Four to Try: Hot-Listed Restaurants Proving Service Still Matters

We go to restaurants for the food and the atmosphere, but what leaves the longest-lasting impression is often how they made us feel.

You never forget the service. Those magic, deeply human touches that happen when the front and back of house harmonise to make you believe you’re the most important person in the room.

Like the time the sommelier helped find just the right bottle of wine to please everyone at the table. Or the time you put your partner’s birthday into the special requests section, expecting nothing, and the chef sent out off-menu snacks and sweets. Or the time the waitstaff, without missing a beat, perfectly accommodated your tricky dietary requirements. Those are the meals you remember.

Fit-outs, lighting, playlists and ambience might give a restaurant its identity, but service is what gives a restaurant its soul. That's why we created The Hot List: to track Melbourne’s best food and buzziest openings – but also celebrate the places, old and new, that excel at warm service and hospitality.

We’re living through tough times for customers and restaurants alike. It’s easy to see why so many businesses are shortening hours, trimming headcounts, using QR code ordering and more. But The Hot List shows there’s an abundance of places where service isn’t a liability on the balance sheet – it’s an invaluable asset.

Service still matters. We think it’s never mattered more. Give one of these spots a try, and we know you’ll think so too.

The old-school bar solving modern problems with modern solutions

Ask anyone who’s been to Le Splendide what it’s like to go and they’ll have to tell you, not show you. That’s because you need to affix stickers (which are supplied) to your phone’s cameras before you’re allowed in. The idea is that removing your access to photography will help you live in the moment, rather than trying to document it. And without having a lens in your face, you might feel more free, laid-back and ready for a good time. We couldn’t agree more. And this plush and clubbish Souh Yarra bar, the next-door follow-up to the legendary France Soir, is a very good time. Just like its older sibling, this tight 40-seater oozes Gallic charm – and the extensive wine list and cocktail selection is ably matched by the charming and well-informed staff. Le Splendide’s no-photos policy is proof that service and consideration of your experience can start before you even walk through the door. That’s pretty splendid.

The couple making British food sexy again

Reed House is a little British-influenced restaurant in the CBD, and it's one of the most popular restaurants on The Hot List. Who’d have thought, in 2025, that we’d be losing it for roast potatoes, scotch eggs, and ploughman’s plates? But when you come here and experience it for yourself, you get it. It makes perfect sense. Romantic 19th century bluestone cottage exteriors and warm, modern interiors. A kitchen helmed by co-owner and former Ottolenghi and Capitano chef Mark Hannell. A floor and drinks list serenely presided over Hannell’s fellow co-owner and partner Rebecca Baker. All delivered by supremely competent and warm staff. Every constituent part of Reed House conspires to form a seamless experience far greater than the sum of its (seriously good) parts. It makes for an experience that’s difficult to fault. It’s late summer, and Reed House is already packed. Just wait till winter, when the space’s two fireplaces are roaring. Then it’ll be completely irresistible.

The Athenian tavern by a front-of-house legend

Like water or electricity, good Greek food in Melbourne is often treated like a utility. Like it’s always going to be a given. Like it’s a basic human right. But over the last decade or so, with the closures of chains like Jimmy Grants and institutions like Olympic Doughnuts, it had begun to feel like Greece’s long-running influence on Melbourne, fuelled by a post-war migrant boom, was finally beginning to wane; a legacy consigned to a handful of stalwarts like Stalactites and Jim’s Greek Tavern. It doesn’t feel like that anymore. Off the heels of openings last year like the Hot-Listed Kafeneion, Greek is once again starting to feel essential to the fibre of Melbourne. And Taverna, which opened a few weeks ago, is the latest to join the party. It’s an Athens-style eatery in Brunswick East by Guy Holder and Ange Giannakodakis, of the dearly missed Epocha. And it deploys Giannakodakis’s well-earned reputation for peerless hospitality to great effect. The atmosphere is warm, the food is hearty and plentiful, and it’s affordable enough to encourage many repeat visits. Greek is back, and we couldn’t be more glad.

The rising chef beating the sophomore slump

When a lot of money is lavished upon a dining room filled with suited staff and white-tablecloth, the food leaving the kitchen that hits those tables is typically European. Not at Kolkata Cricket Club. This sumptuous 150-seat restaurant at the Crown Melbourne evokes the grandeur of India’s elite members clubs. It’s yet another home-run from chef Mischa Tropp. We never doubted Tropp’s cooking (his debut restaurant Toddy Shop, which is also Hot-Listed, is proof enough of that), but Kolkata has amply proven Tropp’s ability to scale things up and really dial in the service side of things. The result is a menu filled with Bengali specialties and pan-Indian classics, served with impeccable knowledge and good cheer. So whether you’re enjoying a naan and a beer while you watch the cricket in the front sports bar, or you’ve brought a large group for a special occasion, you’ll be in safe hands at Kolkata.

broadsheet.com.au/hotlist/melbourne

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