embla

embla was a wine bar/restaurant offering a large range of wine and delectable meals. for lunch we ordered their quinoa & rosemary sourdough, raw kingfish with heirloom cucumbers and yuzu, celeriac hasselback with aged cheddar, and black angus scotch fillet with tarragon & dried tomato. for dessert we had the ‘figs figs figs’. all the dishes were very flavourful; the scotch fillet was tender & cooked to perfection, the celeriac was nicely ‘crispy’ and my favourite was the kingfish - it was very fresh and the yuzu flavour really enhanced the dish. the dim lighting and wooden decor made the ambiance cosy. service was friendly.

cozy little spot for some food and wine. the service is really good and the menu and wine list are sumptuous. great place to spend the evening.

went to the sunday lunch special. great food and wine. in fact too much food. would prefer a more balanced meal with some wine included in the price. had the big aussie red and was very happy with that.

good new place. nothing personally to rave about but it is a nice joint to keep in mind if you are in that part of the city. interesting presentation of the wine list and staff tries to show knowledge. food on par with what you would expect of any new restaurant these days.

wow, amazing!!! so while i might have been a little drunk i tried my hardest to take some photos of the food but you can't hold that against me because i promise you that the food is much more about taste / flavour than presentation. you just have to come and taste the whole menu which is pretty much what we did and smashed three bottles of wine 😁😁😁 great service with great food and great wine - what more could anyone ask for. ps. please do yourself a favour and order the mushrooms 😉

disappointingly one dimensional (i know that sounds wankerish, but hear me out).

as each dish came out we found ourselves desperately trying to find something that wowed us, but inevitably we just shrugged and said "it's ok, i guess?"

the duck parfait came first, and though it was smooth and creamy and relatively tasty in itself, it desperately needed some citrus and sweetness (probably an unfair comparison but i couldn't help thinking of heston's meat fruit). and why serve it with crackers? why not some toasted bread?

next sad dish was the ceviche, which, though we could tell the fish was fresh, needed something more to elevate it, there was no balance whatsoever and it looked like a white rice cracker on a white plate.

it was the same for our other dishes, i cant even rememeber them now, but the final disappointment was the pork, which took ages to come out, and had no pork flavor at all. how can a meat be both tender and chewy? we're thinking it was sous-vided, but badly?

we trekked out specifically because embla has had so many rave reviews and for such a cool little bar, i thought the food would've been better.

great ambience inside. i love that its a little dim. the staff are very hospitable and know the menu quite precisely. recommendations from staff of the food are always a necessity here!

enjoyed the food, great selection of wines, good buzz, but nothing to write home about. service felt a little hurried and at times lacking (waitress seemed distracted).

opened in dec 2015 by the town mouse team, embla is definitely an up and rising wine bar in the cbd - recently voted as the top 34 australia restaurant on financial review. their roasted chicken was also featured on herald sun as the best chicken. i absolutely loved their creative menu and beautiful crafted dishes. high quality food, extensive wine list, cozy ambience and friendly service.. and they open from
8am till late! highly recommend their beef tartar, mussels, house bread and mustard butter. their lunch special dish - pork belly and potato curry $16 was generous and delicious too.

very good food.  wasn't in a drinking situation, but would have been very easy to do so.  food is light and fresh,  vegetable dishes are especially great.

loved this place. friendly staffs. simple menu but excellent-foods. you can be seat in the open-kitchen side incase you’re keen on having interactive with the cookers. about the food. i’ll highly recommended the “blue eye”. it’s just too fresh and bought my appetites up. you guys should try!!

josh, you the man, fantastic waiter. dddddelcious food, awesome service, good vibes. we've been before and we will be back. always recommending this lil gem in the heart of melb.

embla does not take reservations for dinner, so i came in, popped my name down and waited for a call. we did eventually loiter outside the restaurant, one of the staff was nice to give us regular updates on the availability and kept our expectations in check. once we got in however it was totally vibing with dimly lit tables and an open kitchen.

along with bottle of white, we start off with a few sydney rock oysters. it was rich and creamy with a subtle mineral aftertaste. i would kill for more but at $5 a pop it can really bite into that final bill (i really need to find a place that does happy hour oysters).

following the seafood theme we've laid out for ourselves we also get the blue eye which was mixed with green olive, finger lime and horseradish. you could taste all elements on the plate with the freshness of the fish and the occasional pop from the finger lime. i'd add some sort of cracker to act as a vehicle to scoop up the fish, as a standalone it looked a bit lonely. appreciated it's simplicity however.

we also got their whipped cod roe with coriander and cumin. firstly, the bread (turkish?) accompanying the dish was pipping hot and firm. it was amazing. the cod roe had a smooth consistency and the coriander was not overpowering at all. 

we also got their stracciatella, puntarelle, lemon and anchovy dish. this dish was much more toned down than the previous two and we could not taste any anchovy. this was accompanied with crispy thin bread. it was an okay dish, i enjoyed the creaminess and milkiness of the stracciatella.

for mains, we got their rainbow trout with romanesco, fioretta cauliflower and salted bergamot. i don't usually order fish at modern restaurants as i prefer fattier proteins. since my friends wanted it (and we were going for a seafood theme) i was easy. to me fish is fish (wish we tried their pork hock), it had a nice char to the skin and i found the fioretta cauliflower quite interesting, floral and crisp.

to go with our mains we got their pine mushrooms with rosemary and buttermilk, meaty and quite heavy with the rosemary seasoning. mixed reactions at the table. their creamed corn, dried citrus, oregano and creme fraiche was an unexpected winner and resembled tasting similar to a mushy quiche (in the best way possible!)

for dessert we got their passionfruit posset, creamy, sweet and tart. what we found interesting was the next dessert where the first thing you taste was the mandarin ice cream, then the chocolate comes through and next a hint of liquorice. surprisingly nice. on the blackboard were 3 cured meats (we didn't get any) and 3 cheeses, we chose their hard cow's milk cheese imported from italy. it was quite crumbly and it was difficult to cut and put on the cracker. despite this it was strong and pungent and paired well with the jam (fig?) provided.

overall a great spot to relax with a glass of wine in hand, we did not at any point feel pressured to vacate our tables. we did not expect that most of their seafood (at the start) was going to be of a "spreadable" texture and would have enjoyed more variation. i'm sure if we had chosen some of their other dishes it would have made for a more grand experience. i'll be back!

what a cracking way to spend an afternoon. impressive wine list, shared dishes to graze on friendly staff & cool atmosphere. what more can i say? just go already!

very, very good. on a cold wintery melbourne day, embla was a snug little oasis. unobtrusive staff, but extremely knowledgeable. some experimental wines and delicious share plates, made for a very enjoyable afternoon. can highly recommend for date night or day.