Young’s Wine Rooms — Restaurant in Melbourne

One of the best things about life, is when you are pleasantly surprised, and in the best way possible with incredible food. We were in the area looking for somewhere to enjoy lunch for 2. After walking up and down, we glanced into Young and thought we would give it a go. We were greeted by the friendly manager (Eduardo) and a warm and welcoming smile. We didn't have a booking (restaurant half full) and he seated us with ease and told we would be taken care of today by a waiter, Spiros.

As we looked through the menu, we took in the ambience and great setup. Exposed bricks, exposed wooden beams, open kitchen, great lighting and one hell of a wine menu. We decided to share 2 mains, the Spaghetti Prawns and the special, Pappardelle with braised Lamb. Drinks were a Pinot Noir from Mac Forbes Winery (Incredible) and a Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc (delicious).

Our food did not take long and quite simply, WOW-EE! (this should really be a word). The quality and flavour of both pasta dishes were up there with some of the best we have had, both locally and abroad. That Prawn Spaghetti sauce was almost like a bisque in a tomato based sauce that was heavenly, delicate and hit the spot. The Pappardelle was incredible, both in texture, the sauce and the tender falling of the braised lamb. It's like the Pasta gods themselves knew we were in town and a beacon of culinary light shone down on us! The wines matched perfectly with both dishes. You could just tell a lot of effort and thought went into both dishes. As we enjoyed our second glass of wine, we were given the desert menu and decided on the Pistachio, olive oil soil desert (thanks for the gentle nudge Spiros).

The Chef (Cristos) shortly came out and served our desert and poured the the coffee/sauce over our desert and introduced himself. It was one of the best deserts we have ever eaten and rounded off the lunch perfectly. This was genuinely one of the best culinary experiences we have had, so much that we booked in for the dinner tonight! What surprised me were the reviews (which were mixed) that I had read after the meal, and I'm so glad we didn't let reviews dictate our decision and went in purely on feeling and zero judgement.

Keep up the great work, food, attentive customer service and friendliness. If you haven't been here before, I would highly suggest you give it a shot and form your own opinion.

Thanks and Regards -...

Real score 4.3 out of 5.

A very impressive restaurant. We had a terrific dinner here. The fit out is superb. It’s an outstanding space. The food is brilliant. Every dish we had was wonderful. Service was up and down though. Some very good, some not so.

We received some sound advice about our initial wine choice, the Mornington on skins pinot gris. It was said to be a little bitter and that was spot on. The second wine recommendation on a pinot noir wasn’t anywhere near as successful. The server said it wasn’t a light pinot but I found that it was. It also took us a long time to procure the second bottle. It took quite a while to attract a server for the wine list and even longer after that to attract a server again to order. I only mention it because it was very frustrating at the time.

We were given some beautiful bread and ricotta to start. We loved it. I chose an unusual starter, char grilled leek. This was faultlessly good! Soft, smoky and delicious. It was pure joy to eat. I had duck for main. That too was excellent. A lovely dish that was flavoursome and lovely. The sides were a joy too. Some broccolini as well as a mixed salad and a cauliflower dish. They also could not be faulted. We loved them and celebrated that all dishes were a decent size too. The others thoroughly enjoyed their dishes as well. They were variously the carpaccio of king salmon, croquette, mussels, the octopus ( “ it’s the best octopus I’ve ever had”) and the fish special.

We finished with coffees and some cleansing shiraz. There were still plenty of people around at the end of the night but it was hard not to get an impression that the staff wanted us to move on which we did of course.

We had a really lovely night here. It’s a very very good restaurant. The food is top class. Great range, beautifully cooked and presented and generous portions. There’s certainly enough good wines on the wine list to provide a sound option. The service is very pleasant but rather up and down given our experiences last night. No doubt that will improve over time.

Really nice place. We’ll be...

I am local and love to support local. I have dined at Young’s several times and on each occasion have found the service and food to be satisfactory. Except on this occasion! This time I didn’t even get to walk through the front door, let alone eat there. With the recent re-opening of hospitality I was excited to have secured a booking of 10 people to celebrate a milestone birthday of my dear friend. I had booked online on the 12th October for the 27th October. On the 17th October (a week out) I received a confirmation email from them confirming the booking and the ‘feed me’ menu they were recommending. On the 21st October I emailed them again to confirm the reservation time and the following day they responded with the confirmed time and that they’d be sending me a menu to peruse. On Sunday the 24th October I happened to drive past the restaurant and was quite perplexed to see that it was not open and operating seeing as the re-opening of hospitality came early the previous Friday. As a consequence I emailed Young’s to confirm my booking date of the 27th and was gobsmacked when I received a reply email the following day on the 25th telling me that they had decided to postpone their opening until the 28th. To say I was disappointed was an understatement! I was now left looking for a venue that could accomodate 10 people with 24 hours notice. Not only did they fail on every level of plain decency by not calling me in person they had the audacity to tell me that they had called me ( I had no missed calls that day) and if they had called me why was there no message left on my message bank as this was clearly an important message! Thank God for the amazing AMBROSIA Mediterranean restaurant a few doors down who were able to accomodate our party at such late notice. Young’s thank you for your “free drink on us offer’ apology but my friends and I will not be returning! In fact, I thank you for your incompetence because now we have a new favourite local to visit each week and all of our friends will know...