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Time Out
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
This boutique Melbourne hotel was just honoured with a major style and design award
Hands up if the name La Liste rings a bell? You may recognise it as the Paris-based restaurant ranking guide that unveils an annual list of its top 1,000 restaurants – last year, it crowned Melbourne's very own fine diner Vue de Monde as the best restaurant in Australia (and fifth in the whole world). Now La Liste is back with a hotly anticipated 2025 guide to the most outstanding hotels around the globe. And you may be surprised to hear that a new boutique accommodation in Fitzroy has been awarded a very special accolade. The StandardX – an uber-cool, industrial-style venue that we reviewed in November 2024 – is among just five hotels to receive the prestigious Style and Design Award. These are hotels that have been either "launched or refurbished with outstanding design". La Liste called the StandardX "arty, bold and unfiltered", and it shared the honour with Maison Heler Metz in France, ÖÖD Hekla Horizon in Iceland, Reschio Hotel in Italy and Ulaman Eco Luxury Resort in Indonesia. The hotel only opened in August 2024, and is the first StandardX iteration from famed hotel chain the Standard. Described as "the rebellious younger sibling", it boasts 125 rooms over eight floors, as well as an all-day Thai street food-inspired restaurant called Bang, a rooftop bar with panoramic city views and a retail offering. Led by Melbourne-based interior design firm Hecker Guthrie, the styling elements blend the grittiness of Fitzroy with modern comforts – think rustic finishes, plenty of greenery, caramel leather couches and an epic red revolving front door. "It's bougie, for sure, but still artsy enough to feel like it belongs to the northside," says Time Out Melbourne's food and drink writer, Lauren Dinse. "The designers have taken inspiration from Fitzroy's post-punk 'Little Band' scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, paying homage to its music venues, street art and café culture – historic pulse points of this vibrant 'hood." The full list of 1,000 hotels included properties from Paris, London and Bangkok. This year, the ten spots to share the top gong with a near-perfect score of 99.5 include: La Réserve Paris, France The Connaught and The Savoy, England Il San Pietro di Positano, Italy Cheval Blanc Paris, France J.K. Place Capri, Italy Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Thailand The Peninsula Shanghai, China The Peninsula Chicago, USA Rosewood Mayakoba, Mexico To find out more, read the full list here. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Melbourne newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.
Time Out
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Photograph: Kristoffer Paulsen
June 2025 update: This winter, head chef Lorcán Kan is dishing up one of his all-time comfort dishes: steaming hot bowls of coconut curry laksa. Kan's take is an intensely fragrant broth of lemongrass, garlic, makrut lime, galangal and chilli, generously loaded with a mix egg and rice noodles, housemade golden tofu (Etta fans know), fresh herbs and a lusciously loud Nonya sambal. And that's not even the end of it. Each god-level soup will be served with a stick of deep-fried dip-it-yourself school prawns, inspired by the Malaysian street-food vendors known as skewer aunties – who make the steamboat-style skewered meats and seafood known as lok-lok. Additional lok-lok of housemade fish balls and satay grilled chicken will also be available for $8 a pop. The laksa is available for $30 and will be served from Etta's front bar every Wednesday night until the end of August. Move fast, though; there are only 20 serves available a week and your best bet is to book ahead. - Lauren Dinse The below review was originally written in December 2023. Please note that chef Rosheen Kaul (whom this review references) departed the restaurant in April 2024, with new head chef Lorcan Kan now steering the ship. We have since re-visited the restaurant and believe the quality of its offering continues to warrant a five-star rating. ***** Time Out Melbourne never writes starred reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills for reviews so that readers can trust our critique. Etta has been hot on everyone's lips since it entered the Brunswick East dining scene –particularly since head chef Rosheen Kaul joined the kitchen in 2020. In the culinary world, countless awards and glowing reviews often breed scepticism but a recent Tuesday evening dinner proved the praise is just as warranted as ever. We were seated in a cosy corner nook decked out with decorative pillows, ideal for soaking up the scene (to the left, the bar and open kitchen; the right, Lygon street passersby; and to the front, a solo diner in for an early drink and snacks followed by a couple on date night – both common finds at this venue). Though Etta is a restaurant, strictly speaking, it's frequently mistaken as a wine bar. Perhaps because it has a list to stand up among the best of Melbourne's wine bars. Bottles range in price, region and style with a largely Victorian focus. Whether you want old-world or new-age, there's something for everyone. But it pays to look past the vino as the sake offering is equally thoughtful (albeit less extensive) with a few hard-to-find drops from around Japan. Fitting in with a trend many restaurants and bars seem to be following as of late, the food menu is snack-heavy and designed to share. We start strong with a crab masala-stuffed zucchini flower – its thin, nearly translucent batter and bold spice putting cheese-filled numbers to shame. It's large enough to split between two while the quail egg is a one-bite wonder, served on a skewer with fried tofu, pickled radish, feferoni and a generous drizzle of Sichuan chilli oil. Momentum is maintained as larger dishes begin to grace the table. The red curry rice and herb salad, an Etta mainstay, has been reimaged for the current menu with smoky grilled octopus and crumbled pieces of otak-otak, a spiced woodfired fish cake that's almost like goats cheese in texture and just as savoury. The golden tofu, served under a pile of charred spring greens and wild garlic, looks deceptively simple but shows the outstanding potential of beancurd when well prepared. And the shiitake-filled wombok cabbage rolls with tempura enoki, another perennial favourite, achieves the elusive goal of meatless main that doesn't skimp on substance. Flame-licked and full of flavour, both dishes are unmissable, vegetarian or not. The savoury dishes were faultless so we decide to try dessert – a pandan and amaretto frangipane tart with palm sugar ice cream that reads extremely well but unfortunately falls flat. It's not bad by any stretch but lacks dimension, particularly after the last few courses. A bit of citrus zest or even a touch of burnt sugar would go a long way but the pairing of sweet, nutty Kameman Shuzo Genmaishu sake means the meal ends on a high note. In a sea of great restaurants, it's tough to be truly exceptional but Etta straddles the line. A continuous reinvention of their classics seems key to the venue's success – and if it continues on this trajectory, one can only assume great things are to come. But regardless of Etta's future, it's clear its stripes are well-deserved. While you're in the neighbourhood, here's why Brunswick East was voted the sixth coolest neighbourhood in the world. Looking for more great restaurants?
Time Out
30-05-2025
- Time Out
Melbourne is the fifth best city in the world for green space and access to nature
Hot on the heels of news that the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne has been named among the world's top ten gardens, comes the big reveal that Melbourne has been ranked the fifth greenest city in a global list compiled by Time Out. Excuse us while we adjust our (flower) crown. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's had the pleasure of strolling through our city's many lush parks and gardens. From the grand beauty of the Royal Botanic Gardens to the peaceful tranquility of Fitzroy Gardens – and let's not forget the city's biggest bushland reserve, Yarra Bend Park – we Melburnians really are spoiled when it comes to easy access to nature. And have you even done Melbourne right if you haven't had a picnic and cheeky bev with mates in Eddy Gardens? That's right – so much of our socialising takes place in the city's green spaces. To determine the rankings, Time Out quizzed 18,500 locals across the planet about their green spaces and the access they have to nature. The 20 that made the list had the highest share of 'good' or 'amazing' ratings. Melbourne really did knock it out of the park, receiving an 86 per cent positive rating that saw it share fifth spot with Austin and Edinburgh. Dubbed the 'city of eternal spring', Medellín in Colombia ranks as the top city for green thumbs and nature lovers, where a whopping 92 per cent of locals positively rated its green spaces and access to nature. Boston claims second place with 88 per cent 'good' or 'amazing' ratings, while Sydney shares third place with London, both scoring 87 per cent. The only other Aussie city to (just) crack the top 20 was Brisbane, with 76 per cent of locals giving its nature spaces a big (green) thumbs-up. You can check out the full rankings below or study the results here. Here are the 20 greenest cities in the world according to locals: 1. Medellín, Colombia 2. Boston, US 3. Sydney, Australia = London, UK 5. Austin, US = Edinburgh, UK = Melbourne, Australia 8. Denver, US 9. Abu Dhabi, UAE = Cape Town, South Africa = Chicago, US 12. San Francisco, US = Stockholm, Sweden 14. Montreal, Canada = Munich, Germany 16. Mumbai, India 17. Beijing, China 18. Zurich, Switzerland = Ottawa, Canada 20. Brisbane, Australia Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Melbourne newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.
Time Out
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
And Then There Were None
Hold on to your alibis, dear readers. Hot on the heels of the recent national tour of The Mousetrap, another classic from Agatha Christie's playbook of murder mystery mayhem lands on the stage at Sydney's Theatre Royal. *** Time Out Melbourne reviewed And Then There Were None when it played at the Comedy Theatre in February. Read on for that three-star review: Somewhere off the coast of Devon is a dreary little island with high cliffs, higher tides and no way to escape. It's Soldier Island: a lovely place to put your feet up, take a dip, meet nine strangers and watch as you all get slowly picked off one-by-one. This is the wickedly thrilling premise of Agatha Christie's 1939 classic And Then There Were None. A favourite among Christie fans (and Christie herself), it arrives in a production that once again proves that the master of the whodunnit can still thrill us nearly 100 years on. Yet, this revival from director Robyn Nevin – her second of Christie's following 2023's The Mousetrap – rests on the laurels of its author too often, offering a passable but ultimately thin restaging that I think might signal the end of the recent resurgence of British classics in our theatres. It's 1939. Ten people have been invited to Soldier Island under suspicious pretences. They have little in common apart from the skeletons in their closets. For much of the show's bloated first act, we're watching this motley crew of potential victims introduce themselves to each other. Christie is famous for her ability to construct a complete impression of a person in one short phrase. But here, these characters have a tendency to over-explain themselves, and it can get a bit tedious. You can feel Nevin trying to amplify comedic beats or attempt more creative blocking to avoid this exposition-heavy first half from getting too stale. For this, she has an incredibly talented cast at her disposal. As the ex-soldier Philip Lombard, Tom Stokes keeps things moving with witty jabs and arrogant take downs that strike the perfect balance between Hugh Grant-style arrogance and charisma. His sparring matches with the entitled Cambridge student Anthony Marston (Jack Bannister) and condescending love for the dowdy cop William Blore (Peter O'Brien) inject a much-needed liveliness to these on-stage relationships. Eden Falk is perfect as the authoritative Dr. Armstrong; and Grant Piro is suitably frenetic as the panicked servant, Rogers. Meanwhile, Jennifer Flowers lends a much-needed gravitas to the crocheting traditionalist, Emily Brent. Watching her butt heads with the strong-willed Vera Claythorne (Mia Morrissey) over ideas of feminine modesty stands out as one of those breathtaking moments when you feel an audience suddenly in awe of Christie's enduring relevance. But while her humour comes easily to this cast, the deeper themes that elevate her novel are given short shrift. This is one of Christie's most psychological thrillers. We're watching people unravel at the hands of their guilt and fallibility, as much as the threat of their demise. Without Miss Marple or Detective Poirot, our investigation is weighted with a near-existential hopelessness. Nicholas Hammond doesn't quite land the tragedy of the absent-minded General Mackenzie, Anthony Phelan seems more comfortable performing Sir Lawrence Wargrave's stoicism than his anger, and Morrissey doesn't have enough of a handle on the complex twists and turns in Vera's mental state. Set and costume designer Dale Ferguson situates us in the play's interwar context beautifully by dressing the cast in a well-chosen mix of high-waisted pants, three-piece suits and silk blazers. Their navy blues, beiges and egg-shell whites are brought out by Trudy Dalgleish 's preference for bright white washes and sunny tones in her lighting design. But I wish more was done to amplify the horrors of the show's final act. Occasional glimpses of severe lighting, and ominous shadows are ultimately too tepid to contribute much to any overall atmosphere, leaving us with an emotional climax that feels frustratingly stale. Reviewing an Agatha Christie play can sometimes feel like you're critiquing a Christmas classic. This is hallowed ground, and familiar to many. Some might call it unfair to expect so much. It's a museum piece; a time capsule that should be evaluated as an intriguing glimpse into our past. In recent years, this idea has become the bankable logic that has driven many of the revivals seen in Melbourne's larger venues. Nevin's production of The Mousetrap is one example. But 2024 also saw revivals of A Woman in Black, Gaslight and the annual A Christmas Carol carve out a little West End corner in our nation's stages. Economically, this trend makes sense. These aren't spectacle-heavy productions that require big budgets, and they still have enough cultural clout to ensure good ticket sales. Producers of plays don't have a pool of jukebox musicals or film adaptations to choose from like their musical counterparts. If they want to bring a play to one of our larger venues, it seems they have two options: an Arthur Miller revival or a classic British thriller. With this production of And Then There Were None you can feel this trend nearing its end. It's not that we expect modern takes of these slices of theatrical history. But we can tell when fidelity is used as a crouch to avoid doing more with them. Reverence doesn't need to be an excuse for laziness. This is Christie's best novel, but for all its thrilling twists and still enlivening themes, you won't come out of this show thinking it's her best play. I came out of it feeling nothing but the sense that an opportunity to do something more with it had ultimately been wasted.
Time Out
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Cumulus Inc
Time Out Melbourne never writes starred reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills for reviews so that readers can trust our critique. If you were to plan the perfect Melbourne night out for a first-time visitor, what would you include in the itinerary? I love this question, since it's not only a great conversation starter, but there's also something inherently romantic in the exercise. Seeing a city's virtues through another's eyes tends to make you fall in love with it anew. My ideal night starts on the Paris End of Flinders Lane in the form of your classic 'dinner and a show'. After all, you can't go wrong with a meal at Cumulus Inc, the winner of our Legend Award in 2018 and the first hugely successful Melbourne bar and 'eating house' from legendary local chef Andrew McConnell (whose hospo empire today includes the likes of Supernormal, Cutler, Marion, Gimlet and Apollo Inn – all respective Melbourne icons in their own right). And after dessert, you needn't go far for entertainment. Simply descend into the basement of Fortyfivedownstairs, also housed in Collins Place, to feed your second stomach – your stomach for life, of course – with a program of independent art, theatre and music. This is exactly the evening I'd planned a few months ago to coincide with my tickets to a performance of Hamlet presented by the Melbourne Shakespeare Company. While the latter turned out to be extraordinary, a cocktail and snack (spring garlic and ricotta conchiglioni pasta stuffed with tomato and parmesan) at Cumulus Inc before the show were far more pleasurable than I'd anticipated. Like many resident Melbournians interested in eating out, I'd dined at Cumulus Inc before and I knew it was good, but I didn't remember it being this good. Something stirred me to rebook a table immediately for a larger meal. Frankly, not much has changed since Time Out last made an official visit. That dish of tuna tartare, goat's curd, green pea and mint so fresh it sings is still on the menu, as is the much celebrated 1.2-kilogram slow-roasted lamb shoulder with almond and red pepper – perfect for two to share on a date. While these are historically the highlights, there's seductive power in a trio of buttery Abrolhos Island scallops drenched in carrot curry and lime, or a plate of robust gildas ferrying pickled pepper, olive and Freo octopus into our liquor-slackened mouths. Nearly two decades on, McConnell's cracked wheat salad with labneh, preserved lemon and barberry is still one of the most wholesome (yet intriguing) restaurant salads money can buy, and that's not even the end of our praises. The superb staff still welcome you in as enthusiastically as they did back in 2009, their knowledge of the menu and drinks list far broader and more passionate in scope than most venues these days. And like mousse from the heavens, Valrhona soft chocolate is the idyllic crowd-pleaser dessert, served with an Earl Grey-infused cream, orange caramel and flecks of pistachio. My partner and I are smitten. Perhaps people don't talk a lot about Cumulus Inc anymore because there's not a lot that's new to say. There's a new wave of all-day diners following in its footsteps and you're far more likely to find news splashed about these all over the 'gram. But isn't it natural that evolution should stall when perfection has been reached? And if the recipe at this perpetually buzzing venue has been so passionately appreciated by all for so long, then why gussy it up to compete with trends of the '20s? It'd be like a longtime lover switching their cologne and then expecting you to feel the same good feelings when you sniff their sweater.
