Mietta's Review
This is one of Melbourne's better dining rooms. It looks out over its summer balcony to the St Kilda foreshore and the bay, and it still feels as good as ever. This is a busy, businesslike place, famed for the length of its lunches. The food is fine without being exceptional, the prices reflect its position and reputation and the service varies from good to a little off-hand. There are no surprises here but that means there are no disappointments either. As with all the Van Haandel establishments the wine list designed by Phillip Rich is (if not cheap) good.
Other Published Opinions
The Age Good Food Guide 2013 Score: 16/20
Gourmet Traveller 2013 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: 1 Star "Stokehouse is one of Melbourne's best and most enduring dining experiences - a reliable backdrop for memorable lunches and celebratory dinners, delivered with easy aplomb in a chic (if noisy) seaside dining room"
Age Good Food Guide 2013 Score: 16/20, Two Hats
Gourmet Traveller 2012 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: One Star "Lunch at the Stokehouse ranks among Melbourne's great dining experiences. Dinner's good, too, though the often boisterous crowd enjoying sommelier Lincoln Riley's huge and carefully tended wine list can raise noise levels alarmingly"
Age Good Food Guide 2012 Score: 16/20, 2 Hats
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 15/20, One Hat
Gourmet Traveller 2011 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * "When quintessentially Australian dining experiences are under discussion, it's easy to see why this beachside institution springs to mind. Stokehouse ticks the fine-dining boxes, but does so with what might be regarded as a characteristically Australian lack of stuffiness, impressing without intimidating"
Age Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 15/20
Gourmet Traveller 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * "Melbourne's favourite restaurant for special occasions seems immune to both financial downturns and the whims of fashion - brilliant bay views and verandas never seem' to go out of style"
Age Larissa Dubecki, 19-2-2009 Score: 15/20
Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 16/20
Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "Here is a lesson in how to be big and bustling without compromising quality and finesse. The bayside location would be reason enough to visit but it's the unstinting attention to detail - in cooking, service and an excellent (expensive) wine list - that has kept Stokehouse at the forefront of Melbourne dining for nearly two decades"
Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 17/20
Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: ** "Restaurants like Stokehouse - with great locations and accumulated laurels - can too easily slip into complacency"
Herald Sun Bob Hart, 23-12-06 "EATING by the bay is pleasing, but eating here - first floor, front-row centre, in Melbourne's coolest beach house - is downright enchanting. All things considered, the venue is probably enough, but add to that some of the most locationsavvy food on earth and, well ... Dining here is a serious commitment, of course. Neither the tucker nor the wine is exactly bargain-basement stuff."
Age Epicure Restaurants, John Lethlean, 7-11-06
Age Good Food Guide 2006
Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide * "A window table upstairs at Stokehouse occupies some of Melbourne's most prized real estate, thanks to its absolute beach frontage. But the bay view isn't the sole reason to visit. The service is polished, the fit-out is sleek, and the room is always sbuzz with movers and shakers, well-tanned tourists and cork-popping groups"
Age Good Food Guide 2006
Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide Best views "It's not Sydney Harbour, but St Kilda's Stokehouse is still the town's best way to eat and drink on the shores of Port Philip Bay, with a particularly good wine list to match Maurice Esposito's food."
Age Good Food Guide 2005
Gourmet Traveller 2005 Restaurant Guide * "it's a place for glamming up, star-spotting and civilised gossip, in a room that feels like it's at the heart ofwhat this city's all about. The food is no sideshow."
Herald Sun Bob Harr 14/8/04 "In fact, if it is Stokehouse you choose, you may conclude that Port Phillip Bay, ruggedly handsome though it is, struggles to keep up with the tucker. Because this is a fine restaurant exquisitely positioned, entrancingly presented and at the top of its game."
Age Cheap Eats 2004
The Foodies' Guide 2004, Allan Campion & Michelle Curtis,'It could be the famous ocean views or the great service that make the Stokehouse on of those special places,but,deep down,we all know it's the food that really pulls the perfect dining experience together.Chef Maurizo Esposito creates wonderful modern Australian interpretations of classic European dishes.'
AGFG 2004, score 16/20, score 16/20, hats, excellent wine list, excellent bar
Age, Agenda, 7/3/04, Dani Valent
Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004, 1 Black star, Excellent wine list,'The restaurant embodies that mix of informality and stiff linen that so exemplifies the Australian high-end...a glamorous New World-meets-Italia hybrid...food has style, but rarely pretension-like the restaurant itself.And the wine list is superb, if a little pricey.'
Age, A2, 14/2/04, John Weldon
Age, Epicure, 10/2/04,'10
Age, A3, 29/12/03, Jane Faulkner
Vogue Entertaining & Traveller, March April 2003
Age, Epicure, Restaurants, John Lethlean, 20/8/02 Score 16.5/20
Age, Epicure, restaurants, 22.1.02 John Lethlean Score 16/ 20
Age, Sunday Life, Eat Streets,16/12/01