Comme

Ph: 9631 4000; 7 Alfred Pl, Melbourne 3000 www.comme.com.au

European, $$ +
Open Mon-Fri noon-2.30pm Mon-Sat 6-10.30pm; Licensed; AE DC MC V
Chef Simon Arkless (5-12-08) Owner Frank & Sharon Van Haandel (5-12-08)

Mietta's Review
The latest reincarnation of the old Mietta's site. This time its a modern reworking of the space with no expense spared. Downstairs there's a dining area in what was the side-bar while the main room is dominated by a vast central bar and low, casual, backless furniture. Upstairs is primarily devoted to functions.

Other published opinions

Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 15/20 "Comme may be a few years old but it's still one of the smartest, design-savvy fitouts in Melbourne. While the dining room is only one part of the immaculately restored, multipurpose building (bar downstairs, events upstairs), it's great for ogling all the designer luxe: with each visit you'll discover a new piece of modern art or furniture you've got a spot for at home"

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * "Comme Kitchen feels like a luxe cocoon. Retiring against a soft leather banquette as wellcoiffed thirtysomethings at Comme's bar struggle to get a drink, you can't help but feel like one of the lucky few"

The Age Dani Valent, 4-12-2007 "There are a few ways to celebrate at Comme, the 20-month-old bar-dining-function venue in the old Mietta's building at the top end of town. You can craft your own party by hiring the flash Grand Room or smaller Onyx Room upstairs. You can teeter with the suits in Comme Wine Room, the glam and enormous bar, sucking back cocktails and croquetas and Collins Street goss"

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 15/20, One Hat "Comme hit the ground running mid-2006, a big, extravagant statement in style from one of Melbourne's most influential restaurant families"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "Primarily known as a bar, and one that sets the standard with killer white-on-white good looks augmented by designer furniture, Comme is the preferred haunt of cashed-up Gen X professionals"

The Age Larissa Dubecki, 23-2-2007 "Comme resembles a New York art gallery, or maybe the lair of the most discerning fashionista. Either way, the stark white setting and buzz furniture (Cocoon glass chandeliers by Flos; Murano glass chandeliers; frighteningly expensive-looking white leather ottomans) make Comme the preferred habitat of the better-dressed half of Melbourne's stockbroker set."

The Age Cheap Eats Bars 2007 "Comme's high ceilings drip with designer chandeliers, while white leather, marble, handwoven carpets and brand-name everything create a highly stylised setting."

Age Epicure Restaurants, John Lethlean, 9-5-06 "The new owners at 7 Alfred Place haven't evicted the ghosts. But they haven't tried to create the new Mietta's, either. They've simply asked those ghosts to accommodate different times. And you will work hard to find a commercial hospitality space in Melbourne, if not Australia, that better acknowledges the past while celebrating the present There's a knack to modernising a 130-year-old building, injecting sex and lust into a Victorian edifice with glass and carpet, mirror and leather, parquet and Venetian glass, paintbrush and sledgehammer- period detail juxtaposed with contemporary flash"

Herald Sun Eat, Bob Hart, 17-6-06 "Sadly, Mietta is no longer a part of our lives. But the elegance and passion with which her former palace of dreams has been restored and relaunched is something at which, I suspect, she would have nodded quiet approval.And quickly I found sadness giving way to satisfaction at the way things have been done, and especially at the smart little bistro that occupies a section of the ground floor, the rest of which is given over to a vast bar sorry, wine room - that crackles with youthful enthusiasm most evenings."