A thali is the whole meal on one tray: a round of small bowls of dal and curry and pickle and raita around a mound of rice, unlimited rice and roti at the better rooms, a sweet to close, a different spread in every region of the subcontinent. It is its own thing, the set platter, distinct from the single curry or the dosa or the biryani the city has its own lists for. Melbourne serves it from the CBD out to Preston, Elwood, Brunswick, Ormond and North Melbourne, Punjabi and Gujarati and Rajasthani and South Indian and Nepali. We ranked the inner-city kitchens that diners name for the tray 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 Delhi Rocks (Preston) in Preston, the late kitchen reviewers fill for a thali of unlimited rice and roti with butter chicken, dahl and goat curry, the samosa chaat alongside. Delhi Rocks in the city follows, the same local kitchen's high-volume CBD room, the unlimited-roti thali, the paneer curry and the chole bhature the order, reviewers back again and again for the food and the hospitality.
Delhi Streets in the city is the room reviewers say barely needs a review, the Special Thali of three curries with rice, naan and papadum and a chaat platter of pani puri and samosa beside it. Om Vegetarian in the city is the all-you-can-eat vegetarian thali tucked in a building alleyway near Flinders Street, three curries with rice and naan, the pani puri and the samosa chaat tasty and not expensive. Curry Leaf on Brighton in Elwood is the coastal-Indian room reviewers rate for a fish thali of surmai and pomfret and a Malvani chicken thali, the prawn koliwada and the sol kadhi alongside.
Bhang in Brunswick is the room reviewers come back to four times over for a goat thali and a chicken thali, the Kerala fried chicken with date tamarind and a well-made cocktail at happy hour, and Makhana Indian restaurant is the room whose Rajasthani thali of dal baati churma reviewers call authentic, the chaat platter and the paneer achari tikka the picks. Chennai Biryani House is the room reviewers love for a non-veg thali with unlimited refills, the mutton biryani and the Chettinad biryani beside it.
The list closes across the inner ring. Villas Restaurant & Bar in the city is the room reviewers call the best South Indian thali they have had, the banana-leaf meal, the kizhi parotta and the Chettinad chicken biryani the spread for a birthday. Thaali Indian restaurant Fairfield is the room whose Maharaja Thaali, a generous multi-course set across starters, curries, bread and dessert, reviewers leave with very generous portions, Namaste Haifa in Ormond is the room whose unlimited Kathiyavadi thali reviewers say is served as if you are eating at a family gathering, the puran poli and the dal dhokli alongside, and Kathmandu Banquet in North Melbourne rounds it out, a Nepali room reviewers book for delegates, the chicken thali set and the authentic dhido set beside the jhol momo.
Every kitchen 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 a tight inner-Melbourne radius, roughly 15km of the city, and drop multi-location chains and the national brands that trade on a logo more than a local following, so what is left reads as the genuine local order. We blend that quality score with how often and how recently diners are still talking about the place, and we read the snippets for the thali itself, the tray of many bowls and the unlimited rice and roti and the banana-leaf meal, rather than the single curry or dosa or biryani the other pages already cover. The corpus is Victorian and scored; no AI writer ever reads it. The ranking is arithmetic; the words are ours.
Explore more Thali 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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A thali is the whole meal on one tray: a round of small bowls of dal and curry and pickle and raita around a mound of rice, unlimited rice and roti at the better rooms, a sweet to close, a different spread in every region of the subcontinent. It is its own thing, the set platter, distinct from the single curry or the dosa or the biryani the city has its own lists for. Melbourne serves it from the CBD out to Preston, Elwood, Brunswick, Ormond and North Melbourne, Punjabi and Gujarati and Rajasthani and South Indian and Nepali. We ranked the inner-city kitchens that diners name for the tray 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 Delhi Rocks (Preston) in Preston, the late kitchen reviewers fill for a thali of unlimited rice and roti with butter chicken, dahl and goat curry, the samosa chaat alongside. Delhi Rocks in the city follows, the same local kitchen's high-volume CBD room, the unlimited-roti thali, the paneer curry and the chole bhature the order, reviewers back again and again for the food and the hospitality.
Delhi Streets in the city is the room reviewers say barely needs a review, the Special Thali of three curries with rice, naan and papadum and a chaat platter of pani puri and samosa beside it. Om Vegetarian in the city is the all-you-can-eat vegetarian thali tucked in a building alleyway near Flinders Street, three curries with rice and naan, the pani puri and the samosa chaat tasty and not expensive. Curry Leaf on Brighton in Elwood is the coastal-Indian room reviewers rate for a fish thali of surmai and pomfret and a Malvani chicken thali, the prawn koliwada and the sol kadhi alongside.
Bhang in Brunswick is the room reviewers come back to four times over for a goat thali and a chicken thali, the Kerala fried chicken with date tamarind and a well-made cocktail at happy hour, and Makhana Indian restaurant is the room whose Rajasthani thali of dal baati churma reviewers call authentic, the chaat platter and the paneer achari tikka the picks. Chennai Biryani House is the room reviewers love for a non-veg thali with unlimited refills, the mutton biryani and the Chettinad biryani beside it.
The list closes across the inner ring. Villas Restaurant & Bar in the city is the room reviewers call the best South Indian thali they have had, the banana-leaf meal, the kizhi parotta and the Chettinad chicken biryani the spread for a birthday. Thaali Indian restaurant Fairfield is the room whose Maharaja Thaali, a generous multi-course set across starters, curries, bread and dessert, reviewers leave with very generous portions, Namaste Haifa in Ormond is the room whose unlimited Kathiyavadi thali reviewers say is served as if you are eating at a family gathering, the puran poli and the dal dhokli alongside, and Kathmandu Banquet in North Melbourne rounds it out, a Nepali room reviewers book for delegates, the chicken thali set and the authentic dhido set beside the jhol momo.
Every kitchen 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 a tight inner-Melbourne radius, roughly 15km of the city, and drop multi-location chains and the national brands that trade on a logo more than a local following, so what is left reads as the genuine local order. We blend that quality score with how often and how recently diners are still talking about the place, and we read the snippets for the thali itself, the tray of many bowls and the unlimited rice and roti and the banana-leaf meal, rather than the single curry or dosa or biryani the other pages already cover. The corpus is Victorian and scored; no AI writer ever reads it. The ranking is arithmetic; the words are ours.
Explore more Thali 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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