Alejandro Saravia is behind local favourites Farmer’s Daughters and Victoria by Farmer’s Daughters. The Peruvian-born chef then opened Morena in Sydney, a sophisticated Latin American diner in Martin Place.

His Melbourne outpost of the concept brings two Morena venues to Little Collins Street: Morena restaurant and Morena Barra, an all-day bar inspired by Latin American cantinas. It’s the venue’s more casual offshoot where things get a bit more playful.

Each menu item is labelled by country of origin. You’ll find Chilean smoked mussels, Venezuelan spanner crab arepas with avocado and trout roe, and Mexican jelly made from hibiscus flower topped with macerated seasonal fruit.

The beverage list is also a showcase of the region. There’s a range of pisco-based cocktails and a wine list dominated by South American varietals known as criolla and minimal-intervention producers using clay pot fermentation.