Wynyard / JAMES

Came here for my birthday a few weeks ago and loved it! The abalone in particular was amazing. My partner and I are planning our next visit and can't wait to go again.

An amazing experience at JAMES for our date night. This was our first meal of the trip to Melbourne. As a Korean, I really loved the fusion food and the Korean twist to all the food. Some flavours were so familiar, yet so different. For example, one of the dish taste just like 전복죽, but at the same time so different…

Downside was that I just wished there was more. I know that this restaurant is for the flavour and experience of tasting and its delicacy but we were left feeling that we could’ve had one more bite of each dish to try more and really experience the dishes

The cod dish (im pretty sure it was cod) was also good!

I would recommend everyone to visit here

Murray cod was one of my favourite. The potato bread and cake was unique

Having the set menu for Saturday afternoon lunch and it was an an amazing experience. If you love Australian fusion food with native ingredient and a hint of Asian (Japanese & Koren) influence, you should not miss this.

One of my favorite dining experience is here! Food is always excellent and creative. Love the food and fantastic service!

Definitely a place to try if you are a foodie.
My friend and I had the 10 course degustation and very amazed with the unique flavours.
Staff were friendly and helpful. Very relaxing and intimate environment.

Honestly loved everything from the moody fit out, drinks and delicious unexpected Korean x seasonal Australian produce, every dish was special in its own way.

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To start off with these dishes were so refreshing, sweet spot prawns paired well with the beautiful savouriness of the dashi buttermilk and bursts of freshness from the pineapple, yuzu caviar and jalapeno. The cucumber is a notable dish here and it certainly lives up to the hype.

? ? • As soon as I saw the golden crispy potato approaching I knew it was going to be good, paired with the black garlic, it was hard to stop at one
? ? • The purslane added a nice crunch to the charred lamb with ssamjang
? ? • muntrie relish and gochujang emulsion was such a creative mix of flavours
? ? • uncovering the pickled kohlrabi revealed the perfectly smoky calamari and crunchy fennel kimchi
? • loved the dessert limes in the broccolini as it added a pop of sweetness + acidity against the cashew cream and pistachio

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This dessert is definitely more on the savoury side but once you have it with the other sweet and tangy elements it balances out. The yoghurt gelato was super smooth, I also loved the caramelised crunch of the almond biscuit and toasty crumbed white choc throughout the dish.

Easily bookmarked as a new-found favourite and I’ll be on the lookout for their next menu rotation!

Ordered: prawn cracker, cucumber, mussle, abalone, cod, quail, potato bread, potato cake was not available so they switched it to the scallop.
Service was great and friendly, only feedback regarding service was our water jug thing was emptied a few times for long periods.
OK so stand out was the prawn, potato break and the abalone. Make sure if you're in a group that everyone gets their own! You would want double of these, let alone sharing them.
The let down was the quail and carrot. Recommend this place

YEAH
Potato Cake - share 1 piece between 2

Cabbage Dash Broth

Quail

NAH
Abalone - share between 2-4

Ama Ebi

MAYBE
Potato bread (share 1 piece between 2)

Charred cucumber (if you like pickles) - recommend share 1 pieces between 2)

Mussel - roughly 5/6 pieces

Murray cod

Burnt carrot

Awful customer service - will not pick up or the phone or reply back if you have given notice to cancel your booking due to sickness. Have tried reaching out 10 times for the past 24 hours.

Went with the set menu option, was a delicious array of food. Friendly staff who assisted with wine options, cosy atmosphere

Had a great lunch went for the 6 course menu BUT had to change it to the 9 course So tasty and well presented plates do yourself a favour BOOK

Amazing atmosphere and food! Alot of attention-to-detail went into every dish and each course was well paced out so there was time to experience and appreciate the food. Loved it!

James is an unassuming but charming restaurant located in south melbourne serving korean australian fusion.decided to get a la carte for dinner service and was impressed by all the dishes’ creativity, presentation and execution.you can really taste the freshness of the seasonal produce they used and all the flavours were refined and delicious.the stand outs are - amaebi cracker, abalone sticky rice with guts butter, and murray cod with gochujang emulsion (must order if you like fish) also very impressed with the warm hospitality with detailed introduction on the dishes.

Best lamb I’ve had in Australia! The service is thoughtful, warm and attentive. Delicious cocktails and excellent accomodations for dietaries. Even the dairy & gluten free dessert.

I’ve eaten here several times already and plan to many more. Honestly couldn’t recommend enough!

Came in for a birthday celebration, we used to go to Wynyard quite often for their gourmet brunch and the occasional japanese style feed me dinner.
Hadn’t gone for a while, and Kirby has really taken this place to the next level.
We’ve had the luxury to dine in some of the most reknowned restaurants over the last decade, from Brae, Ides, Rockpool, Lume, Society (: S), and even overseas like Indochina or Michelin restaurants in Paris or Tokyo - and this was seriously in the top 3 restaurants we’d ever been to.
While most good gastro meals always leave you with 7-8 great dishes and 1-3 “meh” dishes, we couldn’t fault a single dish in this degustation.
Everything was just perfectly balanced/seasoned, daring yet perfected and unique flavour combinations, with a fine balance of strong umami pairings as well as subtle and fresh flavored dishes, without pretentious yet useless smoking cloche effects. On point and generous wine pairing to go with.
The chef is really upthere and sounds up and coming, at a very reasonable price.
A must go place that needs a michelin ranking,
Well done!

My least favourite fine dining experience by far. Arrived early with a booking but had to wait a hour to be seated with no explanation or apology. The food wait time (2 hours and 30 minutes of sitting with most of it waiting) between dishes took a while, especially the lamb which came cold. I do appreciate the flavours however for $130 it is a bit steep.

One of my favourite restaurants in Melbourne. Food is delicious and unique. Have never been disappointed. Good value and excellent service.

Horrible customer service! I wish I could have given ZERO!

We booked our table over there and we were so excited, but when we arrived, they offered us a table next to the front door and where the bar staff make and receive orders.

The table itself was a funny triangle shape with one short stool chair with no back support at all, and one of the staff’s kids was sitting there and painting who had to be asked to move! It is the “we’re out of tables and here is the leftover spot nobody would want but we’ll pretend otherwise” spot

We said this is not a proper table for a nice dinner (it was the spot you wait during the day for a takeaway coffee) and they were like this is the only table we have, then we asked if that is the case, why did you even accept our booking? And she was like this is one of our standard tables! We asked her are you personally happy to sit there on a short stool at an angle that can not even look at the other person properly and have a decent conversation? ! Anyway, after being called out on it they didn’t even try to pretend it was a normal table but still tried to convince us to accept the table which we finally told them we want to cancel our booking and we went to another restaurant with amazing customer service. The whole experience with the staff was horrible, and disappointing. We would never go back there again and would not recommend the place to anybody.

I’ve never tried korean fusion before and this was an amazing first! Being a ramen lover, it’s so cool how they’ve done the ramen. It’s like pasta-rised ramen and just simply delicious. Highly recommend their side/entree dishes too.

Riding my bike past here and stopped in for a quick bite at lunch and was seriously impressed by the fare. See photos. Good coffee too. Will definitely be back for dinner with the wife. This one is a gem!