There’s a lot of doom and gloom around restaurants these days. This year we’ve seen staples including Izakaya Den and Gingerboy close, and the cost of living crisis paired with rising business costs continues to be a lethal combination.

But there’s a lot to celebrate, too. The Korean fine-dining scene in Melbourne continues to grow with chef Mika Chae’s Doju (which opened at the end of last year, after our best new restaurants of 2023 list was published). Bistros are back, and a spot like Bistra in Carlton is taking the stuffiness out of white tablecloth dining. And first-generation chefs like John Rivera of Askal are taking the skills they learnt in European-leaning fine-dining restaurants and are cooking the food they grew up with.

Here in alphabetical order are our picks for the best new restaurants of the year so far.

Askal is a portmanteau of “asong kalye”, a Tagalog term meaning “street dog” which, as contributor Sandra Tan wrote in her first look story, is “a mascot of Filipino resilience, resourcefulness and adaptability that resonates particularly with the diaspora”. A group of Filipino hospitality pros, John Rivera, Michael Mabuti, Ralph bo-on, Carlos Consunji and Dhenvirg Ugot, opened this restaurant back in February.

Chef Rivera (Amaru, Sunda, Lume) starts with a strong snack game, exemplified by a standout barbeque pork skewer with staple Filipino condiment banana ketchup and atchara (Filipino pickled papaya). He continues serving hits right through to dessert. Libo-on looks after drinks and uses ingredients like calamansi and coconut sap (and he somehow made me a durian convert with his Cecil’s Sour). But what makes Askal an essential visit is the sense of community injected through the space. While venues can sometimes feel cookie-cutter, you leave Askal with the feeling that only this specific group of people could have opened this restaurant.

– Audrey Payne, Melbourne food and drink editor

Bubbling French onion soup. Juicy chicken breast with bagna cauda (Italian anchovy-garlic dip). A nostalgic cheeseburger that’s become a surprising signature. It’s a banger-after-banger line-up of plates at Bistra. The glowing Elgin Street bistro has become an instant classic in Carlton’s dining scene, thanks to co-owners Joseph Ho, Henry Crawford (Bar Romantica) and Alexei Taheny-Macfarlane. They’ve struck a clever balance between old-school bistro style (hello, white tablecloths) and unbuttoned but laser-sharp service that makes you want to come back for more.

– Stephanie Vigilante, head of social media

There’s a little bit of magic about this vine-covered building that was once home to ’80s hotspot Tansy’s, then Little Andorra, and now Brico. I was walking past the other afternoon and saw a buzzing crowd through the polished windows and had to go inside for a glass of wine. I swear there are mysterious forces at work. I’ve visited a few times since it opened in January and the menu changes with the seasons but will probably include crudités with house-made taramasalata, a pasta, a pie, a fish, a salad.

This is the sort of place where you should listen to the bartender’s recommendation and order something lush and mineral that you’ve never heard of. It’s run by a team of pros: head chef Simon Ball-Smith, owners Josh Begbie and Phil Bracey, and their partners Robyn Nethercote and Tegan Ella Hendel all met working in London, and that Euro influence shows. It’s the smart-casual spot you’ll wish was on your corner. And they make really cool posters.

– Michael Harry, features editor

Carnation Canteen is exactly the restaurant I was craving. I just didn’t know it. Owner and chef Audrey Shaw, who worked under Ruth Rogers at The River Cafe in London, has given us something special here. I have a feeling we’ll be talking about it for a long time. Everything about it is confident, elegant and energetic. The space is small, with about 20 seats inside with just a few more outside, but it feels like a dinner party. The menu is ingredient-led and changes weekly, with the exception of the King George whiting – and thank god, because I’m going to keep going back for it.

Importantly, confident and elegant doesn’t mean stiff. This place is fun. The staff are knowledgeable but playful and they play the music loud. It’s exactly what you want from your neighbourhood canteen.

– Nick Shelton, founder and publisher

You’d be sorry to miss this small, dark and intimate restaurant in a not-so-frequented end of Little Collins Street. Mika Chae’s cooking takes classic Korean flavours and puts them through a very Melbourne lens. Small plates, lots of moody styling, and a whole heap of funk and spice. While there’s lots to love on the menu, the aptly named Doju potato is my favourite and a dish you shouldn’t miss. It’s potato pavé topped with butter and shaved truffle – the perfect pairing for Chae’s doenjang-marinated Berkshire pork chop. – Claire Adey, contributor

A bar and restaurant. A venue and wine producer. Earth Angels is a lot of things, and it masters them all, but the food is what keeps drawing me back. It’s thoughtful and unapologetic, drawing on head chef Narit Kimsat’s Thai roots and his most memorable dining experiences (which he documents on his Instagram page @hotnoodlecoldwine), and is made using whatever produce he can get his hands on within a small radius of the restaurant. The dishes show serious expertise but aren’t fussy – chicken wings on star-shaped white bread and chips with gravy are two of the most popular items.

– Quincy Malesovas, contributor

Greville Street’s alluring new Sri Lankan restaurant is by Jason Jones and Brahman (Bremi) Perera, the pair behind Entrecote. In the convivial dining room, you might spot Perera’s mother roaming between tables, welcoming guests and sharing stories of the menu (like why the mango fluff is a tribute to Bremi’s grandmother). As its name suggests, this place is all about hoppers, the bowl-shaped “pancakes” (made from fermented ground rice and coconut milk), which accompany punchy sambals and curries on stainless steel trays. Ring the antique bell on your table and waitstaff will whisk out some freshies from the open kitchen.

– Stephanie Vigilante, head of social media

It’s exciting to see such an ambitious restaurant opened by a group other than the usual suspects. And even better when they pull it off. The team behind Lucia are neighbourhood dining pros, with restaurants including Riserva in Malvern East and Baia di Vino in Sandringham under their belts.

At Lucia, they bring a neighbourhood feel to the inner city, in large part thanks to restaurant manager Christian Janko, who leads the front-of-house team and worked at France Soir for over 20 years. His front-of-house talent is complemented by chef Jordan Clavaron’s kitchen skills, honed at restaurants including Society and Cutler & Co.

It’s got old-school spirit, but a 2024 feeling.

– Audrey Payne, Melbourne food and drink editor

I didn’t know I’d signed up for a magic show when I visited Ronin Omakase. Owner and chef Patrick Kwong’s omakase stands out with its surprising spins on nigiri with nods to Malaysian, Mexican and Italian cuisines. But it also feels like an intimate magician’s set. At one of the 10 seats, I watched him work behind the marble bar. A few courses in, he set a slice of swordfish before me and said it comes with “side effects”. “Side effects?” I thought. “Like, anaphylactic shock?” It was much less sinister. Within minutes, my mouth was numb from the Mala spice laced inside the fish.

But my favourite course was his toro nigiri. He presented a sliver of caviar-topped tuna belly, whipped out a spray bottle and spritzed gold dust onto it. “This is the 10-carat toro,” he said. Kwong does omakase his own way, and gives big sorcerer vibes while he’s at it. As he moved towards the next guest in line, flecks of gold dust floated in the air behind him.

– Holly Bodeker Smith, directory editor (app)

It was a blow to Melbourne’s dining scene when Karen Martini’s restaurant Hero at ACMI suddenly and dramatically closed late last year. But Martini is back, taking the reins as culinary director at Saint George (now run by Public Hospitality).

At the storied St Kilda pub, she’s plating up crisp, house-made potato cakes alongside whipped cod roe, zingy fried fish burgers and supersized steaks. And for dessert? Order the pavlova for two. It’s scorched on the outside and filled with lemon curd, vanilla gelato and raspberry jelly.

– Stephanie Vigilante, head of social media

Two pop-ups, Little Lagos and Sachi, have caught our attention.

Little Lagos is a Nigerian pop-up from Adetokunboh “Ade” Adeniyi’s Sydney restaurant of the same name. The pop-up at Oko Rooftop and Cafe in Fitzroy, only runs on Saturdays, but you’ll find Little Lagos signatures like goat stew and black-eyed beans.

Sachi, the work of former Kisume chef Reki Reinantha, is a Hawthorn pop-up that specialises in chirashi don – bowls of vinegar-seasoned rice with thick slabs of sashimi arranged flower-like around a cured egg-yolk heart.

We were also taken by chef Alex Kaew’s Thai restaurant Charlong in St Kilda, new Fitzroy omakase restaurant Sushi Mijo and Mornington Italian spot Mr Vincenzo’s from Matti Fallon, which marked the chef’s return after a devastating electrical fire last October claimed his restaurant Colt less than a month after opening.