Four To Try: Hot Listed Restaurants With Stunning Designs

The Hot List is the definitive guide to Melbourne’s most essential food and drink experiences, updated weekly. Learn more.

Some of the best meals you’ll eat are enjoyed on overturned milk crates on the footpath, standing on the side of the road, or on a picnic rug at your local park. But sometimes the occasion calls for something special that goes beyond the food.

Melbourne is blessed with plenty of bars and restaurants with awesome architecture. Some are celebrations of contemporary design, others will make you swear you’ve travelled back in time. From the cavernous Cathedral Room at Reine to the understated opulence of Bar Ferdinand, there are stunning spaces befitting of almost any occasion.

These four venues are architectural gems in their own right, blending eye-catching finishes with excellent food. Next time you want to add something extra to your dining experience, book a table at one of these Hot Listed spots that Melburnians are loving right now.

Yiaga, East Melbourne

Yiaga, which opened in October 2025, is one of the most striking restaurants Melbourne has ever seen. The atmosphere is serene and other-worldly, and it’s easy to lose track of time while you eat here.

Renowned architect John Wardle led the build, which is characterised by a tonal, womb-like interior clad with 13,000 ridged, custom-made ochre tiles extruded here in Melbourne. The concrete floor does a convincing imitation of outback dirt, thanks to its iron oxide tint.

Almost everything diners eat off, and with, was made by Australian artisans, many new to the world of restaurants. There’s Jon Goulder Tasmanian blackwood tables and chairs, hand-blown Alexandra Hirst water glasses and chunky Ridgeline Pottery vases.

Yugen Dining, South Yarra

Yugen Tea Bar’s ambitious downstairs sibling is Yugen Dining, reachable through a dramatic glass-walled elevator. The basement restaurant, designed by Architects Eat, features textural stone walls, six-metre-high ceilings, glowing gold accents and a statement chandelier made up of hundreds of glass pendants.

The tea bar upstairs won a category in 2023’s globally renowned Restaurant & Bar Design Awards. Downstairs, the restaurant follows the same design-led ethos. Natural light is not at play here; as a result, when you step back outside, there’s a feeling that you can only get on holiday. That’s a testament to the immersion offered by the restaurant’s design.

The Japanese-led menu is excellent and can be had omakase-style inside a wooden sphere on the mezzanine overlooking the rest of the space.

Santito, Collingwood

Santito, while not as high-brow architecturally as the other venues on this list, makes up for it with character. The Victorian-era building and white-tiled interior is unlike most restaurants in the city. The Santito crew kept most of the original fit-out by Mash Design intact as it had been built for another Mexican restaurant, Hotel Jesus.

It’s reminiscent of a haunted old hospital in the best possible way. Eating tacos in such surroundings sounds like a fever dream, but it’s nothing you can’t sweat out with the help of the house-made salsas – verde, roja and habanero – all on hand to finish your tacos, which are handmade from scratch.

Outside, the building stands out, even on Smith Street. Cream-coloured columns frame the doors to Santito. Above them, balconies (which are residential) are tucked under grand archways. Wedged in between Coles and Cash Converters, the building seems like an odd place to live, let alone open a restaurant. But it works. It’s hard to grasp the exterior up close, so cross the road and look up to appreciate the beauty of the entire building.

Gimlet, CBD

Step into the elegant ground floor dining room at Cavendish House and you’ll feel like you’re in 1920s New York, not 2020s Melbourne. Andrew McConnell’s grand restaurant, designed by Sydney firm Acme, makes Gimlet feel like the kind of place that entices you to blow off work early and settle into one of the plush burgundy booths with a mid-afternoon Martini.

Black and white tiling, large chandeliers and parquet floorboards with soaring ceilings, art deco columns and sentinel rows of champagne bottles recall the grand hotels of London and New York. The central square black-and-gold marble bar speaks to the team’s determination that this is a bar first, eatery second. But the food is outstanding.

Gimlet, though grand, feels like it’s for everyone. It’s an approachable high-end dining experience for the uninitiated and a great special occasion spot. The design invites you to look closer and marvel, not feel out of place.

The Hot List is proudly sponsored by Square.
Additional reporting by Nick Connellan