Favourite local restaurants of top Melbourne chefs and Good Food Guide reviewers
Michael Harry
Photo: Joe Armao
Ben Shewry, Attica
France-Soir is just super consistent, and that s an underrated commodity in restaurants. We focus so much on newness but this place does not vary at all and holds its standard so well. They import a lot of wine and the wines by the glass are excellent. I love the room and watching all the people who come in – you ll see everyone from young couples on a date to people in their 80s just sitting down for dinner at 9pm or 10pm. There s nowhere else in Australia quite like it.
You know what they say. You can t miss what you ve never had, but then someone hands you a slice of coulibiac with a glass of mtsvane and you wonder if you have ever truly lived.
So it is with Gray and Gray Bread and Wine, a collaboration between fine-dining-chef-turned-baker Boris Portnoy of Northcote s All Are Welcome bakery and winemaker Mitch Sokolin, which celebrates Russia (their shared heritage) and Georgia (where they made wine together), thus filling a major dining gap for Melburnians we barely knew was there.
Speaking of which – and this is an important point for anyone who wishes to experience the joys of drinking Georgian wines and eating honey cake – you will quite literally not realise that Gray and Gray is there.