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The Best Restaurants in Geelong for Long Lunches, Date Nights & Coastal Dining
From hatted dining rooms and sleek bistros to neighbourhood gems worth crossing town for, these are the best restaurants in Geelong to book now.
Geelong no longer needs the “worth the drive from Melbourne” caveat. Victoria’s second-largest city has become one of the state’s most rewarding places to eat, with Little Malop Street, the waterfront, Pakington Street and the surrounding suburbs building a dining scene that moves easily between serious chef-led rooms, French-leaning bistros, neighbourhood wine bars, coastal seafood, excellent bakeries and long-lunch territory.
From dressed-up dinners to easy weekend stops, these are the best restaurants in Geelong to book, bookmark and build a whole day around.
The Club by Felix
The Club by Felix gives one of Geelong’s grandest old rooms a very welcome loosened collar. Inside The Geelong Club, a private social institution established in 1859, the Felix team now runs Friday and Saturday lunch and dinner in a setting of preserved clubroom grandeur, private dining rooms, a bar, billiards room and courtyard. The menu leans French and seasonal, with oysters, steak frites, duck confit, crisp frites, market fish and a deep wine list, making the case for dressing up without making a whole production of it.
74 Brougham Street, Geelong
The Raw
The Raw is Eastern Beach seafood without the postcard clichés: a small Geelong dining room built around ocean produce, local growers and whatever treatment makes the ingredient sing. Award-winning chef Jack Lee designs the menu without tying it to a single cuisine, sourcing more than 90% of ingredients from Geelong and regional farmers and producers. The wine list comes from cellar-door scouting, the kitchen runs low waste, and in 2026, every oyster sends $1 back to locals.
Shop 10, 6/8 Eastern Beach Road, Geelong
Eileen’s Charcoal Grill
Eileen’s Charcoal Grill has the charisma of a restaurant named after someone who ran a pub until she was 91. Beside the Sawyers Arms Tavern, this Newtown steakhouse honours Eileen Clatworthy with royal blue walls, tartan carpet, Geelong memorabilia and a European menu built for red wine and decisive appetites. Start with oysters and green apple mignonette, baked scallops or steak tartare, then move to Southern Ranges eye fillet, Westholme Wagyu, duck-fat fries and béarnaise. It’s old-school Geelong, tuned for now.
2 Noble Street, Newtown
Woolstore
Woolstore is Newtown’s old wool store with appetite, altitude and a very good bar upstairs. Enter via Rutland Street for a century-old building cut with seven-metre glass, original tallowwood floors and lanolin marks from its former life, now home to Eli Grubb’s Golden Plate-winning kitchen. The menu works the parrilla grill hard: Paddock Bakery pumpkin bread with LardAss black garlic butter, scallop and prawn toast, Humpty Doo barramundi, dry-aged duck crown and rib eye for two. Add Bellarine wine pairings, and this is Geelong dining with real shoulders.
400 Pakington Street, Enter Via, Rutland Street, Newtown
The Retreat
Sharing serious kitchen DNA with Woolstore through Eli Grubb, The Retreat plays a more intimate game: smaller, softer around the edges, and built for the Newtown lunch that becomes a second glass of wine. Hamo Hospitality has turned the old Bareena Post Office into a 50-seat suburban restaurant, all heritage-brick reds, terrazzo bar and herringbone tallowwood floors salvaged from the former Wool Store. Grubb’s menu brings French technique to Geelong produce with anchovy pissaladière on Paddock baguette, Black Beef tartare with bone marrow, confit duck with cassoulet, local calamari with Café de Paris butter and apple tarte tatin with house-made soft serve.
9 Retreat Road, Newtown
The Provenance Restaurant
The Provenance Restaurant is Geelong’s winery lunch with a past life: a restored bluestone paper mill on the Barwon River, now all high ceilings, cellar-door clatter and Nathan McIver’s local, seasonal cooking. Book Friday-to-Sunday lunch for modern Australian plates made to meet Provenance’s Sparkling, Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Shiraz and Nebbiolo. Ten minutes from town, it turns Fyansford into a very civilised detour. Honestly, it’s one of the state’s most underrated fine dining moments.
100 Lower Paper Mills Road, Fyansford
Franca’s Ristorante
Franca’s Ristorante takes the Geelong waterfront and feeds it Italian: terracotta light, handmade pasta, wood-fired pizza, good wine and the civilised generosity of a restaurant that understands appetite without making a speech about it. Set inside Bayside Geelong Hotel & Apartments, it moves from breakfast to dinner with seasonal produce, Italian classics and enough Esplanade breeze to make a simple plate of pasta feel like a minor holiday.
13-15 The Esplanade, Geelong
Emerge Steakhouse
Emerge is Geelong’s steakhouse with muscle and manners: 100% gluten-free, Coeliac Australia-accredited and serious about the chargrill. The Little Ryrie Street dining room works across dry-aged beef, Wagyu, oysters, scallops, chargrilled octopus, king prawns and hand-cut chips cooked in Wagyu fat, with the steak selection shifting daily. For gluten-free dining in Geelong that still feels indulgent, this is a rare cut above.
31 Little Ryrie Street, Geelong
Batesford Hotel
Set just outside Geelong with gardens and the Moorabool River beyond, The Batesford Hotel is the country-pub detour that works for almost every brief: family lunch, lazy Sunday, group dinner or a celebration that needs room to move. The menu keeps one foot in pub-classic territory with buffalo chicken wings, parmigiana, steaks, pizzas and beef cheeks with red wine jus, while the beer garden, full bar and weekend live music keep the mood easy. Come hungry, stay for the river-country exhale.
700 Ballarat Road, Batesford
Armstrong Barbecue
Armstrong Barbecue is Mount Duneed with smoke in its clothes and Texas on the brain. Set inside a repurposed aircraft hangar near Armstrong Creek, this big-hearted smokehouse runs on low-and-slow brisket, beef cheek, pork ribs, handmade sausage, red-gum smoke, cold beer and whiskey. With a covered beer garden and room for the kids, it’s Geelong dining at its most generous, messy and joyfully meat-sweaty.
1 Unity Drive, Mount Duneed
Nectar
Nectar gives Geelong’s dining scene a Mediterranean tilt, led by head chef Mandy Wright at 239 Moorabool Street. The menu travels from stracciatella with roasted golden beetroot, barberries, mint, hazelnut and Aleppo chilli to Moreton Bay bug, vongole and saffron linguini, with blue swimmer crab lasagne as the sleeper order. Velvet seating, marble tables, and classic cocktails make it a grown-up CBD dinner without the stiffness or fuss.
239 Moorabool Street, Geelong
Maestro
Maestro gives Geelong hotel dining a smarter pulse. Set inside Holiday Inn & Suites Geelong, the restaurant carries Adrian Richardson’s meat-loving imprint into a city-centre room built for shared plates, house-made pasta, dry-aged beef, local seafood and a drink upstairs at MBar before or after. There is a pleasing confidence to it: regional produce, generous cooking and enough city polish to make it feel far removed from the usual hotel-dining compromise.
40 Ryrie Street, Geelong
Two Noble
Two Noble sits upstairs at Sawyers Arms Tavern with the air of a secret Geelong has decided not to keep. Led by Executive Chef Mario Tambajong, this hatted Newtown dining room moves through Southeast Asian flavours with a modern Australian hand: crab on betel leaf, Bass Strait scallop, lamb cutlet with soy and cumin, eggplant tempura and sharp cocktails built for the first order. It is peaceful, intimate and far more interesting than the pub downstairs lets on.
2 Noble Street, Newtown
Barwon Edge
Barwon Edge puts a riverside Middle Eastern lens on Geelong restaurants, set on the banks of the Barwon River in Newtown. The menu suits a shared table: flatbread, hummus with sumac, muhammara with Aleppo pepper, scallops with preserved lemon butter, cured yellowfin tuna with green tahini, slow-cooked lamb shoulder and saffron-roasted snapper. Cocktails, river views and Chef’s Selection menus keep decision-making deliciously low-effort.
Anco Park Drive, Newtown
Petrel Hotel
Geelong’s oldest pub has found its second wind. Fresh from a handsome revival, Petrel Hotel, or The Petty to locals, has swapped tired old boozer energy for timber, firelight, a grand wooden bar and the easy confidence of a pub that knows exactly what it is. Head chef Molly Fuge keeps the menu rooted in classic pub pleasure with sharper edges: Sydney Rock oysters, potato, leek and Parmesan croquettes, kimchi-spiked dim sims, lemon-and-herb crumbed snapper, chicken schnitzel with garlic butter, and a 450g T-bone for the table. There’s local beer on tap, clever cocktails, smaller-producer wines and enough low-key charm to make lunch turn into dinner.
81 Pakington Street, Geelong West
Tempo
Tempo Kitchen & Bar brings a smarter all-day essence to Geelong’s waterfront, with a menu that knows when to go coastal and when to get hearty. Inside Novotel Geelong, it champions Victorian produce through Pacific oysters with finger lime mignonette, Bacchus Marsh Black Angus carpaccio, rockling with remoulade and fries, seafood linguine tangled with Portarlington mussels, calamari, rockling and prawns, and a serious seafood platter for those arriving hungry. The grill has weight too: 42-day dry-aged ribeye, Parwan Prime striploin, Werribee organic half chicken and slow-braised lamb shank.
Open daily for buffet breakfast, lunch, dinner and late drinks, it’s a handy Geelong restaurant for waterfront dining that doesn’t phone it in.
10/14 Eastern Beach Road, Geelong
Felix
Felix is where Geelong goes when it wants French dining without the starch. Downes Lane sets the scene: candlelit booths, calm service and a menu that moves from oysters with red wine mignonette to kingfish, spanner crab profiteroles, leek and gruyère croquettes and eye fillet au poivre. Add a French-leaning wine list and a three-course set menu, and this Little Malop favourite earns its reputation with real grace to spare.
9 Downes Lane, Geelong
Caledonia Shores
Upstairs above Pavilion Geelong, Caledonia Shores gives Eastern Beach its chic after-dark option: big windows, bay views, cocktails and Asian freestyle share plates with real appetite. Start with oysters and kingfish sashimi, add prawn toast, Szechuan-spiced squid, dumplings or wagyu puffs, then move into bao buns, crispy barramundi tom kha, beef rendang or roasted duck leg. Best booked for a weekend dinner that rolls into drinks by the water.
Geelong Pavilion, 95 Eastern Beach Road, Geelong
Caruggi
For a slice of Northern Italy in the heart of Geelong, Caruggi is the Little Malop Street charmer with Ligurian blood in its veins. Chef-owner Massimiliano comes from Recco on the Ligurian Coast, which explains the devotion to focaccia col formaggio: wafer-thin dough filled with creamy, tangy cheese and baked until blistered and molten. The menu roams through smoked burrata, Portarlington mussels with fregola, vitello tonnato, pansoti with Otway walnut pesto, pappardelle al ragù and slow-roasted duck, with Italian wine, amaro, grappa and tiramisu waiting on the other side.
Near the Geelong Arts Centre and Geelong Gallery, it’s one of Geelong’s best Italian restaurants for a pre-show Negroni, a long lunch or a dinner that makes Little Malop Street feel a few degrees closer to Genoa.
66 Little Malop Street, Geelong
Tulip
Tulip may be compact, but this Pakington Street institution carries serious Geelong restaurant weight. A Good Food Guide hatted favourite under Dan Ford and chef Mike Jaques, it plates modern Australian share dishes with regional Victoria firmly in the frame, best ordered through the chef’s selection and matched to local and international wine. Lunch feels special here; dinner feels even better, intimate, seasonal and finely assured from start to finish.
9/111 Pakington Street, Geelong
The Arborist
The Arborist folds Middle Eastern warmth and modern Australian ease into Little Malop Street, with an arboretum-inspired room made for long lunches, late dinners and one-more-drink decisions. The current menu moves from potato croquettes with muhammara and smoked labna with beetroot to spiced cauliflower with green goddess tahini, baharat lamb shoulder and roasted duck crown. Decision fatigue? The Feed Me menu sorts the night with style.
75 Little Malop Street, Geelong
BAAH LAH! Dining
BAAH LAH! turns Pakington Street into one of Geelong’s sharpest Asian dining rooms, led by chef Brian Anderson’s Singaporean heritage and a fierce devotion to local, ethical produce. The menu threads Malay and Chinese technique through a modern Victorian lens, spanning crisp snacks, seafood, duck and chef-led feasts. Energetic, detailed and full of bite, it’s essential Geelong West dining and one worth booking ahead for.
1/100 Pakington Street, Geelong West
Bistrot Plume
Bistrot Plume is Geelong in its French bistro mood: steak frites, tarte tatin, plat du jour, good glassware and the rare pleasure of a room that knows exactly what it is. The cooking is classic but close to home, threaded with Victorian produce and greens grown beside the restaurant. No unnecessary theatre, no overworked plates, just snappy French cooking, generous wine and a little Left Bank romance on the Bellarine.
56A Mt Pleasant Road, Belmont
Alma
Alma is Geelong’s South American firecracker, a central Ryrie Street dining room built on smoke, citrus, spice and serious good times. The current menu runs from fried arepa with morcilla and snapper ceviche to anticucho beef skewers, Peruvian half chicken and sweet potato churros with dulce de leche. Book the chef’s selection and let the kitchen steer. This is one of Geelong’s best restaurants for groups, date nights and big-flavour dining.
93-95 Ryrie Street, Geelong
Sumi
Sumi sets Gheringhap Street alight with bincho-tan barbecue, smoky skewers and a menu that roams Japan, China, Thailand and Malaysia without losing its charcoal-grilled nerve. Lunch and dinner move through yakitori, seafood, bao and punchy share plates, best chased with Japanese sake or a smart little wine list built around the grill. Central, sharp and full of snap, it’s one of Geelong’s best restaurants for a livelier night out.
47 Gheringhap Street, Geelong
Bahjong
Bahjong is Little Malop Street with chopsticks in one hand and a cocktail in the other. From the BAAH LAH! team, this Geelong dumpling diner and bar is built for pork and cabbage classics, banh mi dumplings, Wagyu tataki, Singapore-style prawn paste chicken wings and the occasional curveball, yes, including yuzu meringue dumplings. With bao, craft beer and bottomless weekend lunches in the mix, Bahjong becomes one of Geelong CBD’s sharpest casual dining moves.
Unit 1, 82 Little Malop Street, Geelong
Recess Bar and Eats
Recess is Geelong’s great gluten-free plot twist: a Coeliac Australia-accredited restaurant where dietary confidence comes with baked brie, tom yum buttered focaccia, buttermilk fried chicken and braised beef cheek with black garlic miso. The Moorabool Street eatery goes broad, bold and share-friendly, with a $75 chef’s tasting menu for the decision-fatigued. Add cocktails, a balcony and upstairs drag, and it becomes far more than a safe bet.
247 Moorabool Street, Geelong
Sober Ramen
Sober Ramen is Little Malop Street’s slurp-worthy cult favourite, built for big bowls, loud broth and a very good time. Sumi’s ramen-focused sibling keeps the brief tight: ramen, dumplings, sake, natural wine and cocktails, with signatures spanning spicy dumpling ramen, lobster ramen, beef tataki and a 16-hour beef rib ramen crowned with a 500-gram rib. For ramen in Geelong’s CBD, this is the steaming-hot move.
85 Little Malop Street, Geelong
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