck with me: the tuna and avocado tostada, which pulled me straight back to a street corner in Mexico City where I had my first one years ago, and the longaniza taco, all smoky house-made pork sausage, sharp salsa, onion and coriander, wrapped in a tortilla with real chew and depth. Nothing here is overworked. The

flavours are clean, direct and confident enough not to need too much dressing up. – Pauline De Leon, branded content editor Seoul Tiger 1988, CBD I know people love to go all out when it comes to burgers, but personally, I see very little need to mess with perfection. Seoul Tiger 1988 is the exception. The shop from the Baguette Studios founders – director Aileen Seo, head baker Paul Kwon and chef Jiho Sur – adds a Korean edge to four classics. There’s a beef

bulgogi-inspired cheeseburger; a prawn number with a patty made from house-ground prawn meat; and a veggie burger inspired by yachae twigim (thinly sliced, battered and fried vegetables) with house-made Korean pickled onions. But the standout in my mind is the KFC (Korean fried chicken) burger coated in a special sauce inspired by classic Korean sweet-spicy fried chicken. To top it all off, Seoul Tiger 1988 also has excellent house-made buttermilk soft serve, which comes plain, as part of a changing sundae, or the mainstay Tiger

Sundae, a textural delight with layers of peanut brittle, crispy feuilletine, dark chocolate chips and dulce de leche. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food & drink editor

Melbourne food, casual dining, Aftermath Diner, Aunty’s Dumplings, Cafe Ogawa, Chicky Boi, Gamja Hotteok, Gaon Gamasot Gomtang, Sagye, Santito, Seoul Tiger 1988, ramen, dumplings, Korean food