• Five to try: new Melbourne Italian restaurants for the five people not in Italy right now. (If every second post on your Instagram feed is of Puglia or the Amalfi Coast, while away a winter night at one of these new spots.)

• At long last, Chae’s serene new six-seat Korean restaurant in the mountains has an opening date. Set a reminder for when bookings open.

• How much do you love Nico’s? You could get free sangas for a month if you’re willing to get its logo – a very regal frog – tattooed on you at new Brunswick tattoo studio Korpus. Here’s all the fine print.

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• The new limited edition seafood platters at Khanh Nguyen’s Sunda and Aru are things of pure beauty. Sunda’s appeared on Masterchef last month, while Aru’s is a supersized, woodfired version that includes torched bugs with Maggi hollandaise.

• First Look: Get family-sized pies with all the trimmings (and shareable snag rolls) at Seddon’s reborn Mona Castle Hotel, where the west-side pride runs deep.

• This year’s prestigious World’s 50 Best Restaurants list has been announced. And only one Aussie diner made the longlist. All the details.

• “I hate cooking from recipes”: Ixta Belfrage on her first solo cookbook since the Yotam Ottolenghi co-penned Flavour, and why fusion doesn’t have to be a dirty word.

• Gun chef couple – Etta’s Saavni Krishnan, and Sriram Aditya – are bringing their second Saadi pop-up up to North Melbourne’s Manze next month. The menu looks A-plus.

• Now open in Hawthorn: Whiplash, a retro sandwich and bagel joint in a curvy converted milk bar. Retired AFL player Jordan Roughead has joined forced with his former barista – and a few of his old Collingwood teammates.

• First Look: 1896-built Sorrento stalwart Stringers reopens as a sleek all-day diner and deli. The longstanding limestone facade remains on the corner, but the interior bears almost no resemblance to the cafe’s former self, thanks to the hospo group behind Higher Ground and Top Paddock.

• Ex-Bar Saracen head chef and hummus expert Tom Sarafian is heading back to Andrew McConnell’s all-day classic Cumulus Inc – with long Sunday lunches, seafood barbeques and his signature hummus.

• Can Naught Distilling’s sangiovese gin top the popularity of Four Pillars’ Bloody Shiraz?

• Izakayas, omakase experiences, convenience stores and more: Melbourne’s best new Japanese-inspired openings.