Belles Hot Chicken

Broadsheet's read on what separates this from the rest: "Belles' bird packs an intense, dry crunch, differentiating it from the soggier versions around town."

Why go

Aaron Turner and Morgan McGlone were cooking in Nashville fine dining when they got hooked on the local fried chicken, and in 2014 they took the old Belle's Diner space on Gertrude Street and turned it into the first Belles Hot Chicken (Broadsheet). Both of them have since left the business, which Broadsheet reported in July 2022 when Joss Jenner-Leuthart took it on (Broadsheet Sydney). What they left is a method: cayenne paste over a crumb that stays brittle under it, on a cut you choose and a heat you choose. The other thing about this particular room, and it is specific to this address, is the wine. Broadsheet says the Fitzroy site has "swathes of wine bar character" and "a fluid list of excellent wines from around the country", and credits the brand with being early to new-world producers in Australia.

Order this / avoid

• Order: tenders at hot. Wings by the platter for a table. Mac and three cheese and the pickles alongside, because a dry crumb wants something wet next to it. The fried mushroom takes the same crust and the same heat.
• Avoid: climbing the scale for the sake of it. Above hot you stop tasting the chicken. Concrete Playground's dissent is worth knowing too: the sides "could do with a bit more spunk".

What locals & experts say

• Bryanna Perriam, Concrete Playground, on what arrives: "No matter your selection, the crunchy, golden coating gives way to juicy, tender meat and the heat has certainly got a bit of kick to it." ref She also files the one complaint on record, about the sides.
• Broadsheet Melbourne, on the crust, calls it "an intense, dry crunch, differentiating it from the soggier versions around town", and notes the fried mushroom "delivers the same satisfying texture and kick". ref
• Broadsheet Sydney, on who runs it, writing about the Barangaroo sibling: the diner was "founded by Morgan McGlone (Sunday) and Aaron Turner (Igni)", and "while its founding chefs have departed the business" it carries on under Jenner-Leuthart, "a New Zealand-born restaurateur and self-described Belles fanboy". ref That is a Sydney page and it is used for the company, not for this room.
• Nobody has written about the Fitzroy room since 2022, and no Melbourne chef in the 74-pick corpus names it.

Good to know

• Where: 150 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, the 2014 original.
• Sites: six trading. This row is Fitzroy. The others are Melbourne CBD, Little Belles Docklands, Barangaroo and Quay Quarter in Sydney, and Adelaide CBD. Richmond closed in 2019, so a review from that address is about a room that no longer exists.
• Timing: Sunday to Thursday noon to 9pm, Friday and Saturday noon to 10pm.
• Booking: walk-in.
• The heat scale, as published: original, hot, really hot, and one rung above that. There is no Very Hot.
• Drink: an Australian wine list, Southern-style cocktails, slushies, and a house draught lager made with Pirate Life.
• Safety: Victoria publishes no venue hygiene rating. Safe Food Victoria's s.53D register of convictions, fifteen entries at its 21 July 2026 update, does not list this venue. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

Nothing here is Jeff's. Melbourne carries no raw saved-places export in this repo, so there is no Note column of his behind a jeff_note and the field stays empty rather than composed. The master row credited Morgan McGlone and told you to order a Very Hot. He left the business years ago and that rung does not exist.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

could-visit — The crust is the reason. Broadsheet's line is that Belles' bird has an intense, dry crunch that separates it from the soggier versions around town, and that is the thing a cook would come to check: cayenne paste over a crumb that has to stay brittle under it. Aaron Turner and Morgan McGlone brought this back from Nashville fine-dining kitchens and opened it in the old Belle's Diner on Gertrude Street in 2014. Neither of them is here now. Broadsheet reported in 2022 that both founding chefs had left and that Joss Jenner-Leuthart had taken it on, and the master row still credits McGlone, which it should not. The heat scale runs original, hot, really hot, and one above that, and there is no rung called Very Hot no matter what the spreadsheet says. Order at hot and you can still taste the bird. The surprise is the wine: this specific room runs an Australian list with real intent, which is not what a hot-chicken counter usually does. It sits at could-visit because the cooking is good and unchanged and nobody has assessed it in four years, and because the only dish-level criticism on record is that the sides are dull.