Melbourne’s Top Restaurants Are Serving Moon Bites: Festival Menus for Rising

When Rising returns from June 1 to 16, it’ll start a city-wide takeover of performance, music and art that’ll transform Melbourne. There are powerful installations and exhibitions like The Blak Infinite, which takes over Fed Square to reflect on our First Nations’ past, present and future. Dirty Three, with their wild, impressionistic instrumentals, will emerge for a couple of shows before heading back to the shadows. Cadela Força brings theatre audiences face to face with nightmarish visions of another world. Free festival hub Night Trade is taking over the arcades under the Capitol Theatre. And, among it all, is Moon Bites.

Melbourne’s best restaurants are putting on a spread for pre- and post-performance snacks, drinks and multi-course feasts for hungry Rising attendees. Each participating restaurant is within the festival’s footprint, so it’s easy to grab a bite in between your packed itinerary – or make your meal the night’s main event. Here’s what’s on the menus.

With its fiery, chef-packed open kitchen, dinner at Aru is almost like watching a performance in itself, which makes it a perfect stop between festival bookings. For Moon Bites, Aru is trotting out a menu that highlights its signature blend of Australian ingredients and Southeast Asian flavours. There’s the Wyrrung spritz, a cocktail that blends fresh flavours like wyrrung (wild rosella) with dandelion, cacao husk and lemongrass, followed by the restaurant’s signature forbidden rice sourdough with smoked miso butter, plus larger plates like squid noodles with lap cheong ‘nduja, desert lime and curry leaf.

Parcs is “scraps” backwards, and the tiny wine bar and diner is all about sustainability (including upcycled produce, hence the name). The result is a unique menu overseen by former Brae head chef Damien Neylon. For Moon Bites, you’ll get three plates and a cocktail, starting with the Marigold highball (Pennyweight fino, white nectarine and Saison Aperitifs’ marigold amaro) and followed by inventive Parcs dishes like sourdough made with heritage wheat, topped with potato peel butter; tuna cured with bull kelp and black garlic; and cockerel with grilled autumn leaves and parmesan rind.

Dom’s Social Club has made its Moon Bites menu an easy between-shows bite and drink, which is good news if you’re juggling a packed schedule. Among the venue’s house-made charcuterie, leather booths and rooftop bar, you’ll find a Rising pizza special topped with warming, winter-friendly ingredients like red wine-braised beef cheek, pickled shiitake mushroom, fior di latte, pecorino, lemon zest and fennel on a cauliflower cream base. For $35 all up, the team’ll throw in a Saintly vodka soda, too.

Chef Nornie Bero’s Big Esso is a celebration of her Indigenous heritage, with a wide selection of native ingredients spread across nearly every dish and drink on the menu. The Fed Square diner makes a perfect pairing with The Blak Infinite but, whatever your Rising plans, Big Esso has put together a three- and five-course menu to choose from, plus optional drink pairings. Expect dishes like damper with chestnut, cinnamon myrtle and golden syrup butter; emu steak with macadamia matcha and charred samphire; and wallaby shank with saltbush and tomatillo salsa verde.

Another Fed Square diner with a focus on the local, Victoria by Farmer’s Daughters is chef Alejandro Saravia’s avenue for highlighting all that’s great about Victorian produce. Rising diners will get a round-the-state journey in two courses with a starter and main (plus a glass of local beer or wine) followed by dessert. Diners can expect dishes like pasture-raised chicken and smoked bacon terrine; smoked Portarlington mussels with chickpea, fennel and dill; and Koonwarra roast chook with all the trimmings.

Her Bar, on the ground floor of the Her building, hints at the wonders that await on the levels above. It’s often a starting point for a full night in the heritage-listed Pacific House building – and works equally as well as a jumping off point for a packed evening of Rising events. For its Moon Bites offering you’ll find a few Mediterranean classics with three pastas to choose from: baked rigatoni with sugo, parmesan and burrata; a deceptively simple spaghetti of clams, parsley and garlic; and a winter-perfect casarecce with pork and fennel sausage ragu. You’ll get a tap cocktail of your choice, too.

Speaking of Pacific House, things change tack a few floors up, with BKK’s fiery, Bangkok street food-inspired menu. Again, there’s a tap cocktail to sweeten the deal, but BKK’s Moon Bites menu is all about the wok-tossed noodles and hearty soups. There’s pork and prawn noodles with Chinese broccoli; Thai pink noodle soup with fermented bean curd, squid and fish balls; or egg noodles with grilled char siu chicken.

Rising 2021 attendees might remember a stunning audio composition called The Rivers Sing that combined Boonwurrang, Woiwurrung and English voices in harmonious layers. A reimagined version makes its way to the banks of the Yarra this year, making Arbory the perfect place to grab a bite before or after the 5.30pm show. The riverside diner is pairing two winter warmers for Moon Bites: fondue and mulled wine. Grab your snack of choice (baguette, crudites, pickles or pretzel) and dip it into the fondue, which blends gruyere, fontina and truffle pecorino in a gooey, moreish mix.

While not officially part of Moon Bites, you shouldn’t miss festival pop-up Night Trade for a buzzing spot to grab a bite or drink. This year, the menu includes jaffles by Union Kiosk and momos (Nepalese dumplings) from Momo Station, with Margaritas, Bodriggy beers and Mexican street food by Brunswick taqueria Los Amantes. Outside of food and drink, find paint-and-sip sessions, late-night dance events and more at the Capitol Arcades.

Browse the mammoth Rising program in full and plan your itinerary for the highlight of Melbourne’s cultural calendar this winter.

Broadsheet is a proud media partner of Rising.