Hawthorn eats across everything at once, and this guide tours the suburb rather than ranking one kind of food. Italian and Indonesian sit next to Japanese, Vietnamese, Spanish tapas and a pure-vegetarian Indian kitchen, with the Glenferrie Road pubs holding their own on the food. We ranked the rooms Hawthorn diners actually name by their Curateria Score and what reviewers keep saying on their most recent visits, with chains and far suburbs left out. Here is the order this month.
Top of the list is Vaporetto Bar & Eatery Hawthorn Italian Restaurant est 2014 in Hawthorn, the Italian bar and eatery reviewers name a favourite Italian restaurant in Melbourne, the seafood linguine busara and the squid-ink pasta beside a gnocchi al ragu d'agnello, a wagyu beef risotto and tiramisu, the service singled out. Rococo Hawthorn in Hawthorn follows, the wood-fired Italian room reviewers say is as good as it gets, the wood-fired pizzas and the beef lasagne beside a seafood risotto, a mushroom arancini and a full vegan menu.
Nelayan in Hawthorn is the Indonesian kitchen reviewers call very authentic, the nasi goreng kampung and the nasi goreng cabe ijo one reviewer's number one in Melbourne beside a beef rendang and a fried catfish, the service top notch. Samurai in Hawthorn is the Japanese room reviewers rate for fresh, colourful plates and speedy service, the chicken katsu curry and the bento boxes beside salmon sashimi, udon noodles and a green-tea milkshake. Pure Vegetarian Jaimal's Bhojan Bhandar in Hawthorn is the pure-vegetarian Indian kitchen reviewers call really nice and reasonably priced, the dal makhani and the paneer paratha beside sarso da saag, a thali and a samosa chaat, the team remembered as accommodating.
Choi's in Hawthorn is the Chinese room reviewers come back to for the ambience and the cooking, the Peking duck and the sizzling duck beside san choi bao, ginger prawns and a Szechuan eggplant. Glenferrie Hotel in Hawthorn is the food-led pub on Glenferrie Road reviewers call an outstanding venue, the chicken parma and the seafood marinara beside corned beef, a steak and fish and chips, the functions side part of the draw. Lady Dan Authentic Vietnamese Cuisine in Hawthorn is the family Vietnamese room reviewers call very yum, the beef pho and the lemongrass beef rice vermicelli beside crispy pork on rice, fish-sauce chicken wings and prawn spring rolls, Lady Dan herself a great host.
The list closes across the suburb. Tinto in Hawthorn is the Spanish tapas room reviewers love, the seafood paella and the octopus beside sobrasada, scallop tapas, anchovy with smoked butter and croquettes, the large menu accommodating to allergies. Elgin Inn Hotel in Hawthorn is the food-led pub reviewers call delicious, the steak sandwich with the legendary chips and the parma cutlet beside a battered barramundi and a wood-fired pizza, the staff friendly from the start. El Jannah Chicken Hawthorn in Hawthorn is the charcoal-chicken room reviewers rate for top-quality chicken, the charcoal chicken with garlic sauce the order beside chicken-salt chips, Lebanese bread and a burger, and Izakaya Jiro in Hawthorn rounds it out, the Japanese izakaya reviewers come to for the wagyu BBQ buffet, the buffet and the chicken nanban set beside a deluxe bento box, a stone-grilled seafood plate and takoyaki.
If one thread here pulls you in, follow it across the city. There is a guide to the best Italian in Melbourne for Vaporetto and Rococo, the best Indonesian in Melbourne for Nelayan, the best tapas in Melbourne for Tinto, and the best gastropubs in Melbourne for the Glenferrie and the Elgin Inn. Or read the suburb guides nearby: the best restaurants in Richmond, the best restaurants in South Yarra and the best restaurants in Carlton.
Every room here carries a Curateria Score built from its full review history, then weighted toward its most recent hundred reviews so the order reflects the room as it runs today, not as it ran two years ago. We hold the cohort to the suburb itself and a tight inner-Melbourne radius, roughly 15km of the city, and we drop the multi-location chains and national franchises that trade on a logo more than a local following, so what is left reads as the genuine local order. Because a long-running room collects more reviews than a newcomer, we shrink the raw average toward the cohort mean for places with thin review counts, so a handful of glowing reviews cannot leapfrog a room a thousand diners have judged. Hawthorn runs from Italian to Indonesian to Japanese on the evidence, the rooms named by their own diners rather than the suburb's leafy reputation. A pub or a bar only earns a place when its reviewers are clearly there to eat, the parma and the roast and the steak night doing the talking, so the drinking dens with no real kitchen evidence are filtered out and the food-led pubs are described by what comes out of that kitchen. That is why the Glenferrie and the Elgin Inn sit here as kitchens. The corpus is Victorian and scored; no AI writer ever reads it. The ranking is arithmetic; the words are ours.
Explore more Hawthorn across Melbourne on Discover ->
Every venue here is ranked by its Curateria Score, a recent-review-weighted quality signal that leans on what diners are saying now, not years ago. Keep browsing Melbourne, sorted by Curateria Score, on Discover.
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Hawthorn eats across everything at once, and this guide tours the suburb rather than ranking one kind of food. Italian and Indonesian sit next to Japanese, Vietnamese, Spanish tapas and a pure-vegetarian Indian kitchen, with the Glenferrie Road pubs holding their own on the food. We ranked the rooms Hawthorn diners actually name by their Curateria Score and what reviewers keep saying on their most recent visits, with chains and far suburbs left out. Here is the order this month.
Top of the list is Vaporetto Bar & Eatery Hawthorn Italian Restaurant est 2014 in Hawthorn, the Italian bar and eatery reviewers name a favourite Italian restaurant in Melbourne, the seafood linguine busara and the squid-ink pasta beside a gnocchi al ragu d'agnello, a wagyu beef risotto and tiramisu, the service singled out. Rococo Hawthorn in Hawthorn follows, the wood-fired Italian room reviewers say is as good as it gets, the wood-fired pizzas and the beef lasagne beside a seafood risotto, a mushroom arancini and a full vegan menu.
Nelayan in Hawthorn is the Indonesian kitchen reviewers call very authentic, the nasi goreng kampung and the nasi goreng cabe ijo one reviewer's number one in Melbourne beside a beef rendang and a fried catfish, the service top notch. Samurai in Hawthorn is the Japanese room reviewers rate for fresh, colourful plates and speedy service, the chicken katsu curry and the bento boxes beside salmon sashimi, udon noodles and a green-tea milkshake. Pure Vegetarian Jaimal's Bhojan Bhandar in Hawthorn is the pure-vegetarian Indian kitchen reviewers call really nice and reasonably priced, the dal makhani and the paneer paratha beside sarso da saag, a thali and a samosa chaat, the team remembered as accommodating.
Choi's in Hawthorn is the Chinese room reviewers come back to for the ambience and the cooking, the Peking duck and the sizzling duck beside san choi bao, ginger prawns and a Szechuan eggplant. Glenferrie Hotel in Hawthorn is the food-led pub on Glenferrie Road reviewers call an outstanding venue, the chicken parma and the seafood marinara beside corned beef, a steak and fish and chips, the functions side part of the draw. Lady Dan Authentic Vietnamese Cuisine in Hawthorn is the family Vietnamese room reviewers call very yum, the beef pho and the lemongrass beef rice vermicelli beside crispy pork on rice, fish-sauce chicken wings and prawn spring rolls, Lady Dan herself a great host.
The list closes across the suburb. Tinto in Hawthorn is the Spanish tapas room reviewers love, the seafood paella and the octopus beside sobrasada, scallop tapas, anchovy with smoked butter and croquettes, the large menu accommodating to allergies. Elgin Inn Hotel in Hawthorn is the food-led pub reviewers call delicious, the steak sandwich with the legendary chips and the parma cutlet beside a battered barramundi and a wood-fired pizza, the staff friendly from the start. El Jannah Chicken Hawthorn in Hawthorn is the charcoal-chicken room reviewers rate for top-quality chicken, the charcoal chicken with garlic sauce the order beside chicken-salt chips, Lebanese bread and a burger, and Izakaya Jiro in Hawthorn rounds it out, the Japanese izakaya reviewers come to for the wagyu BBQ buffet, the buffet and the chicken nanban set beside a deluxe bento box, a stone-grilled seafood plate and takoyaki.
If one thread here pulls you in, follow it across the city. There is a guide to the best Italian in Melbourne for Vaporetto and Rococo, the best Indonesian in Melbourne for Nelayan, the best tapas in Melbourne for Tinto, and the best gastropubs in Melbourne for the Glenferrie and the Elgin Inn. Or read the suburb guides nearby: the best restaurants in Richmond, the best restaurants in South Yarra and the best restaurants in Carlton.
Every room here carries a Curateria Score built from its full review history, then weighted toward its most recent hundred reviews so the order reflects the room as it runs today, not as it ran two years ago. We hold the cohort to the suburb itself and a tight inner-Melbourne radius, roughly 15km of the city, and we drop the multi-location chains and national franchises that trade on a logo more than a local following, so what is left reads as the genuine local order. Because a long-running room collects more reviews than a newcomer, we shrink the raw average toward the cohort mean for places with thin review counts, so a handful of glowing reviews cannot leapfrog a room a thousand diners have judged. Hawthorn runs from Italian to Indonesian to Japanese on the evidence, the rooms named by their own diners rather than the suburb's leafy reputation. A pub or a bar only earns a place when its reviewers are clearly there to eat, the parma and the roast and the steak night doing the talking, so the drinking dens with no real kitchen evidence are filtered out and the food-led pubs are described by what comes out of that kitchen. That is why the Glenferrie and the Elgin Inn sit here as kitchens. The corpus is Victorian and scored; no AI writer ever reads it. The ranking is arithmetic; the words are ours.
Explore more Hawthorn across Melbourne on Discover ->
Every venue here is ranked by its Curateria Score, a recent-review-weighted quality signal that leans on what diners are saying now, not years ago. Keep browsing Melbourne, sorted by Curateria Score, on Discover.
More from the Lowdown
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