Pocket rockets: Melbourne’s smallest restaurants, from sushi bars to bush cabins

Chae, a high-end Korean restaurant with just six seats, held the title of Melbourne’s smallest restaurant for four years. Then, a four-seat fine-diner in Footscray opened earlier this year, setting a new record for tiny dining rooms.

It builds on a years-long trend of shrinking restaurants, favoured by owners for their ability to balance economics and lifestyle and by diners for the rarefied and intimate experience they offer.

When the four seats at Matsu open online each month, they sell out in ten minutes to diners hungry for this intimate Japanese dining experience.

Across town, pint-sized Pretty Little in Balaclava is a hybrid of dinner party and fine-dining, where the hosts are highly trained professionals. That was exactly the idea owner Mike Byard pursued for his 16-seat venue.

He spent a year looking for a site that could fit a large communal table that extends into the open kitchen. The table is virtually the only choice when booking, apart from two seats in the window. Chefs prepare food at one end of the table, then walk it down to guests at the other end.

“It’s very much like you are at our house. Everyone’s involved, from pouring a bit of wine to clearing plates to running food,” he says.

But, just like at a dinner party, guests are a key ingredient to the atmosphere at these tiny venues, as Greasy Zoes co-owner Zoe Birch discovered when COVID-related dining caps were in place.

Despite her Hurstbridge restaurant only dropping from eight seats to six, “There was no atmosphere,” says Birch.

“You can turn the music up, you can do everything, but if no one’s talking, there isn’t that electricity in the air.”

Other quirks of running a petite restaurant include storage (Birch uses a pull-out cupboard and ladders), reservations (run through ballots at some venues) and etiquette (should you talk to your dining neighbours?)

But the positives far outweigh all that. Birch and husband Lachlan Gardner decided six years ago that thinking small would allow them to run a restaurant and also start a family, take a long holiday each year and get every Sunday off.

“It’s a lifestyle business for us,” she says. The trade-off is less money but it’s a formula that’s so far worked for them.

Byard wanted a restaurant that he could work in solo if he had to, given his experience with hospitality’s often transient workforce.

With staffing an even greater challenge today compared with when Pretty Little opened pre-pandemic, more venues are scaling down. Birch thinks the tiny restaurant will become a more common model as profit margins continue to be squeezed.

Highly focused Japanese fine-diners are also sprouting across Melbourne, modelled on the sushi counters common in Japan that only serve a handful of diners at a time. Securing a booking for Matsu, in Footscray, or the 10-seat Sushi On, in Kew, is a logistical feat.

But it does not seem to deter diners. Small footprint dining could be the start of something big.

Melbourne’s tiniest restaurants

Matsu

4 seats

Bookings, released monthly, sell out in 10 minutes for the high-end Japanese set menus served in a serene space tucked away above Footscray’s main drag.

157A Barkly Street, Footscray, https://www.matsuxbar.com/

Chae

6 seats

Welcome to the world of Korean slow food: nourishing, wholesome, painstakingly prepared. The experience is even more special when it happens inside your host’s home and you’re taught how certain ingredients are made. Bookings are so sought after, a ballot system has been introduced.

33 Mountain Road, Cockatoo, chae.com.au

Greasy Zoes

8 seats

A pitched roof, bunches of herbs hung up to dry and timber shelves holding bright jars of ferments cement the charm of this single-room restaurant, staffed entirely by couple Zoe Birch and Lachlan Gardner, who do everything from picking the produce to washing the dishes.

Shop 3, 850 Heidelberg-Kinglake Road, Hurstbridge, greasyzoes.com.au

Sushi On

10 seats

A minimalist room matches the stripped-back approach by chef Yong Hyun that encourages diners to train their focus on sushi and nothing but. The omakase (chef’s choice menu) varies in size but you can be guaranteed the most carefully seasoned rice, the most pristine fish and a celebration of local seafood.

1135 Burke Road, Kew, sushion.com.au

Aoi Tsuki

12 seats

Sushi without the serious might be the motto of this newcomer. Quality is the highest priority, but owner-chefs Tei Gim and Jun Pak enjoy performing behind the sushi counter, joking with guests and flashing prime cuts of fish in front of you. And at this scale, the whole room is in on the fun.

384 Punt Rd, South Yarra, aoitsuki.com.au

Pretty Little

16 seats

You might walk in with one friend but you’ll leave with more, thanks to the convivial set-up of this slender space where the communal table is the heart and soul. It’s easier than ever to get your taste, with a move away from a set menu to two, three or four courses.

296 Carlisle Street, Balaclava, prettylittle.com.au

Gaea

16 seats

Each night, a cafe is transformed into a softly lit fine-diner where intricate dishes melding Chinese traditions, native Australian ingredients and fine-dining skills are sent out in a parade of small courses. A subtle facelift has added a marble chef’s table, a timber dividing wall between cafe and restaurant, and better lighting that puts the food front and centre.

Shop 1, 166 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, restaurantgaea.com.au