Melbourne's most popular

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You'll feel like you're in on an extraordinary secret at Yu-U. Even finding this excellent Japanese restaurant is a bit of an adventure in itself, with the entrance being a graffiti covered steel door with no obvious signage.

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This is the Cantonese fine dining experience where the space, the sense of grace and the impeccable service are all equal to the quality of the food served. Seafood is a speciality, which is not to take anything away from the rest of the menu whose highlights begin with the beef eye fillet and naturally include the Peking duck. This is simply Australia's best Cantonese food.

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Primarily a beer hall, with 10 tap beers and more than 85 imported beers, there's also a cocktail bar tucked down the back and a Thai menu (with a few Italian-inspired offerings). The dark, peeled-back interior is complete with polished floorboards and a bluestone stairway.

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A Lebanese long-stayer on Lygon Street, Rumi moved to a roomier location just across the road in early 2009, in the space of former haunts De Vault and Amos Restaurant and Bar. Retaining its intimate feel, Rumi now has a slightly larger seating capacity to suit small groups and a greater space for the kitchen kinetics to take off.

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Oh, if only all of Australia's Spanish food was as tasty as those at MoVida, where you'll fantastic house-made morcilla (blood sausage), cuttlefish on broad beans and wonderful churros with hot chocolate. Even the narrow, graffiti-lined alleyway has a touch of Madrid to it, and the Spanish wine list is top-notch. The space is warm, the atmosphere vibrant yet relaxed.

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Taxi Dining Room in the schmick Transport Hotel serves crisp, clean, Japanese-inspired food in a chrome and glass milieu. The interior design is out of this world with fabulously modern style inside and out, tearing your attention away from the bustling CBD action below. Like Fed Square itself, Taxi pushes the boundaries and challenges perceptions in many ways, but still ultimately remains accessible.

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The menu changes constantly and is delivered verbally at this colourful, welcoming eatery. Using organic ingredients where possible, the menu offers tasty North African cuisine at reasonable prices. There aren't many places where you can enjoy a three-course banquet for $17, but this is one of them. All dishes are vegetarian, but they're varied and flavoursome.

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Spontaneity and seafood go hand in hand, or perhaps fin and fin, at this buzzing hotspot in Fitzroy. Following the lead of its sister Claypots in St Kilda, this restaurant is similarly committed to marine magnificence, presenting different seafood dishes according to the season. Many of the dishes can be ordered in tapas style on mezze platters, but the best bet might be to keep an eye on the blackboard menu.

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George Calombaris has a reputation around town as an avant-garde chef whose culinary creations at the now-defunct Reserve have both raised eyebrows and prompted belly-patting contentment. Traditional is not a word that the foodie press is used to associating with him but that is what he is offering at his own venture, albeit with his own less-conventional spin.

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Neil Perry's gastronomic wonderland, Rockpool, is a Sydney dining institution and a renowned restaurant on the global stage. Finally, Melbourne is getting a cut of the action with Perry opening up a south-of-the-border Rockpool sibling in Southbank.