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Off The Feed with Kate Neville, AKA @katenevs: Where Melbourne’s Favourite Food Creators Actually Eat
From her dream day of eating to the wine bar order she will not let you skip, this is Kate Neville’s Melbourne: the places worth leaving the saved folder for.
Everyone has a saved folder full of restaurants waiting for a fictional future self: the one with free weekends, clean calendars and the discipline to book ahead. Melbourne does this to people. There is always another bakery, another bar seat, another room with excellent lighting, another dish someone insists is worth crossing town for. At some point, choice starts to feel less like abundance and more like homework.
So we asked Melbourne’s food creators, photographers and obsessive orderers to hand over the places they actually return to. Not the venues that look good in a carousel. Not the table booked for content. The real-life picks: the bakery run, the birthday dinner, the solo seat, the long lunch, the wine bar order and the no-fail place for a date you hope does not ruin a perfectly good suburb.
We begin with Kate Neville, the Melbourne food creator behind @katenevs and older sister to Lucy Neville, Sydney’s internet big sister, former electro-pop singer and co-host of the weekly overthinkers’ hotline I’m Wigging Out. Evidently, the Nevilles do not believe in keeping recommendations to themselves, and our feeds and weekly routines are all the better for it.
Kate’s city is northside-leaning, snack-led and sharply documented: Beautiful Jim Key before the day has found its pace, Iris the Bakery because there is always room for one more pastry, Cam’s Kiosk for pasta in the courtyard, Taquería Sin Nombre for the no-line fantasy and Apollo Inn when the only sensible ending is a martini.
From her dream day of eating to the wine bar order she will not let you skip, this is Kate Neville’s Melbourne: bakeries, bars and restaurants worth leaving the saved folder for. Consider it your permission slip to stop scrolling, start booking and let someone with very good taste make the decisions for you.
Kate’s Perfect Melbourne Day of Eating
“I wake up and venture to Beautiful Jim Key for breakfast and a coffee, before popping into Iris the Bakery for a pastry, because there is no getting full on a perfect day of eating. Then it’s time for Suze, where a long lunch of small plates and wine stretches out at the footpath tables. For dinner, I go to Taquería Sin Nombre where there is no line, perfect-day magic continues, and I eat tacos and drink margaritas on repeat. For a nightcap, I’m heading to Apollo Inn for a martini.”
Kate’s Must-Orders
The dish she can’t stop thinking about:
“The flatbread coupled with a dirty martini at Melitta Next Door is always on my mind.”
Bakery order:
“Iris the Bakery! Danish bakeries are a favourite of mine, and I adore everything they do.”
Most ordered dish of the year:
“Do martinis count? Otherwise, I feel like a pub chicken parma sees a bit of me.”
Favourite coffee or matcha:
“That’s one secret I’ll never tell, as it’s my local! But I do love to go out of my way to Good Measure and Palace Coffee when I’m in their neighbourhoods.”
Where Kate Books
For a date night that always gets it right:
“I’m a single pringle, but Bar Carnation is my ideal spot for a hypothetical flirt. Bring back flirting!”
For a CBD pick that never fails:
“Taquería Sin Nombre if you’ve got the stamina to wait! I also adore MAMASITA. Or Kafeneion! Or Embla! I really love what the CBD has to offer, I’m there all the time.”
For a birthday dinner that feels special but not stiff:
“Old Palm Liquor is the perfect place for feeling like you’re in a cool, eclectic oversized living room that just happens to have a professional team of chefs. I feel like every table is in a good mood when I’m there, especially for a birthday!”
The wine bar she always recommends:
“Suze! Do not skip their focaccia. I’m serious.”
The under-the-radar pick worth more love:
“I think fire is catching, but I’m still on my megaphone about Past/Port, which is an incredible South East Asian restaurant in a totally unique setting, and everyone needs to go!”
For a solo dining moment:
“Taquería Sin Nombre was very good to me when I went solo. Or Kisumé, so you can watch the itamae at work.”
For a very Melbourne restaurant moment:
“Marion Wine Bar feels like the very best intersection of all kinds of preferences, and it was the first restaurant I went to when I moved here. It really sells why Melbourne is so special in a multitude of ways.”
For a martini and something salty:
“Melitta Next Door, for reasons already discussed. Hands Down is also a very good time, and you can add an anchovy to your martini for that something salty.”
A loved-before-everyone-caught-on pick:
“Melburnians are too savvy for me to ever really be truly ahead of the game. I just take more photos!”
The any-occasion venue:
“Old Palm Liquor. It’s perfect.”
Kate’s Melbourne Food Map
Most underrated suburb:
“Brunswick East is undeniably excelling in every way right now. It’s back-to-back bangers, no skips.”
Favourite food street:
“Lygon Street, Brunswick East end especially.”
Northside or southside?
“I’m definitely a northside gal, but I dabble in the south. It’s got a lot going for it too.”
Kate On Melbourne Dining
What Melbourne gets right:
“Food can be interesting, exciting and visionary at all price points, and that’s what Melbourne understands so well. You find the same amount of passion and enthusiasm across endless suburbs, at the markets, at high-end restaurants, at bakeries and so on. People also prioritise food and experiences as part of their everyday week, which is what makes the Melbourne scene so energised, not to mention it’s so cuisine-diverse too!”
What it gets wrong:
“I have no wrongs to right.”
The venue shaping the next chapter:
“Frenchie! With everything priced at $14, it makes more elevated dining accessible whilst not taking away what makes it feel worthwhile. And it’s fun!”
Quickfire Round
Bar seat or corner table?
“Either. I just need a good table lamp or candle for the pics!”
Bakery run or long brunch?
“Bakery run! A coffee, a pastry and a walk is a perfect weekend activity for me.”
Book ahead or walk in?
“Book ahead. Fail to plan, plan to fail.”
First date: wine bar, bistro or neighbourhood pub?
“Pub! It’s easy, it’s comfortable, and most have a good wine assortment. And if it’s a bad date, a cool wine bar isn’t scarred in your mind.”
Kate’s Melbourne runs on instinct, excellent ordering and a refusal to let a good table go to waste. The lesson? Stop letting your saved folder gather dust. Pick the bakery, book the table, order the salty thing and leave the house hungry. Follow @katenevs for more Melbourne food notes, beautifully documented meals and very good reasons to make dinner plans. Still deciding where to go next? Work your way through Melbourne’s best new restaurants, then keep the night moving with our guide to the city’s best cocktail bars.
