Brand changes, place-to-place and completely new dining experiences are becoming more common among Melbourne restaurants as they emerge from lockdown.

With many owners reporting that reopening takes as much effort as launching a new restaurant, it makes sense that some would take the opportunity to launch new concepts or rethink what their offering has to offer.

TO Garden State Hotel (101 Flinders Lane, Melbourne) it’s an adventure location to choose from from November 11 when Italian trattoria Tippy Tay welcomes its guests to what used to be the mega-pub’s Garden Grill dining room. If you skip parma and go straight for pasta, head to the new restaurant’s colorful tiles, flower garlands and rattan chairs, complemented by a menu that evokes Florence, the Amalfi Coast, Calabria and Naples.

“We thought of things people might want to get out of the lockdown: getting away from it all and feeling like you’re out of Melbourne when traveling to Europe isn’t an option,” said executive chef Ash Hicks. , who helped create the menu with the local chef, Dylan. Evans.

Ready for TikToks, Boomerangs and Instagram moments, Tippy Tay offers “Last Night’s Lasagna,” huge Florentine steaks and lobster risotto, as well as the must-have negroni fountain, which offers cocktails for the night. table in containers that the team bought in France. Fountains containing between 500 ml and 1.5 liters of ruby ​​liquid are placed on the table for you to dispense drinks as you wish. Oh, and you hit a buzzer to order one.

Coupled with a DJ booth at the front of the 110-seater and room to move aside tables for dancing, “That’s Amore” songs are definitely on the cards.

There’s also a dessert cart, perhaps one of the most instagrammed things at Attica summer camp last year, which came to life in Tippy Tay as an airline-style cart filled with cannoli, tiramisu and various amari.

Garden State continues to offer its usual menu of pub favorites, lighter salads and snacks, with the added bonus of pizza now that an Italian restaurant is under one roof. tippytay.com.au

turkish restaurant Yagiz (22 Toorak Road, South Yarra) is also leaning towards a more casual dining style, reopening with a menu inspired by the country’s meyhanes, featuring meze, music and raki.

“Usually there is no menu,” explains chef Murat Ovaz. “There are 10 meze, a few starters, a few grills. The waiter will show you a platter and you choose what you have.”

“I realized how much I missed this concept, this food.”

Ovaz changes the new menu every week, but you can find small plates of split beans with raki, duck confit cigars or tomato-fried eggplant, followed by charcoal-grilled calamari with sujuk butter or sujuk butter. adana skewers with hand ground lamb. The wine list now features more Georgian, Lebanese and Armenian wines, and on Wednesday evenings there is a live Turkish band. yagiz.com.au

In the same neighborhood, Mathilde (159 Domain Road, South Yarra) renovated the facade of its restaurant and added a cafe window and more convivial seating during the day, as well as the introduction of a Thursday-Sunday breakfast menu for locals who spend less time in the office and more time in their homes. Wood fires are always in order through dishes like homemade smoked salmon with scrambled eggs on an English muffin or the s’more-like creation with waffle, chocolate and lemon myrtle marshmallow. matilda159.com

Since its reopening, contemporary Chinese restaurant Lee ho fook (11-15 Duckboard Pl, Melbourne) offers diners the option of yum cha for lunch on weekends. Char siu roasted pork belly with steamed buns, seared pork and chive dumplings and crispy spring rolls can be served with assorted wines or a pot of silver jasmine tea. leehoook.com.au