The trains arrived in August, but the rolling stock of food arrivals around the new Martin Place Metro station is on its own busy schedule. Melbourne pastry mecca Lune will open on the station’s doorstep before the end of the year, while cult burger brand Five Guys and two spin-off venues from chefs’ hatted Loulou Bistro at Milson Point will join the party in early 2025. Hospitality operators have dipped into their pockets and backed the precinct to become the city’s new food and drinking hub.
“We’re pumped about the energy [the Metro] has brought to the place,” says restaurateur Brett Robinson, who on Wednesday, November 20, opened the doors on an opulent new restaurant, The Grill, near one of the Metro entrances. With its high-gloss timber panelling and a head chef with a bank of experience at Michelin-starred restaurants in the UK, The Grill is part of The International, a new three-level, $10 million play from The Point, the group behind chefs’ hatted Shell House. At Aalia restaurant opposite The International, restaurateur Ibby Moubadder says he’s also noticed an uptick on the upper slopes of Martin Place since the Metro opened.
“More people, more bodies, more energy,” he says. It has given Moubadder confidence to double-down, with expansion plans of his own. In April, he’ll open Aalia Wine Bar in a neighbouring shopfront which has operated as a florist.
While the city is flush with restaurants, Moubadder explains “in the CBD there aren’t many w.
