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.
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SIGN UPHalf Acre
This beautiful South Melbourne diner recently launched Half Acre at Home, its first foray into the takeaway game since it got online marketplace Food 4 Good off the ground during the first 2020 lockdown. There are two killer banquet options: the Vegetarian Acre includes dishes like za’atar bread with smoked butter, torched burrata and harissa-roasted cauliflower, while the Full Acre has all those, plus meatier options such as woodfired lamb with green-olive labneh. But this weekend there’s also a Father’s Day menu centred around a hulking one-kilo tomahawk steak. Expect it cooked medium-rare with chimichurri, caramelised-onion jus and assorted pickles. Bonus: all dishes come ready to eat, so you can leave the oven off.
Order online for pick-up only at Half Acre or the Mount Erica Hotel on Fridays and Saturdays. The Vegetarian Acre is $95, the Full Acre is $140 and the Father’s Day menu is $135.
Peter Rowland Catering
With at least another month of lockdown ahead of us, it’s hardly a celebratory time. And those times are the busiest for top events caterer Peter Rowland Group, which has been feeding Victorians at weddings, parties and any other kind of event you can think of since the ’60s. But now, its most famous menu item is available for home delivery. The snackable, cut-into-quarters chicken sandwiches are made with incredibly fresh white bread, tender chicken pieces (poached with a few secret ingredients) and house-made mayo. For $70, get 16 triangles in a mini hamper with a sixpack of beer or a bottle of wine. Perfect.
Order online for delivery within 50 kilometres of the CBD.
Enter via Laundry x Avani Wines
Last year, Helly Raichura’s Enter via Laundry at Home gave us the opportunity to familiarise ourselves with regional Indian specialties, a number of which were virtually unseen in Melbourne. She’s got a similar plan for lockdown 6.0, but this time she’s recruited the team at Red Hill South’s Avani Wines to provide cracking, complementary vino. While the heat-and-eat menu (and wines) will change weekly, this week is an all-veg affair dedicated to the food of the Gujarati people. The “home-style family meal”, as Raichura calls it, features soft, hand-rolled rotli (Gujarati-style flatbread), bharela ringan (baby eggplant stuffed with peas and sesame seeds) and more, alongside Avani’s crisp, acidic 2020 Amrit Pinot Gris.
Order online for pick-up at 98 Stanleys Road, Red Hill South, or delivery to select Melbourne suburbs, Friday to Sunday. It’s $179 for food, wine and delivery.
Dodee Paidang
Based in the CBD, Thai street-food chain Dodee Paidang has been hit hard by Melbourne’s consecutive lockdowns. “It’s been extremely tough, but I am still positive about the future,” says owner Chung Boon Low. “But people still need to eat well – and cheaply.” To that end, he and the team are serving $10 takeaway meals at the Swanston Street store. Among the delicious, affordable options for those within five kilometres: pad kana moo grob (crispy pork belly with Chinese broccoli), gai yang (grilled chicken) with rice, pad see ew gai (stir-fried flat noodles with chicken) and more.
Pick-up at 245 Swanston Street, Melbourne, from Wednesday to Sunday 12pm to 2.45pm and 5pm to 8.30pm.
Minamishima
This impressive Japanese fine diner started delivering its stunning, kaleidoscopic sushi at the onset of the pandemic. But it’s just added a luxe, beautifully curated new sushi option to its at-home offering. Every Saturday until November 20, boxes of its colourful irodori chirashi, or “scattered” sushi, will be available. But given just how labour-intensive it is, only 20 will be made each week. On a bed of Masshigura rice, you’ll find 16 toppings delicately arranged in squares. In the regular box, expect grilled eel with sansho, cured mackerel with ginger and sesame seeds, aburi scallop and more. But there’s also a luxe version with Japanese bluefin toro, Hokkaido king crab with oscietra caviar, and abalone.
Call 0466 333 915 or 9429 5180 to order for pick-up at 4 Lord Street, Richmond, or delivery (to suburbs within the within the council areas of Boroondara, Melbourne, Port Phillip, Stonnington and Yarra) on Saturdays from 12pm to 1pm. The regular irodori chirashi is $50; the luxe version is $80.
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