• These are the 22 best new restaurants in Melbourne. Consider this guide your winter hit list.

• One of Melbourne’s best Spanish diners has popped up at the NGV alongside the blockbuster Picasso exhibition. Expect golden jamon croquetas, blood-orange crème caramel and Spanish-inspired Negronis.

• Coming soon: Brewdog, one of the world’s biggest craft breweries, is opening in Melbourne – at Coburg’s historic Pentridge Prison – this spring.

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• Congress Canteen: We Are Kerala founder and ex-Rochester Hotel chef Mischa Tropp is taking over the Collingwood restaurant with his brand of Keralan cuisine – tomorrow.

• A new initiative is helping Victorians get creative with their food waste. Think fruit leather, DIY curry powder and choc-chip cookies made with almond pulp.

• On an industrial side street, Fieldwork is a new neighbourhood micro-bakery and coffee shop. It’s the rebrand of established coffee roaster Bureaux – right opposite Moon Dog OG in Abbotsford.

• It’s International Sushi Day on June 18. And, for one day only, Black Star Pastry is doing intricate sushi-inspired cakes to celebrate.

• First Look: Flatbread is the hero – not the sidekick – at fiery new Northcote eatery Spitjack. Chewy, charry and hand-rolled, it’s loaded with your choice of flame-licked meats or veggies.

• Incredible Japanese cafe Ima Project has temporarily transformed into an intimate late-night izakaya. Visit after dark for saucy crab croquettes and spicy salted cod roe pasta – the ultimate Japanese-Italian mashup – paired with sake.

• Brunch is back at a classic Andrew McConnell restaurant – and you can book. Expect twice-baked cheese soufflé, crumpets with whipped ricotta and a full English – McConnell style. This is one of the best morning meals in the CBD.

• Lune is opening in Armadale this winter, bringing its cream-of-the-crop croissants back to the south. All the details.

• Speaking of Lune, for a limited time only it’s doing luscious lasagne escargots. This might be the best lasagne (or, Lune-sagne) you ever eat with your hands.

• This weekend: Kelso’s Sandwich Shoppe has teamed up with Bagels Baby to turn two crowd favourites – the tuna melt and chicken sanga – into bagels.

• At the old Press Club site, new Indian diner Elchi walks the line between classic and contemporary with extravagant dishes like fragrant chicken mussallam topped with 24-carat gold leaf.