From the red neon sign ushering you down the alleyway to the bluestone-framed door welcoming you into the bustling dining room, Emilia has charisma to burn. Steel-beamed ceilings and white subway tiles whisper industrial but Australian landscape paintings, oxblood banquettes and fat flickering candles lay on the romance.

Warm staff furnish you swiftly with wine recommendations or martinis calibrated to the most finicky tastes, and the menu is equally fine-tuned. Wafer-thin crostini come with a creamy-salty clash of whipped lemon butter and Cantabrian anchovies. Kingfish carpaccio brings fireworks in the form of bottarga, squid ink and freeze-dried mandarin.

Spanner crab spaghetti hums with smoked chilli, barramundi bathes in a briny pool of mussel-studded bisque, and polenta-pine-nut fruit cake twinkles with sour cherry compote. And you? Kick back with a luxe, sweetened zibibbo and let the night peel on.

Best for: Giving an out-of-towner the quintessential Melbourne dining experience.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.