Restaurants near Melbourne Athenaeum

Worth the experience, they will explain every dish to you. Value is decent.

If you want a review of the steaks at Meat Maiden, scroll on. I didn’t order steak…which is perhaps akin to going to Red Rooster and not ordering chicken. I went for the miso cauliflower, perhaps not the first choice of most diners. But I made our reservation because I knew my mega-carnivorous husband would love it. And he did. So yes, the food was excellent. Go for the food. But waaaaaaaay better than the food were the staff. Unlike the current trend for waitstaff to make it obvious they’d rather be anywhere than taking your food order, MM staff all genuinely looked like they wanted to be there. They were joyful, engaging and had each other’s backs. They worked together like a well oiled machine and it was fun and heart warming to watch. I’d go back for the chips. For the crème caramel, for the cauliflower and the donut. My husband would go back for the burnt ends and the pork belly and scallops. But most of all, we’d go back for Nathan and the rest of the staff.

My first dining experience here although my friend has raved about this place for ages. So I booked based on her recommendation. Fabulous place - food was excellent and wait staff were amazing and helped to elevate what was already a great experience. Hugo and Sean provided expert knowledge of food (and sake) and made sure that we were well looked after. Will definitely visit again - awesome experience !

Love it! Sat at raw bar with exellent service from our chef. They even made off menu cocktails for us. Gianni was very attentive as well. Highly recommend this place

The staff made us feel very welcome despite the fact that we were late because of city traffic. They were aware that we were going to a show at 7pm so they gave us menus to look at while we were waiting for a table to be set up. We ordered when we sat down and our meals came out very quickly. The food was delicious…. the best risotto I have had in a long time! We left the restaurant 45minutes after we arrived and left in time to see beginning of the show! Thank you so much!