Verge

Ph: (03) 9639 9500; 1 Flinders La, MELBOURNE 3000 www.vergerestaurantcomau

Modern Euro-Japanese, $$ +, ** for Food & Ambience, Good Wine List
Open Mon-Sat noon-3pm, 6-11pm; bar Mon-Sat 10am-1am, Closed Xmas Day; Licensed; AE DC MC V, Seats inside 70, Outside seats, Private room
Chef Dallas Cuddy (7-11-07) Owner Karen White, Simon Denton, Dallas Cuddy & Ainslie Lubbock (7-11-07)

Mietta's Review
This is a place to enjoy. There's a fabulous view over the Treasury gardens, the service is particularly well judged and the wine list is excellent. All in all, its a very comforting and enjoyable experience (at reasonable prices) so just settle back and let it all wash over you, or you could visit the cosy and enclosed ground floor bar and mingle with the young suits taking their Friday night drink.

Other published opinions

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 15.5/20, One Hat "Modern Australian', that fraught restaurant descriptor, might have become almost meaningless, but Verge reminds you why it came about"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * "With Nobu's arrival, the focus on Japanese-inspired modern food has never been sharper"

Herald Sun Bob Hart, 9-12-06 "IT IS not every day a dish that looks E suspiciously like a regulation green pea soup emerges from a restaurant kitchen and knocks your socks off. But that's the way things unfolded when I lunched with a mate at this exquisite little CBD establishment this week. ... AND clearly, he took full advantage of the recent break during which Verge was dramatically renovated and reconfigured: he used the time to add a measure of perfection to his highly original food stylings. And it's working, because Verge is on fire."

Age Epicure Restaurants, John Lethlean, 29-8-06 Score: 16/20 "I like Verge. Always have. But I think I like it more now than in any previous incarnation, including the launch period, when three ex-Luxe staffers put their heads together to create something special in a rather special location, opposite the Treasury Gardens. And parts of the restaurant remain just as they were back then, testimony to the investment in good design that was so much a part of the restaurant's schtick. The spare aesthetic; the timeless furnishings and accessories; the emphasis on wine."

The Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 15/20 "If Verge were a stage production, Simon Denton would be its director. The winner of the Guide's service excellence award in 2000 instils high standards in his own staff, casting them as tableside performers in this theatre of dining. The main stage is a room of floor-to-ceiling glass, concrete and timber, seemingly hovering in the trees."

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide * "With its edgy concrete and glass interiors, Verge could easily feel like a bunker. But a tomatored feature wall and treetop outlook warm things up a little - as does the service, which manages to be formal without being stitched-up."

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide Best views "The newly reinvigorated Verge is an architectural feast for the eyes in itself, but also looks out past Spring Street to the park."

Herald Sun Dining Out Stephen Downes 27/9/05 Score 13/20 "You'll be served professionally at Verge and the dishes will be pricey and complex. But they might also be somewhat experimental, erring a little towards basic-flavour extremes. The wine list is comprehensive but fairly expensive. Seven whites and six reds are available by the glass."

The Age A2 The Good Life Jane Faulkner 17/9/05 "HE name says it all. Verge. On the edge and exciting. And when this modern restaurant opened almost five years ago, it seemed way ahead of its time, almost futuristic, starting with the interior - exposed concrete walls in the dining room. And the timing was perfect. With the demise of fine dining or rather, the supplanting of stuffy, dull dining rooms filled with stiff unexcitable diners and matching staff, Verge became a symbol of how we like to dine out - casual but not forfeiting great service, innovative food and wine, yet all tempered with a modern touch."

Age Veda Wickens October 2005 "A breathtaking location, head and pastry chefs with unique styles and an owner who is also a sommelier, this restaurant is not to be missed."

The Age Good Food Guide 2005 score 14/20 "THIS glass-and-concrete temple, at the base of a Denton Corker Marshall apartment building, looks to have it all: cool ground-floor bar, minimalist dining room upstairs, fishbowl views of Treasury Gardens, and a reputation for unpredictable and interesting food, created by Karen White. But 2004 has been a difficult vintage for Verge, with months of uncertainty over its ownership. News at press time was that White was to remain head chef and part-owner"

Gourmet Traveller 2005 Restaurant Guide "dining, opened in 2001 with all the right noises. Front-of-house, Simon Denton, and chef, Karen White, came fresh from their successes at St Kilda's Luxe, and the minimalist concrete-and-glass design was by Denton's international-architect father, John."

The Age Epicure John Lethlean November 16, 2004 Score 16/20. "In a world of restaurant conformity, Verge still speaks with an individual voice, and it sounds pretty damn good."

AGFG 2004, score 15/20,1 hat, excellent wine list, excellent bar

Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004, 1 Black Star, Excellent wine list,'In the stark, modern upstairs dining room, with its glazed exposure to an enitre street corner, you feel at the centre of happening Melbourne.Verge is fun...eclectic food is never overdone.She filters Japanese, Italian, French and Middle Eastern ideas to form her own whimsical style'

Herald Sun, Weekend, 31/1/04, Bob Hart,'Melbourne's Greatest Dishes','Restaurants do not come much smarted or sleeker than Verge...consistently hits the spot with stylish, modern food...They are boldly flavoured, wonderfully textured and, simply, one of the great modern entrees of Melbourne.'

The Age, Sunday Life, Eat Streets, John Lethlean, 29/6/03

The Age, Sunday Life, Eat Streets, "Marital Bliss", 25/8/02

The Herald Sun, Weekend, Eat, Bob Hart, 13/7/02.

The Age, Epicure, John Lethlean 5/6/01 score 16.5/20

Herald Sun, Stephen Downes, 22/5/01, 18 out of 20