Four Dishes To Try at Serve Festival 2025 by Top Melbourne Chefs

There’s one big highlight on our January itinerary and – sorry, sports fans – it’s not the Australian Open. After a smashing debut earlier this year, Serve Festival returns in 2025, bringing a range of exclusive dining offers and one-off menus to Mastercard cardholders. That means whether you’re a tennis tragic or not, there’s plenty of action to get excited about in the new year.

This time around, Serve brings 10 priceless drink and dining offers to some of the city’s best spots, like Dessous, Future Future and BKK. But the highlights come courtesy of Atria, Circl, Yugen and Poodle – all of which are set to host one-night-only priceless dining experiences. While we’re not giving away too much just yet, Broadsheet caught up with the chefs behind each menu for a little preview.

Atria

Victorian crudo with cucumber, hakurei turnip and tempura warrigal greens

For Atria’s Serve menu centrepiece, chef Michael Greenlaw is leaning into the restaurant’s 80th-floor Port Phillip Bay views for a take on one of his signature dishes – a Victorian crudo of lesser-known local fish. “One of my passions is freediving and spearfishing, and I find these beautiful fish in Port Phillip Bay that are never available commercially,” he says.

Greenlaw hasn’t settled on the catch yet (it’ll probably be longsnout boarfish or grass whiting), but the finished dish will be lifted with a fermented cucumber dressing, Japanese hakurei turnip and tempura warrigal greens. “This dish has got it all – that beautiful, raw texture of fish that’s quite fresh, the cucumber crunch, the turnip, and then some nice crunch from tempura warrigal greens.”

Circl Wine House

Corner Inlet calamari with ’nduja, morcilla, celeriac

“Everything on our food menu is designed with wine in mind,” says Circl chef Elias Salomonsson. With a cellar boasting over 4000 bottles and a by-the-glass list of 150, it’s clear that wine is at the core of everything to do with Circl, which bills itself as a “wine house” rather than wine bar.

For Serve, Salomonsson is weaving wine-worthy share plates across an 11-dish menu – anchored by a flavour-packed dish of Corner Inlet calamari that begs to be accompanied by a glass of something crisp. “We slice the calamari really thin, so it has almost a noodle-like consistency,” he says. “We then get some really good ’nduja from Saison in Queensland and cook it to make a flavoured oil, and the calamari just absorbs all that flavour and vibrant red colour. On the bottom, for rich creaminess, we have a celeriac puree, and in between we have morcilla, a Spanish-style blood sausage that we crisp up.”

Yugen Dining

Dry aged duck with black ginger and kombu dressing

Below Yugen’s street-level tea bar, Yugen Dining weaves its Asian influences through some inventive, impressive dining spaces – including a golden-lit, orb-shaped room and its exclusive, eight-seat omakase bar. The subterranean space makes a fine backdrop to the diner’s Serve menu, which this year is headlined by a dish of 14-day dry aged duck.

“I think it’ll be a fan favourite,” says Yugen culinary director Stephen Nairn. “It’s dry aged for 14 days, then we rub a lot of spices into it, including green Sichuan and coriander seed.” The aromatic duck is further heightened with a dressing of charred ginger simmered with kombu. Nairn isn’t giving too much away, but the duck is presented on the crown – the breast, bone-in, without the legs – and will be crisp on the outside and pink on the inside.

Poodle Bar & Bistro

Prawn cocktail with pickled celery, avocado and cucumber

Poodle achieves a fine balance, weaving Euro influences with touches of old-school Australiana. For chef Emma Dawson, nothing evokes Poodle’s unique point of view more than its Serve centrepiece and menu staple – the classic Poodle prawn cocktail. “We’re always going to have some sort of form of prawn cocktail,” she says, “it just fits with our aesthetic and our theme.”

For its Serve incarnation, Dawson is weaving in some fresh flavours worthy of a scorching Aussie summer. “I’ve been playing around with pickled celery, which isn’t new or life-changing, but I’ve been pickling it in escabeche pickles,” she says. “There’s quite a bit of shallot and green chilli, so it’s a little bit spicy and a little bit sweet.” The pickle – which Dawson likens to a celery tartare – is essentially a condiment for the cocktail. “You get fresh, poached prawns and a tomato salt, and dip it into this pickled celery tartare.”

Serve Festival is presented by Broadsheet in partnership with Mastercard.