amaru

i have nothing but praise for amaru. from the professional and outgoing floor staff to the talented team in the kitchen producing the most exciting dishes, everything was perfect. the fit out is elegant and laid back with a variety of seating options available. every single dish was so well executed and i couldn’t fault anything. the depths of flavors and contrasts in every plate were impressive. my favorites were the onion and garfish snack, the mussels with charred broccoli and lettuce, the quail with pineapple and the shiitake sundae. thank you amaru, theexperiencewas my favorite in melbourne to date.

let me start by saying the food at amaru is sensational. the way in which the chef plays with textures and flavours is quite wonderful. food doesn't burst with powerful flavours, but there is a subtle balance that's brings each dish together that just works. no menu for the degustation you are in the hands of the very talented chefs and boy do they deliver!

highlight dishes were the mud crab, the celeriac and the buffalo mozzarella ice cream!

decor is fantastic.

the only letdown of sorts would be the service. not that it was terrible it wasn't at all. but it just wasn't as professional as what you'd expect from a fine dining restaurant at $170 per head. the staff were young and a tad lacking in attentiveness. perhaps it will change as they gain moreexperienceand it certainly won't stop me from returning, just something for them to work on i guess.

had an incredible night at amaru celebrating my birthday. every single course was anexperiencefor the taste buds, interesting and delicious flavours.
the staff were very friendly and attentive, providing memorable service. would recommend trying amaru!

excellentexperiencefrom start to finish.
excellentexperiencefrom start to finish.
excellentexperiencefrom start to finish.

wow, amaru has absolutely delicious and sophisticated food and such a lovely, intimate ambience. i’ve been to quite a lot of degustation restaurants in melbourne and this is by far the best. can’t even choose my favourite dish out of the eight course sensoryexperiencei enjoyed; so worth it and just a beautiful meal and place to come to overall.

amaru means beautiful and that truly describes everything about the restaurant!

a small intimate dining room with big modern australian flavours. they are big on flavours and the dishes showcases native australian ingredients. we went with the sensory menu which gives us anexperienceof the wild aromatics. it was a 15 course menu and i must say it was truly impressive. the flavours were not what you expect and was very different. the highlight for us was the portarlington musssels, charred broccoli, and grilled lettuce, the smokey flavours were incredible and it kept us going back for more. the otway shiitake ice cream, sandalwood, cacao and black truffle dessert was very different and was a very nice finish to the meal. their homemade sourdough comes with creamed butter and it was simply amazing. the creaminess texture of the butter was so good. they do have a truffle supplement which complements to the courses and this is optional.

definitely worth a visit toexperiencetrue modern australian flavours.

excellent restaurant. lovely food. beautiful restaurant. lovely staff. love how the restaurant isn’t over loaded with table- allows the restaurant to feel intimate & not loud. food served & present beautifully. a very enjoyable diningexperiencewhich i would recommend.

had a great diningexperiencehere. the food was delicious. i’ve found that fine dining places are very often overrated but this place is well worth the visit.

our second time here on the chef’s table with the sensory menu.

both times we had lunch with the non-alcoholic pairing. one after another beautiful and delicious creations, it is a wonderful intimateexperiencerecommended for special occasions.

most drinks and the main dishes had changed slightly from the first time we tried, which was good. theexperiencewas just as good as the first. we were lucky that both times there were not too many people so we got the restaurant almost ton ourselves.

what i enjoyed most were the pride belief the chef and staff serving the dishes have as they explained their creations. the effort and thinking that goes into the food and drink, the aged meat, the infused tea, were such a treat.

amaru deserves every star available, as the posse both, front of house and in the kitchen, are absolute rockstars 🌟 what a night indeed! every dish on the sensory menu was impressively, thoughtfully and beautifully pieced and plated together from mind to matter. it’s not often that i feel like i can taste the spirit and emotion that went into a dish but thisexperiencecertainly delivered on that level. it was lovely to have met and chatted with the whole “behind the dish” crew from the kitchen to the table as the service was very warm, friendly and left a familiar feeling on my departure. it wasn’t just a sensoryexperiencein the dishes but also inclusive of the attentive service and the decor in choice of lighting, colours, furnishings and placements.

you won’t understand what my review means until you’ve come to check it out for yourself. be prepared to have your senses delightfully stirred and awakened! thank you amaru squad for a memorable and altogether lovely night out. much love and appreciation to you and the food babies you created and delivered.

ok, i don’t know whether this is an unpopular opinion or one of those unspoken ones. probably it’s just our luck but let just say we were disappointed with ourexperienceat amaru. i’ve always wanted to come here after hearing so many ‘food critics’ rave about it, so we were so excited to come here to celebrate a special occasion. we got the sensory menu which includes all of their signature dishes.
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let’s start on a positive note, staff were presentable and deserve applause for friendly and efficient service. we received our starter not long after ordering, it was actually served very quickly, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in fine dining as you don’t have to wait half an hour for a single dish. my favourite starter was the smoked duck ham, love that subtle smokey flavour. smoked eel was slightly crisp and creamy with the eel’s seafoodness. i found the dim sim quite ordinary, and the garfish a bit salty. they didn't get off to a strong start for us.
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here comes the disaster, the mussels with charred broccoli & grilled lettuce was extremely salty 🤢, even my partner with savoury tongue could not handle it, turns out they did over-season the soup. we get it, chefs make mistakes too. but it really left a persistent salty taste for us. mud crab 🦀 with iced apple did help wash out that salty taste on our tongue, it was refreshing and had a decent amount of crab meats. right after that, their sourdough with tasmanian goat butter if i recall correctly and balsamic honey. the crust of my sourdough was a bit too hard and thick for my liking, the butter was nice but not the best one i’ve had. the pastrami brined quail with dried peach, again a bit salty. maybe that’s what it supposed to taste like 🤷🏻‍♂️!? no real wow factor. lamb sweetbreads & sweetcorn with freshly shaved italian truffle ($45 extra over two dishes) the broth was clean and tasty, generously covered with truffle, makes it extra fragrance. the stand out savoury dish has to be the red kangaroo, cooked perfectly between rare to medium rare.
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their desserts are winners to me, start with strawberry sorbet 🍓was delightful, you can taste there were real strawberries in it. mixed it with citrus curd and frozen pistachio marshmallow, mmmmm it was so good! the otway shiitake ice cream 🍄 with shiso and cacao, topped with fresh truffle was absolutely to die for. that’s the wow factor i was looking for, one of the best ice cream i’ve ever had 😋. last but not least, the exquisite salted woodside goat curd🐐🧀 was actually a golden goat’s cheese cheesecake. the presentation was stylish and instagramable. flavors were distinct and creamy, with a soft, almost spreadable texture. my absolute favourite of the night.
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we ended our meal with olive oil pastille & pumpkin caramel which were quite a unique treat. overall i would give this place 3.5 ratings, it just didn’t meet my sky-high expectations (rated 4.9/5 on zomato). you would expect an incredibly innovative meal from an ex vue de monde sous chef but it was just satisfactory. if i am paying $195 for a meal, i expect the food to be perfect and unforgettable. such a shame as i really wanted to love this place, lovely staff but unfortunately we’re very unlikely to come back.

woke up on the afl grand final saturday and felt we haven’t tried a new place for ages. started flicking through zomato and amaru popped up in the fine dining category. i was able to book on line for lunch. so by noon ish, we ended up at amaru.

when we got there, there was only one other guest seated on a stool in the bar seating area.

half way through our degustation course, i figured, there was prob no other guests turning up. it was just me, hubby and the guy at the bar. everyone was prob at the games.

i say to hubby “this is prob what the rich and famous do. reserve a whole restaurant and have a body guard ”.. 😂 this certainly wasn’t anyexperiencei’ve had before. rather unique.
now that i’ve tried it, its enough. definitely would prefer to have other people at the restaurant. gives it a buzz.

food and service was nice. i’m not a cheese person, so couldn’t really taste/enjoy the signature dessert which was cream/cheese base. they offered another dish to replace, but i was already so full. the degustation course will definitely fill the tummy.

my only regret is the fact that i decided to go fine dining on the day. i missed out on the element of waiting and looking forward to the event.

i can’t say i go to a lot of “fine dinning” restaurants but went along with a friend to amaru about 12 months ago and have been back 5 times since. what an amazingexperiencethis place is. the food is out of this world and blows me away every time you i go. it is however priced at a level that means its only a once every now and then place but i believe this place is one of the best fine dinning experiences melbourne has to offer!

ambience: 5
staff: 5
food: 4.8
beverage: 5
beautiful diningexperienceon our wedding anniversary. very happy with our choice. 
for drinks, i ordered the lemon flower with cucumber, very refreshing drink in a warm night. husband had a japanese beer, he said that was a great beer too. 
we had the sensory menu, among the four starters, the duck ham was my favourite. my favourite main was the mud crab and rock oyster with iced apple. i can still feel the refreshing taste on the tip of my tongue just thinking about the dish. the dish had so many different layers of flavours and texture, it was definitely the highlight of the night for me. my second top pick would be the hapuka dish came with consume, if it was appropriate, i would pick up the plate and lick every single bit on it, no joke. for desert, when the lovely lady presented us the shitake mushroom ice cream, the first reaction in my head was: what? for real? but you know what? it worked really well and i loved it. this is the kind of dish that does a trick in your head, in a good way. the most photographed dish has to go to the meredith cheesecake. loved the texture, as well as the acidity the blood orange sorbet brings, well balanced flavours. the petite four, bergamot/rhubarb/barley, it was hard to bite off, but then you don't have too, it's bite-size itself. wait till it melt in your mouth, omg, layers of flavours exploded. what a good note to end the evening.  i didn't rate the food 5 out of 5 because of the kangaroo dish. the meat was cooked beautifully. however, the liquorice didn't quite work for me. maybe this would be an acquired taste in the future. 
my opinion on this place? shut up and take my money! i will return any day of the week, any week of the month.

visited amaru with my boyfriend for our anniversary. staff was really nice and patient. we didn’t choose wine pairing, but order glasses as we go. the waitress was very kindly sharing her favourite wine at the restaurant and provide suggestions across different varieties. the only 2 things i didn’t quite enjoy were, 1) too many dessert and we feel we didn’t have enough savoury food 2) many dishes used iced xxxx as an ingredient, as i’m not a fun of using ice in my dish, so didn’t like much. however, overall, would still say it was an awesomeexperienceand would love to come back again.