Stuck for easy dinner ideas? Have a less-than-well-stocked pantry and can’t be bothered messing around in the kitchen? Or maybe you just want to splash out for no reason?

Melbourne’s restaurants have got you covered. While we wait with bated breath and crossed fingers for dine-in service to make a comeback, there are tons of options from the city’s best to enjoy at home.

Here are our top takeaway picks for this week.

We think you might like Access. For $12 a month, join our membership program to stay in the know.

SIGN UP

Bar Liberty
It’s been too long since we last lost an evening sitting in Bar Liberty’s buzzy, low-lit front room. And though it might still be a while yet, the team is back this weekend – in a slightly different form. For two days only, the old-favourite Johnston Street bar is transforming into Liberty Chook Shop. It’ll be serving charcoal-chicken packs with all the usual suspects: crisp hand-cut chips, mayo-y coleslaw and glossy gravy for dousing it all in. Get in early.

Pick-up at 234 Johnston Street, Fitzroy on Saturday and Sunday from 12pm to 4pm (or sold out).

barliberty.com

Sold Out: Gray and Gray x Rockwell and Sons
Disclaimer: more chicken. In the words of Broadsheet directory editor Callum McDermott, when Australian-American eatery Rockwell and Sons shut up shop in 2019, “it was almost the equivalent of Michael Jordan retiring”. But this Saturday, the team behind it is “dusting off the fryers and bringing back our fried chicken”, chef Casey Wall wrote on Instagram. It’s popping up at Gray and Gray, Northcote’s Georgian-leaning wine bar by the owner of All Are Welcome. Eight-piece fried-chook boxes are the main event, obviously, but sides include mashed potatoes with Gray and Gray gravy, broccoli slaw with miso ranch, and braised Swiss chard with spiced lardo. For dessert: banana-miso cream pie.

Since publication, pre-order slots for the Gray and Gray x Rockwell and Sons pop-up have been exhausted.

Hemingway’s Wine Room x Bar Bianco
Earlier this year, Glen Bagnara – co-owner of East Melbourne’s French brasserie-slash-casual boozer Hemingway’s Wine Room – opened Bar Bianco in Prahran. But if you haven’t had a chance to check out the handsome wine bar (in a curvaceous white building on Malvern Road) it’s doing a takeaway team-up with Hemingway’s this weekend. And this weekend only. The lavish six-course set menu includes a fancy prawn cocktail, a mesmerising Wagyu-cheek pithivier with mushrooms and blackberries, and a strawberry tart with yuzu. The most luxe part? There’s no prep or cooking required.

Order online for pick-up at 50 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne or delivery within 10 kilometres. It’s $179 for two.

hemingwayswineroom.com.au
barbianco.com.au

Future Future x Congress x Mac Forbes
Collingwood restaurant Congress is descending on its sibling venue, Richmond’s Japanese-influenced Future Future, to set up Congress Canteen this weekend. The collab doesn’t stop there, though: top Yarra Valley winemaker Mac Forbes is also getting in on the action, hosting a car-boot vino sale in the courtyard. Food-wise, it’s all inspired by Japan. There’ll be vegan kare pan (curry bread) filled with cauliflower and coated with panko; pork-chop katsu with Vegemite-spiked tonkatsu sauce; and pickled half cucumbers with sourdough miso. Plus, an Aussie ode to dorayaki – sweet, filled pancakes; flavours include pavlova (meringue-flavoured ice-cream with passionfruit curd) and Milo (Milo crème pâtissière with gooey chocolate sauce and a crumb).

Pick-up at 91 Swan Street, Richmond on Saturday from 11am to 3pm.

futurefuture.com.au
congresswine.com.au
macforbes.com

Nabil Ansari x Felix Goodwin
Both members of the Hotel Windsor family, Nabil Ansari (Sunda sous chef and the man behind refined Indian takeaway Ansari at Home) and Felix Goodwin (the pastry chef behind the hotel’s soon-to-open gluten-free bakery) are each doing what they do best at a pop-up this weekend. At the Hotel Windsor’s Cricketer’s Bar, Ansari will be dishing up hot, ready-to-eat Indian street food: duck samosas, cumin-y curry puffs, chicken-tikka rolls (on sourdough naan) with coriander chutney. Plus, take-home packs of butter chicken and lamb rogan josh. Meanwhile, Goodwin will be serving coeliac-friendly canelés, cakes and other sweets.

Pick-up at 111 Spring Street, Melbourne on Friday and Saturday from 11am to 2pm (or sold out).

thehotelwindsor.com.au