Are you located in Melbourne, Victoria, planning a Christmas lunch idea? When you are planning for an occasion like this, you probably want everything just perfect. One of the best ways to make sure that it all turns out the way you dreamed it to select the place or restaurant yourself personally. This way, you can choose the ultimate location, the best entertainment and the most delicious food and craft your ideal Christmas lunch.
Whether you’re separated from the usual family crew or simply weary after months of home-cooking and washing up, the restaurant Christmas lunch looks set to be more popular than ever this year. Though cooking and cleaning may be an unglamorous aspect of Christmas Day lunch, Melbourne may have the solution. Spanning across the city are plenty of places to have Christmas lunch, ranging from all you can eat smorgasbords to multi-course meals. Whether you’re craving seafood, roasted meats, sweet desserts, or anything in-between, Melbourne holds plenty of restaurants open on Christmas Day to satisfy every member of the family.
Ultimate Christmas Lunch Ideas in Melbourne, Victoria
Lunch At The Top of Brighton Savoy Hotel Melbourne
Christmas Day is about joining together with good friends, family and loved ones. Recommended by Domain Review as ‘one of the best places for Christmas Lunch in Melbourne’, share in traditional Christmas fare, sip a festive drink and celebrate in style with the Brighton Savoy.
While our capacity will be limited due to current COVID-19 and government restrictions, we are delighted to be able to host bookings of 2 adults or more. Get your favourite friends and family members, together with bookings and details, opening very soon.
Traditional Christmas Day Lunch – 12.30pm – 4.00pm
Bookings open on July
ENTREE
Seafood tasting plate prawn cocktail with a whole prawn garnish smoked salmon rosette on a blini with a horseradish cream virgin mary oysters.
Freshly carved roast breast of turkey & smoked ham served with roast potatoes, vegetables and cranberry sauce.
DESSERT
Christmas plum pudding topped with hot brandy custard and a berry garnish
FRUIT MINCE PIES, CHOCOLATE MINTS, TEA & COFFEE
BEVERAGES INCLUDE
- De Bortoli Willowglen Sem. Sauvignon Blanc
- De Bortoli Willowglen Shiraz Cabernet
- De Bortoli Willowglen Sparkling Brut
- Carlton Draught and Cascade Premium Light
- Soft Drinks and Iced water
CHRISTMAS LUNCH
- $TBC Adult Private table
- $TBC Children 12 & Under
- $TBC Children 4 & Under
- $TBC High chair
Bookings available in the following event space:
- Gala Ballroom- The hotel’s main ballroom with elegantly decorated tables with crisp white linen, Christmas centrepiece & Bon Bons with ambient background music.
- Seaview Room- Spectacular Bay views, elegantly decorated tables with crisp white linen, Christmas centrepiece & Bon Bons with ambient background music.
- Wellington Room- A quieter space, elegantly decorated tables with crisp white linen, Christmas centrepiece & Bon Bons with easy listening and Christmas music by Freddy Gulino.
- Seaview Terrace- Premium intimate space with 180 Degree views of Port Phillip Bay. Premium Christmas Lunch Dining – Every table has a bay view, bookings of tables from 8-10 Adults only. Be quick before these premium tables disappear. No other table combinations available in the Seaview Terrace.
Arbory Afloat Melbourne Christmas Lunch
Arbory Afloat is teaming up with Four Pillars Gin to bring you a floating Christmas party like no other. With sittings from 11:30 am to 9pm on Christmas Day, Arbory Afloat is dishing up the ultimate four-course Beach House feast with matched Four Pillars cocktails and flowing beer, cider, wine and Champagne. The daybeds and cabanas will also be available to book with packages available for four to ten guests. Join in for a three hour sitting from 11:30 am onwards.
Lunch at Duke of Wellington Hotel Melbourne
Melbourne’s oldest pub has you covered for all your after-work needs.
The Duke of Wellington is clean and modern: a bit of a rarity for inner-city pubs. Comfortable green banquettes ring the minimalist public bar. The ceiling of exposed air-con ducting painted black gives it a chic industrial feel. This is the Melbourne Demons’ official home, and there’s a couple of big screens playing highlights from the week when a game’s not on.
Beers on tap stick to the standards, along with a cloudy and balanced James Squire cider. There’s also a couple of solid options in the bottle, like Acme Pale Ale and Four Pines. The second level holds a wine bar and function area, and the top floor is now home to Manhattan lounge-style steakhouse, Dutchess. Even on a Monday, there’s plenty of loosened ties enjoying a pint and a banter, proving the Duke’s position as a CBD favourite.
The Duke of Wellington is located a stone’s throw away from Flinders Street Station so that you can roll after that you’ve stuffed yourself silly at lunch. There’s the obligatory ham (with a bourbon and apricot glaze) and turkey (slow-cooked with a currant, fig and chestnut stuffing), plus cold cuts, prawns, oysters and Christmas pudding. Vegetarians can feel at home, too, with a separate menu subbing the ham for eggplant and the turkey for pumpkin.
Lunch At No. 35 Melbourne
The No 35 Restaurant of the Sofitel Melbourne has offered an impressive dining experience throughout Christmas Day in the past. Kicking off the festivities is a breakfast buffet from 6:30 am for $45 per person. Otherwise, the Christmas Day lunch runs from 12:30 pm to 3 pm, serving a buffet with seafood, meats, and dessert, plus a visit from Santa.
Hot Pot Lunch at Panda Hot Pot Melbourne
Step into Ancient China and an unforgettable hot pot experience complete with free nightly shows. Panda Hot Pot is Melbourne’s BIGGEST premier premium hot pot experience, like none other!
Panda Hot Pot is Melbourne’s most significant premium Sichuan hot pot restaurant. To enjoy a delicious meal, just add the finest ingredients to any of the dozen broths they have developed.
Lunch at St Ali Melbourne
Located in South Melbourne, St Ali is open from 7 am to 3 pm on Christmas Day, making it the perfect breakfast, lunch, and dinner option for Melbourne families. The menu includes plenty of flavours, with a little something for everyone to enjoy. Head over to the St Ali website for potential updates or announcements for their Christmas Day trading hours.
Lunch at Hophaus German Bar And Grill
Dining at the Hophaus German Bar And Grill for Christmas lunch will deliver families with plenty of delicious cuisines to enjoy. The menu includes the famous glazed roasted turkey, as well as honey roasted ham. Potential announcements for a Christmas Day lunch may be found on the venue’s website later this year.
As far as Southbank restaurants go, Hophaus provides a truly unique experience.
With an expansive art deco-inspired dining hall, fabulous terrace overlooking Melbourne, a glazed polychrome brick centrepiece bier bar and an open rotisserie-fired kitchen.
From smalls, snacks & salads to generous helpings of house-smoked meats, wood-fired oven & rotisserie dishes along with delicious contemporary twists on classic Euro favourites. A speciality is our whole suckling pig, smoked and slow-roasted over the coal pit – perfect for group bookings and functions.
One of a Kind Experience Lunch at Melbourne Zoo
The Melbourne Zoo is a popular dining option leading up to Christmas lunch, offering families a 3-course lunch to enjoy. You can enjoy lunch from the 7th to December 24 with prices starting at $25.
Enjoy a cup of coffee and something sweet from our patisserie kitchen in the morning or have lunch freshly cooked from a range of cuisines, including vegan and vegetarian options at the Lakeside Café. Or try our gourmet burger, franks and loaded fries at the Giraffe Lookout Café while watching giraffes on the observation deck or head over to Elephant Kiosk for rotisserie chicken and chips.
Try Afternoon Lunch at Eureka 89
For families on the hunt for a Christmas Day lunch with spectacular views, Eureka 89’s dining experience is a popular choice. The 4-course meal includes caviar, prawns, turkey, and sticky date pudding. Prices for the experience are $260 for adults, $160 for teenagers, and $85 for children under 12 years of age.
EUREKA 89 DINING ROOM
In a city that thrives on food, wine & culture, there are few better places to experience the heart and soul of Melbourne than the Eureka 89 dining room. Towering 300 metres above sea level, enjoy breathtaking views of Melbourne whilst indulging in our chefs tasting menus curated by award-winning Executive Chef Renee Martillano.
Renee’s ever-changing chef’s tasting menus adapt to seasons, working closely with local Victorian & Australian producers to deliver modern Australian menus committed to showcasing the best seasonal produce available.
Our guests can enjoy our 4 or 6-course chef tasting menu’s from Wednesday to Sundays evenings.
We also offer a 3 course set menu on Sunday lunch.
Christmas Afternoons at Grosvenor Hotel
St. Kilda’s Grosvenor Hotel is serving a delicious Christmas lunch, with a menu featuring fresh prawns, salad, roast duck, and a Christmas pudding to finish off the meal. Prices for the lunch start at $215 per person.
Walk-ins are welcome at all times, and we will always try our best to accommodate you. However, if you plan to join us for a meal, we suggest you take a few minutes to make a booking.
Lunch at the Conservatory in Crown Melbourne
The Conservatory is known for offering a classy buffet experience in its elegant space. Still, it’s switching it up for Christmas lunch and offering a set five-course menu with a glass of Piper Heidsieck Champagne per adult and live entertainment on offer. Expect the likes of blood orange and gin cured ocean trout with osetra caviar, Moreton Bay bugs, wild mushroom tortellini, turkey breast wrapped in serrano ham and a golden chocolate dessert that looks like a bauble filled with popping candies and nougatine honey parfait.
Conservatory is Crown’s upmarket buffet restaurant. There’s seafood, sushi, Indian, salads and mod Oz faves in at least three sittings per day, so you can choose your adventure for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Lunch at Sea Life Melbourne
Sea Life Melbourne’s Christmas Day lunch includes a delicious feast alongside all-day entry into the aquarium. Families can look forward to a menu comprised of smoked salmon, duck breast, roast turkey, roast potatoes, mixed vegetables, pavlova, and heaps more, plus a menu specifically for kids under 12 years age. Head to the aquarium’s website for potential announcements and updates regarding a Christmas lunch.
Dine Under the Sea
Melbourne’s only underwater dining experience is back! The Private Dining packages include a self-guided tour of the aquarium, a three-course dinner, and a two-hour beverage package open to guests of all ages.
Try Afternoons at Henry Sugar Melbourne
Henry Sugar’s Christmas Eve Dinner offered families a variety of tasty dishes to sink their teeth into. Serving a 5-course menu, visitors could enjoy rainbow trout, turkey, pudding, creme brûlée, and more.
We have recently relaxed our booking policy, now offering bookings for a la carte dining and our chef’s menu. Menus are seasonal and subject to change without notice.
Please advise of dietary requirements at the time of booking.
We always have plenty of tables reserved for walk-in drinkers or grazers, and we take bookings for full dinner only.
The innovative drinks program at Henry Sugar is centred around sustainability and independence. The small producers we work with, across the wines we pour, and the spirits we mix carry these same values. We make whatever we can from scratch.
Christmas Lunch in Pure South Dining
Pure South Dining has forged a reputation for offering a beautiful dining experience based on stunning produce from King Island, Flinders Island and Tasmania since 2004.
Our elegant dining lives on in the Upstairs Dining Room, but we have ‘opened the doors wider’ by offering a more casual and unplanned dining experience at Pure South Kitchen on the River Level. The heart of our offer to you is still the stunning produce an informed, intelligent service. This is a modern Melbourne eatery that draws inspiration from Farmers, Fishermen and Artisan Producers.
Whether you’re looking for a more formal four-course lunch in its upstairs dining room or a casual three-course experience by the riverside, Pure South Dining in Southbank has you covered. Each offering is paired with premium beverages. You can choose from a list of mains that includes King Island grass-fed beef wellingtons served with asparagus, shallot and sauce Bordelaise pan-roasted Huon salmon with smoked potato, peas and preserved lemon.
Celebrate the Apple Isle with this Tasmanian restaurant in Southbank
Pure South focuses on Tasmanian, including King Island Beef, St Helens oysters, Bass Strait scallops, seafood and quality dairy products. The venue is both a restaurant and an event space, and there are private and semi-private dining spaces for parties and events.
Spend Lunch at Le Bon Ton Melbourne
Christmas lunch at Le Bon Ton brought plenty of traditional classics for families to sink their teeth into. The menu featured oysters, turkey breast, smoked ham, sweet potatoes, macaroni cheese, and a pumpkin pie to finish. For a potential announcement or update for Christmas lunch at Le Bon Ton, see its website.
As you travel outside the city, you will notice that the phrase is shortened and simplified by the locals. The rules of the French language are discarded, and the accents changed. Away from the neon lights of Bourbon Street, “Le Bon temps rule” is a much more common phrase. It or one of its Cajun/Creole variations is a common toast heard in the local roadside bars, oyster houses, crab shacks and BBQ joints of the Louisiana countryside. The ultimate simplification, which rolls perfectly off the tongue and still embodies the original’s spirit, is only 3 words long – Le Bon Ton.
Come Hungry, Leave Happy
The kitchen showcases dishes and cooking techniques drawn from multiple American South regions, with inspiration from as far west as New Mexico and as far east as Alabama.
All pit-smoked meats are smoked over ironbark & fruit woods for up to 12 hours and will melt in your mouth.
Ways To Enjoy Christmas In Melbourne
Christmas Lights
Many of Melbourne’s iconic buildings will light up in all their Christmas finery in December, including the State Library, the Melbourne Star, the Arts Centre, the MCG and the Royal Exhibition Building. The most impressive may be the Melbourne Town Hall, which will display its Christmas Projections, set to The 12 Days of Christmas, every night from 9 pm to 10:30pm until Christmas is over. The animated lighting, made especially for the building, is an amazing thing to see.
The Gingerbread Village
For the fifth year in a row, chefs from Epicure have created a little village made of gingerbread, full of Melbourne icons and references and with some sneaky sugared surprises. This year it features an edible Melbourne Grand Prix. It’s open at the Melbourne Town Hall from December 1 to December 24. Entry is a gold coin donation, which goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The Myer Windows
The Myer department store has been celebrating Christmas with window displays for 60 years. It’s become a Melbourne tradition to line up in Bourke St Mall and watch Christmas stories and fairy tales come to life with animated puppets and moving scenes. This year, the windows adapt an Australian children’s book, Little Dog and the Christmas Wish. The story follows a small dog lost on the streets of 1950s Melbourne, a setting covered in amazing detail by the artisans who have spent the entire year working to bring the story to life.
The Art of Christmas at Melbourne Central
The Melbourne Central Shopping Centre is extending shopping hours and putting on events to celebrate the time of year. Workshops include Christmas present wrapping tutorials, iced tea classes, cupcake decoration and Kit Kat creation. But you don’t have to go shopping to enjoy the festivities. The iconic central cone and the shot tower will be lit up in a winter-themed lighting show from 8 pm to 10pm until December 23. There’s also the opportunity to create awkward Christmas photos with family and friends- terrible sweaters and ironic props are supplied.
Crown’s Atrium Spectacular
For a quick burst of Christmas cheer, head to Southgate and the Atrium at Crown to see the Christmas Spectacular lighting and music display. Featuring animatronics, dancing fountains, and a well-utilised crystal-filled ceiling, the show plays out every half hour from 10 am to midnight. The family-friendly Christmas Spectacular has been running for over 10 years, and this year’s display can be seen until January 3 2016. The Atrium can be found just inside the entrance closest to Queensbridge Street.
Christmas Carols
Carols always complete the holiday season. Fortunately, there are many different ways to hear them sung live around the city. The Australian Girls’ Choir will be performing carols with special guests at Christmas Square on December 18 and wander around Collins Street singing carols from December 21 to 23. Meanwhile, the Salvation Army carollers will take to the Southgate stage every Saturday in December to sing festive songs.
