Fantastic contemporary Australian cuisine! Our Aussie friends suggested this restaurant for our…read morefirst night in Melbourne. Service was friendly, everything was delightful and the wine selection was fantastic!! Great introduction to Melbourne dining. The roast lamb for the table was particularly memorable!

Host appears to have too many additional duties causing delays being greeted and seated. Asked for…read moreand received a different table as the one offered was in an awful location. They rush your choices for drinks/food evidently to turn the tables on time. As requested we gave our full order at once. I don't want to have my food start appearing before my cocktail is finished! Long delay between a couple of the tapas style courses. Limited dessert options and overly high priced wines, especially by the glass, although the list is quite extensive. The food is very good. The atmosphere is very loud and slightly chaotic. It's worth a meal but with so many options I doubt we would return.

Had Wednesday steak night with a friend recently, absolutely brilliant - excellent food and…read moreservice. Fantastic atmosphere and very attentive staff. Highly recommended for locals and tourists. ​

It's still got the ambiance. Mac's for the 2020s. Good drinks selection, decent menu.read more

This place had been on our list and we are so glad we finally made it. It's a beautiful space, warm…read moreand inviting. Great for special dinners. We started with the fresh bread, which is not normally warm but we asked for it toasted. We ordered the ribeye and the beef short ribs with chips and the rocket salad. The beef short ribs were the favorite. They were super flavorful and tender. The ribeye was tender and cooked beautifully but not as flavorful even with the chimichurri sauce. We enjoyed the rocket salad. The chips were fine but probably wouldn't order again. The most unexpected treat was the sticky date pudding. We were set on the chocolate cake as we had never tried sticky date pudding but our server suggested otherwise and wow!! So glad we listened...he did not steer us wrong! Overall, we had a wonderful dining experience with excellent food, generous portions and great service. We would happily return.

Incredible 40+ day bone in ribeye. So much marbling makes 500g way too much of a serving if not…read moreused to such rich food. Guarantee extra trip to bathroom that night. Better to share and get something else as well. I prefer to dip in coarse ground salt. The truffle butter didn't add anything for me. Fried cauliflower and broccoli a good accompaniment.

Rare Steakhouse is a two level steakhouse located at Melbourne CBD. The prices are middle of the…read moreroad compared to other steakhouses I've tried in Melbourne. The service needs a little improvement. I was barely acknowledged as I entered the restaurant before I was directed to go upstairs in an empty floor with about 10-15 tables. We were then assigned to the last table by the wall furthest away as if we were penalized. Remember those days where you had to stand on a corner facing the wall as a kid for timeout! That's what I felt like. The entire place was EMPTY！Service was slow and none of the servers looked like they enjoyed their work. In fact, the server took our order AFTER taking the orders from other customers who came in after us. The steak was tender and was nicely grilled but quality of the steaks was middle of the road. Just tasted like your average steak at an average restaurant at an average price -- nothing spectacular. And by the way, the salad tasted average too.

Service and ambience were good. The food was subpar. I started with the salt and pepper calamari…read morewhich obviously came from a bag of frozen calamari. No imagination or presentation with this plate. Just a plate of breaded calamari that arrived less than 5 minutes after I ordered it. I then ordered the Ribeye. It was chewy and had a lot of gristle in it. Half of the pieces I ate I was gnawing through gristle, just not a good piece of meat for 75 AUD. Was not worth the cost at all.

My wife's brother took us here for dinner. Now I'm not a…read morevegetarian, but whenever I go to a place that has a veggie burger on the menu I tend to order it. The reason for this is cause wherever I have been, if that burger is good, then everything else on the menu tends to be great. The reason I say this is because everywhere I have tried the vegetable burger, I go back and everything else is also amazing. But if that is not good, then everything else will be at best, mediocre. Well this was probably the best veggie burger I've had. My wife had a spicy chicken burger which she really enjoyed (same as my brother in law) and we also tried tater tots, poutine fries and jalapeno poppers. Everything eat great and I would definitely tell people to go try this place out. The only 2 things to mention is that it's very loud so it will be hard to have a conversation with friends, and that if it had rained before, avoid sitting at outside tables like we did add you will find slugs on the table or the wall and discover that they actually move pretty fast :p not to mention one was at the side of my cup and I discovered it as I went to drink. Fortunately this was at the end of my meal or it would have really ruined everything. So seriously avoid sitting outdoors or best the tree, if it has recently rained. If it weren't for these two minor things, id give it 5 stars. I can't really blame the establishment for this (although having some sort of outdoor covering could stop this issue).

All 70's all the time! Such an amazing retro ambiance. And the food is amazing! The South Side…read moreFried (chicken) Burger is one of the best sandwiches I've ever put in my mouth. Seriously. And the others in our party of four all enjoyed their (beef) burgers, too. We were on holiday from the US, and Leonards House of Love was one of the dining highlights of our trip.

We had the Pre Theatre set menu before we went to MJ the Musical . Very very impressive , the food…read morewas outstanding, delish!!!!! ALL of the staff that looked after us were amazing , super attentive very friendly and extremely knowledgeable . It may become our new place to go when we come to Melbourne . Highly recommend.

This place is a tapas bar / restaurant on the lower level and they have a rooftop bar as well. We…read morevisited both today and drinks at the rooftop bar followed by dinner at the restaurant on the ground floor. It's a stylish restaurant with nice tables and counter to sit on for a meal or drinks. The menu is small sharing plates and quite expensive for what you get. Tapas is priced per piece and $8.50 per croquette is quite pricey in my opinion. There is plenty of food options including main courses and three different paella's on the menu. The vegetarian options seemed limited here and perhaps they have a separate vegetarian menu but I didn't check to see if they did. The wine list has an ok selection of wine from Australia. NZ and Spain. The food was nice but nothing spectacular. The flavours were not intense enough for me. Sauces in Spain tend to be garlicky, flavorful and packed with flavours unlike the sauces here. Also a tad light on the seasoning. The beef main was very nice but lacked seasoning, the bone marrow on toast was lovely, the croquettes were lovely but the prawn over cooked and not tasty at all. Churros was also average. Great service and super friendly staff and bar tenders. Service was on point and the staff were attentive. Bit more punchy flavours and I would give it five stars.

Pros: * Very large portions and friendly staff…read more * Didn't have any steak but the pasta was nice and very filling. Cons: * It took a little while to get meals. Note for trans people: * No gender-neutral toilets * Staff assume gender and use gendered words when referring to people

My daughter and son in law invited me out to dinner for fathers day to the steakhouse, I ordered a…read morehuge porterhouse steak with vegies and mushroom gravy, it tasted fantastic, it was cooked perfectly and I really enjoyed it, I would recommend this restaurant to anyone its perfect for a carnivore like me, lol

What at amazingly remarkable find in the basement!!!…read more This restaurant was recommended by a local of Melbourne! We always try to support local establishments, especially while traveling! I have to say, THIS is by far.... THE BEST recommendation we've ever received! The restaurant was a tad bit difficult to find, having not been to Australia and not being familiar with basement restaurants, lol. It had quite a unique secluded vibe from the moment the door swung open. The atmosphere was almost hypnotic! There weren't too many patrons eating when we arrived .. but we did arrive shortly after opening. By the time we were finished the tables were 75% occupied, I think in part to only being open for dinner Tuesday-Saturday. The food, as well as the service were both TOP NOTCH! I don't typical care for red meat... but I ordered steak and it was extremely well-prepared! So delicious!!! I asked for it to be well done! It DID come out charcoaled so I made a comment to my husband that was over-heard by the chef, himself! Moments later, he personally delivered a new dinner plate to me with a replacement! Now THAT'S what I call top-notch service! I REALLY wish Meatmaiden would expand to the US! That would be the icing on the cake!!!

We have fallen in love with another Melbourne restaurant. We are even thinking about changing our…read morehotel for next year so we can be closer...we actually have! We can't brag enough about our new find. COVID stopped our travels to Melbourne for three years but hopefully no longer. We selected some winners. They were: 1) Grilled Bread with Beef Fat Butter; 2) 350g Westholme Wagu NY Strip; 3) GEM Lettuce salad; and 4) Hand cut chips. - The Grilled Bread was actually a fried bread that was then brushed with honey and lightly grilled on the bbq. The Beef Fat Butter was awesome. My spouse didn't care for it but I adored it. - Grilled Wagu NY Strip was 330+ day grain fed which only intensified the marble and added so much taste. Not a bite left and it was almost 13 ounces of pure meat. It was perfectly cooked to medium rare (-) temperature. It came with a choice of a sauce and we paid for an additional one. The Three Pepper Sauce and the Beef Fat Bernaise. Both were awesome. I need the recipes! - GEM Lettuce Salad with radishes and dressed with a Burnt Grapefruit Vinaigrette. The vinaigrette made the salad. - Hand Cut Chips w/ a Garlic Aioli - another perfect taste. The chips had a great crispy outside with a very smooth inside. And the Aioli was addictive. Do no pass this great place by. We did not have reservations but should have. We got there early and they were slammed. We saw two empty tables and they offered us one by the front entrance. We eyed the other table and they said "if you can be finished in 1 1/2 hours...we laughed and said there would be no problem and probably be out of here in an hour! MeatMaiden was so upbeat. We just kept looking around in awe. Two old ladies eating in a basement. The atmosphere is awesome. Somewhat darkly lit but light enough to see your food. Very high energy crowd. Service was spectacular. Toward the end of our meal the hostess came over and said we could stay a bit longer. We said thanks but not needed. Highly recommend and also recommend making an advanced booking. Enjoy.