It’s hard to know whether to call Barragunda a regenerative farm with a restaurant attached or a restaurant taking paddock-to-plate to its logical extreme. Either way, the Mornington Peninsula estate was a 2025 revelation. Running between 250 and 400 impeccably raised Black Angus cattle on the sprawling property, its careful land stewardship is tasted on Simone Watts’ menu, from steak tartare with snow apple and curry leaf to perfectly blushing steaks with seasonal sides. Most ingredients are grown on site, profits fund regenerative agriculture projects and even bones are reused as stock and soil-enriching bone char in a virtuous cycle.

Sometimes, the most memorable dishes are also the simplest. Tzaki’s flatbread is the ultimate example: flour, water, sea salt and heat transformed into something perfectly chewy, charred and deeply moreish. It’s excellent on its own, but the rotating compound butters – rich and salty, infused with flavours like feta and kalamata olive; or graviera, a nutty Greek cheese – push it into standout territory. The dish captures what Tzaki does best: stripping things back while paying close attention to technique and flavour. In a dining scene often driven by novelty, this flatbread is a reminder that measured restraint can be just as exciting.

Beyond working in some of Melbourne’s best restaurants, Tom Sarafian has built a reputation for his hummus – a handmade rendition that takes three days to make and puts most commercial versions to shame. At his new solo venture, Zareh, it’s an obvious draw. The hummus is plated and finished with a small divot holding spanner crab and king prawn, plus Sarafian’s signature stripes of paprika. On the side, there’s a pile of saj, a Levantine flatbread baked fresh in the charcoal oven. That alone is reason to visit, though arak-driven cocktails, Armenian wine and excellent service round out the experience.

Ask a Melburnian for a bar recommendation, and Caretaker’s Cottage will likely come up. The pint-sized bar has been Australasia’s highest-ranked on the World’s 50 Best Bars list two years’ running. Now, the trio behind it have broken in a new bar, 100m away. Guinness and martinis may be Caretaker’s signatures, but at Three Horses, ‘sherry reigns’. Start your introduction to the Spanish fortified wine with classic sherry cocktail, the cobbler. Built over crushed ice with mandarin-infused sherry and Caretaker’s Black Forest liqueur, custom-made by local distillers Marionette, the House Cobbler will leave you champing at the bit to learn more.

Sell someone a loaf of bread and feed them for a day; teach them to bake and keep them addicted to carbs for a lifetime. Michael and Pippa James, founders of cult bakery Tivoli Road, have returned to the retail baking fray with their new Abbotsford space, and they’re spreading the gospel of home-baked sourdough bread, one hands-on class at a time. Sign up to learn all about the mysteries of active starters, artisan flours, proofing and shaping, and wrangling a kitchen oven – it’s a brilliant way to discover the joys of being a baker, minus the 3am alarm.

Across Eastern Europe, almost every country has its own version of dumplings. In Ukraine, they’re called varenyky. At Otakoi, Melbourne’s first and only Ukrainian restaurant, founded by Ukrainian refugee Hanna Kachura, they’re offered in three variations: classic potato finished with crispy bacon bits; beans and mushrooms with caramelised onions; and salmon and cream cheese folded into jet-black wrappers and finished with roe. The latter is a more contemporary interpretation, but Kachura’s dumplings are otherwise faithful to tradition – steamed to order and served with sour cream in ornate ceramics imported from Ukraine. If you can’t decide, the tasting plate combines all three.

If the artisan baking scene has become a trend-seeking arms race (I’ll see your cruller and raise you a babka), Butter Days’ pastry chef John Demetrios definitely won 2025 with the sunshine bun. A play on the Norwegian solskinnsboller, or sun bun, this danish-adjacent little number delivers cinemascope visual pop with its vibrant orange-yellow vanilla custard set in the centre of a ring of flaky pastry with the deep suntan of a 1970s supermodel. Add its irresistible coffee-companion comfort factor, and it’s sure to keep riding high in the public’s affections, even when the next hot baking trend comes along.

This warmly welcoming Palestinian cafe has just one main item on the menu: breakfast sofra, a $25 vegetarian banquet comprising nine dishes. Za’atar doused with olive oil – two foundational Palestinian ingredients – is a natural starting point, followed by wild cucumber pickles, olives, a house-brined salty cheese called jibneh baladiyeh, and makdous made from marinated baby eggplants stuffed with walnut, garlic and chilli. The qudsiyeh, a classic Jerusalem breakfast of hummus topped with fava beans, is another highlight. Vegans are looked after with a plant-based sofra that skips the dairy. For something lighter, there’s also a cabinet of Palestinian-inspired pastries.

This small corner chicken shop on a quiet St Kilda strip quickly became one of Melbourne’s most talked-about recent openings. Chef and co-owner Narit Kimsat has worked in notable kitchens including Earth Angels, La Pinta, Capitano and Clover, but here draws on his Bangkok upbringing, serving smoky, Thai-inspired grilled chicken with finesse. Prices start at $13 for a quarter chook. At lunch, pair it with sticky rice and made-to-order som tum (papaya salad) for $15, and add on pandan chiffon cake by new pastry chef Angela Mogridge. Seating is limited, but the St Kilda Botanical Gardens are a stroll away.

Tucked away on Celestial Avenue is Taqueria Sin Nombre, the new sibling of food truck Dingo Ate My Taco, loved as much for its cheeky, laid-back vibe as its Tex-Mex fare. The taco menu moves between Mexico City classics like al pastor and local riffs like kangaroo asada, but the brisket costra is the clearest expression of the venue’s identity. Slow-smoked beef brisket is served on a house-made tortilla layered with melted cheese, nodding to Texan barbecue while staying firmly taco-first. Go all in and add crispy chicken-skin chicharrón, and explore the mezcal range – the venue recently secured its liquor licence.

When you sit down to dine at du Fermier in the historic timber town of Trentham, you’re placing yourself in Annie Smithers’ hands for the afternoon. There is no menu to pore over and no decisions to make. Instead, the set four-course lunch reflects French farmhouse cooking at its best: ethically raised meat, vegetables pulled from Smithers’ garden that morning, bread baked in-house and dairy used generously. Whether it’s crepes filled with pumpkin and ricotta or a rich beef bourguignon with mash, with dishes this good, you can see why Smithers believes lunch is the most important meal of the day.

Set inside one of Bendigo’s most beautiful original bank buildings (complete with a bullet hole from an attempted robbery in the 1800s), Terrae sits at the edge of the city’s vibrant arts precinct. The kitchen turns out excellent house-made pastas, with the casarecce a standout. Made daily using Goodness Flour milled in nearby Harcourt, small scrolls of pasta are tossed with tender local mushrooms, cavolo nero and crunchy walnuts, before being finished with cultured cream. It’s richly satisfying, and reflects how Terrae draws on European techniques while staying firmly connected to its home, which is a UNESCO City of Gastronomy.

Culinary nostalgia is the trend that refuses to die, but special kudos to Castlemaine brewpub Love Shack for unearthing the vol-au-vent from the crypt. The French pastry puff dates back to the 1700s, but holds a misty-eyed place in the hearts of anyone who lived through a 1970s dinner party, which makes it ripe for a Gen Z reprise. Gussied up with a mushroom and parmesan cream filling, plus a halo of balsamic-spiked frisee lettuce doing its thing for modern sensibilities, it’s a time-capsule dish that makes us want to feed our pet rock while watching Saturday Night Fever.

The bitter, botanical versatility of amaro, Italy’s beloved digestif, has made it a go-to ingredient for cocktails with an edge. It also piqued the interest of acclaimed chef Michael Ryan from Beechworth’s Provenance. Born out of a Covid-era side hustle, his Beechworth Bitters range is the star of The Parlour Amaro Bar, a plush space above the mothership launched with his sommelier partner Jeanette Henderson, where amaro – straight, sour or spiced – is the star of a sophisticated show. Factor salty snacks into the equation – think oysters or a Japanese play on the gilda, vibrant with yuzu kosho – for a destination drink.

The tableside chocolate mousse at Maison Bâtard might have turned heads, but it’s the Fruits Rouges et Chantilly à la Vanille that has held our attention. Bourke Street’s four-storey ode to France is, without a word of an insult, mightily concerned with appearances. And prettiest of them all? This simple, seasonal dish; soft serve whorled into a coupe, dressed with chantilly cream, red berries and a drizzle of berry coulis. The confection has popped up on the menu of sister venue Grill Americano Sydney as the Gelato di Frutta, officially heralding it as a signature dish for the powerful restaurant group.