Five Iconic Plant Food Restaurants Defining Melbourne’s Dining Ethos in 2025

Scott Mathias
Apr 26, 2025
2 min read

Melbourne’s vegan food scene in 2025? It’s not a trend. It’s the table. As more diners ditch the steak and chase the umami high of truffle, tamale, and woodfired cauliflower, a handful of iconic plant food restaurants are shaping the city’s culinary DNA, one daring, dairy-free dish at a time.

Source: PFN Ai Archives - Woodfired Cauliflower looking over the Yarra River.

Let’s be clear - Melbourne’s no longer just playing at plant-based. It’s in it, boots and all. The city that once lived for laneway espresso and medium-rare porterhouse is now flexing its green muscle with a lineup of plant-based joints giving traditional fine dining a run for its ethically-sourced money.

Source: Various - Top Left -Smith & Daughters, Lona Misa, Funghi e Tartufo,, Red Sparrow Pizza, Ballards,

Smith & Daughters in Fitzroy is still a banger. Shannon Martinez’s Mediterranean reboot has gone full smoke and fire, slinging dishes with depth, drama, and a total disregard for meat. It’s not just “good for vegan”, it’s just dam good. Full stop. Pull up to the chef’s table for a multisensory tour starting with marinated eggplant and ends with a bottle of low-intervention Syrah you’ll be dreaming about for weeks.

Down in South Yarra, Lona Misa is serving rebellion on a plate. Co-led by punk chef Santiago Ospina, it’s all about Latin heat with a plant-based beat - think smoky tamales, bloodless ‘morcilla’ and a cauliflower charred within an inch of its cruciferous life. It’s wild. It’s elegant. And yes, the cocktails slap.

Funghi e Tartufo, hidden off Hardware Lane, in the city, is where you go when Nonna goes vegan. Their truffle risotto has won over carnivores and critics alike - proof mushrooms still rule the umami throne. Italian with a conscience? Melbourne’s here for it.

And let’s not forget Red Sparrow Pizza, holding strong in Collingwood with its chewy sourdough bases and dairy-free decadence. There’s no compromise, just crispy edges, molten ‘mozzarella’, and toppings that won’t wreck the planet.

Finally, word on the street is Ballard’s in Thornbury has become the city’s quiet achiever. No hype, no fuss, but just seriously good plant food pub classics, wines to match, and a beer garden keeping locals loyal.

Verdict?

Melbourne’s plant-based scene in 2025 isn’t just flourishing - it’s dominant. These kitchens aren’t asking for permission. They’re claiming space, feeding the future, and turning meatless into Michelin-grade. One cauliflower steak at a time.

Audio Sponsors Link

ENDS:

1 Comment

mcdtalks

Jun 10, 2025

Absolutely loved this deep dive into Melbourne’s evolving plant-based dining culture—what a delicious reminder that food isn’t just about flavor, it’s about values, creativity, and experience. It’s fascinating how restaurants like Smith & Daughters or Lona Misa use feedback and innovation to elevate customer satisfaction, much like how McDonald's listens closely to its patrons through the MCDVoiice - Take Survey @ www.mcdvoice.com [Free Sandwich] program. Just like Melbourne’s chefs reimagine the plate, McDonald’s adapts its global menu based on real-time feedback. Platforms like McDTalks highlight how vital these consumer insights are for shaping memorable, high-performing food experiences in today’s fast-paced world.

Juicy Marbles Moves Beyond the Fillet and Into the Fridge Staple Zone

Juicy Marbles built its reputation on theatrical, whole-cut plant-based steaks, the kind designed to be carved, shared, and Instagrammed. Now the company is deliberately stepping down from the dinner-party pedestal and into everyday eating, launching its new Umami Burger across 225 UK Tesco stores.

3 days ago1 min read

Top 10 FoodTech Companies to Watch in 2026

FoodTech in 2026 isn’t about who has the wildest idea, it’s about who actually shows up in food people eat. After years of hype, pullbacks and painful reality checks, a new class of companies is quietly moving ahead by doing something radical - making workable ingredients, scale, and slot into everyday products without asking consumers to change their habits.

3 days ago1 min read

Kimchi Moves From Cultural Wisdom to Precision Immune Food

Kimchi has always been more than a side dish. For centuries it’s sat at the heart of Korean food culture, not as a “superfood”, not as wellness theatre, but as a daily, living eco-system of nourishment. Now, science has finally caught up. A new clinical study from South Korea’s World Institute of Kimchi reveals kimchi doesn’t just “boost” immunity, it fine-tunes it.

4 days ago1 min read

Feeding Fungi Food Waste Is Making Better Animal-Free Protein

Food waste has officially entered its protein era. Researchers publishing in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry have shown that fungal mycelium grown on carrot side streams doesn’t just tick sustainability boxes and it actually tastes better than conventional plant-based proteins when turned into vegan burgers and sausages.

Dec 22, 20251 min read

Organic Dried Fruit Moves From Pantry Staple to Functional Snack

Organic dried fruit is quietly having a moment and not the dusty trail-mix kind. According to Verified Market Reports, the category is riding a wave of clean-label snacking, rising disposable incomes, and a renewed appetite for food that feels both simple and earned. The firm projects a 6.5% annual growth from 2026 to 2033, pushing the market from US$3.35bn in 2024 to US$5.78bn by 2033. This isn’t dried fruit nostalgia, it’s a food sector re-valuation.

Dec 19, 20251 min read

Leaf Rubisco Protein Enters the New Zealand Bakery Aisle

Eggs are quietly becoming optional in South Island bakeries. Foodstuffs South Island, NZ is trialling Leaf Rubisco Protein as an egg replacement across more than 200 New World, PAK’nSAVE and Four Square stores, marking the first major retail test for the Canterbury-based ingredient maker Leaft Foods. Cakes, muffins and fresh bakery staples are the proving ground, exactly where eggs normally do the heavy lifting on structure, binding and lift.

Dec 18, 20251 min read

Italy Starts 3D Printing Its Food, Literally

Italy has spent centuries defending how food should be made and now it’s quietly experimenting with how food might be printed. In Abruzzo, researchers at ENEA’s EltHub are using 3D printing and lab-grown plant cells to create edible “inks” shaped into sliced foods and steak-like cuts. This isn’t novelty gastronomy, it’s applied food engineering, designed around texture, nutrition, and accessibility.

Dec 17, 20251 min read

Ultra-Processed Foods Are Under Fire But Plant-Based Isn’t the Villain

A major analysis of more than 30,000 brain scans has reignited concern about ultra-processed foods (UPFs), linking heavy consumption to cognitive and neurological risks. But as the story ricochets through mainstream media, a familiar distortion is taking hold: plant-based foods are being swept into a problem they didn’t create and don’t own.