Snack Bar: $5 Sangas from Nico’s, Four Excellent Smash Burger Spots and More Food News This Week

What’s happening around town

• Indigenous chef Nick Geddes is taking over the Enter Via Laundry kitchen for a Naidoc Week dinner on Tuesday July 7. For $125 per person, you’ll enjoy a five-course meal including crocodile bhaji (an Indian fritter), braised kangaroo tail with paperbark damper, and a yabby and abalone biryani. Bookings essential.

• Reine, Edition Hospitality’s grand French diner, is holding truffle lunches every Sunday until July 12. The four-course menu is $185 per person and includes truffle mashed potatoes; Sher Wagyu MB9 beef cheek with watercress, kohlrabi and truffle; and Jerusalem artichoke and truffle crème brûlée. Plus, wholegrain and rye sourdough with black truffle cultured butter made in collaboration with Madeleine Butter.

• Nico’s sandwich automat has introduced a new winter menu of three fried chicken sandwiches at escalating levels of spice – medium, hot and seriously hot – as well as a medium-spicy fried plant-based “chicken” sanga. Plus, in July, any time the weather drops below 5 degrees Celsius, each sandwich will be available for just $5.

What we covered this week

• Shannon Martinez opens a new Smith & Deli on Degraves Street.

• First look: The Mulberry Group flips its Abbotsford bistro – again.

• Ca Com and Tom Sarafian are making banh mi shawarma this Sunday.

• Carnation Canteen chef Audrey Shaw and Pidapipo have teamed up on a pie and gelato combo, available for three weeks only.

• Six to try: suburban Korean restaurants for comforting soup.

• Coming soon: Market stall Cakehouse to bring its Americana bakes to a permanent shop in Fitzroy.

• Where Chefs Eat: 27 top chefs on the best wine bars and restaurants for a snack and a glass.

• Four to try: smash burger diners and pop-ups to add to your list.

• Australia’s best pie has been crowned for 2026 – and it’s from a Victorian bakery.

• Juni’s head chef shares the five dishes you need to order at the mod-Asian diner.

• A Michelin-starred taqueria joins forces with Chin Chin for three nights only.

• New hire: Jamsheed’s head chef John Cassie is perfecting his chicken schnitzel.

• Gallery: Robata and Tamura joined forces for a one-night-only Japanese feast.

You might have missed

• Chef’s Kiss: supermarket tinned tomatoes tested and rated by Julia Busuttil Nishimura.