Mietta's Review
Stylish restaurant, which takes olde worlde European cafes as its model, serving various incarnations of mostly French and Italian dishes. The wine list takes centre stage here, large and international (no Australian wines). Open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and all times in-between. With the Melbourne Supper Club upstairs, and the newly opened Wine Bar right next door, the European has become a Mecca for Melburnians out and about.
Other Published Opinions
The Age Good Food Guide 2013 Score: 15/20
Gourmet Traveller 2013 Australian Restaurant Guide "The European is a mandatory stop on any "quintessentially Melbourne" tour. Its chequerboard floors, timber panelling and bentwood chairs evoke that all-hours place you stumbled upon on a continental sojourn, yet it's almost within earshot of Parliament's division bells"
Age Good Food Guide 2013 Score: 15/20 One Hat
Hardie Grant, 21 October, 2011 "Unassuming but delicious food will keep you coming back to this famous bistro.
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Herald Sun Stephen Downes, November 2011 Score: Food: 15/20, Staff: 8/10, Drink: 2/5, X-factor: 2/5, Value: 6/10, Total 33/50 "Bistro tucker in a close European ambience.
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Gourmet Traveller 2012 Australian Restaurant Guide "Equal parts brasserie, taverna and ristorante. The European is packed day and night. Cosy breakfasts amid wood-panelled walls and chequer-tiled floors offer cinnamon porridge with sultanas and almonds or a classic croque-monsieur"
Age Good Food Guide 2012 Score: 14.5/20
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 13/20
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 14/20
Gourmet Traveller 2011 Australian Restaurant Guide "Worn chequerboard tiles, bentwood chairs and wood panelling conspire to make the European a little shabby and plenty chic. Earlybirds flock in for earth-shaking eggs Benedict and coffee and the hubbub doesn't cease until last rounds are poured in the small hours"
Age Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 14.5/20
Gourmet Traveller 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide "The funny thing about The European is that, for all the Continental chic of its interior (the mirrors, black-and-white tiling and wood panelling) this is really an old-fashioned meatlovers' destination"
Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 15/20
Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide "Cafe king Con Christopoulos conjures continental fantasies out of everyday Melbourne locations and this is his standard-bearer. The wainscoting, black and white tiles and mood lighting make it perfect for clandestine wheeling and dealing, from breakfast to supper (yes, until 3am), while to the theatre crowd it might resemble a betweenwars stage set"
Age Dani Valent, 16-9-2008
Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 14.5/20
Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "So you're not really in Paris. Or Rome. But in this moody, woodpanelled space you may as well be"
Age Epicure Restaurants, John Lethlean, 14-11-06 Score: 15.5/20
Herald Sun Donna Coutts Cafe 4/2/06 "Elegant, old-fashioned, European-style cafe. Breakfast is excellent, and an ideal way to have a European experience."
Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 15/20
Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide * "it is to the flagship you head when the urge arises for oysters washed down with an appropriate muscadet, a little foie gras with Sauternes, or maybe braised duck with an appley red cabbage and a lesser-known Burgundy."
Age Good Food Guide 2005 score 15/20
Gourmet Traveller 2005 Restaurant Guide * "A breakfast menu is often the sign of a compromised restaurant. At European, it's a reminder of the role the place plays: an essential facility, an adjunct to busy city lives. In recent times, however, European has ramped up its unique bistro appeal, matching its thrown-together chic with better food than ever before."
Age Epicure John Lethlean 13/7/04 score 15/20
Age,A2,19/6/04,Matt Preston
Herald Sun, Weekend, 12/6/04,Bob Hart,'food manages to remain within the European brief and steers clear of Asian flourishes while still displaying flashes of orginality, technical brilliance and a great, seasonal sensitivity...also is a great breakfast haunt, a terrrific coffee spot,magical for lunch which can be dragged out until it is almost time for a spot of pre-theatre supper'
Age, Agenda, 2/5/04,John Lethlean
AGFG 2004, score 13/20, excellent wine list, excellent breakfast,excellent bar
Age, A2, 13/3/04, John Weldon
Age Good Food Guide 2003. Score 13/20
Age, Sunday Life, Eat Streets, 28/4/02
The Herald Sun, 04.12.01, Stephen Downes Score: 16 out of 20
Sunday Age, 09.01.00, John Schauble
The City Weekly, 21.10.99, Fiona Stack