Jim's Greek Tavern

There is no menu to read. A waiter looks over your table, decides what you should be eating, and the food starts arriving.

Why go

The Panagopoulos family have been feeding Collingwood since 1980, and Gourmet Traveller's Victorian editor Michael Harden has been going for years without once being done wrong (Gourmet Traveller). The room seats 200. That number is the whole story, because the dips still land with finesse and the calamari still hits the right ratio of chew to crunch at a scale where almost every kitchen would give up and start cutting corners. The $75-a-head set menu takes the decisions off you entirely, which is what most tables here want. If you would rather choose, there is a glass case of fish and offal on the way to the dining room, lambs brains and livers among it, cooked with the same efficiency as everything else. And it is BYO, which is why three separate Melbourne chef-owners named this room in the same Broadsheet piece about where to take a group.

Order this / avoid

• Order: bread and dips first, and pay attention to the taramasalata. Saganaki the moment it arrives. Something off the display case if you want a say. Charcoal lamb, cutlets or carved off the giro. Galaktoboureko at the end.
• Avoid: waiting on the saganaki. Harden's line is that if it cools and goes rubbery, "it's on you." Also avoid arriving unbooked with a large group, and do not come at lunchtime, since it is dinner only.

What locals & experts say

• Michael Harden, Gourmet Traveller (February 2024): "Restaurants capable of serving food at this volume, with this degree of deliciousness, for this many years are rare and valuable. Add the fact that it's BYO and you have a restaurant unicorn, hiding in plain sight." ref
• Tom Sarafian, chef-owner of Zareh, in Broadsheet's group-dining roundup: "hands down the best experience for a large group. No menu, no fuss and BYO beers and wines make for the best fun!" ref
• Frankie Cox, chef-owner of Crop, in the same piece: "It's impossible to have a bad time. You arrive with your BYO and the rest is looked after." ref
• Charlie Duffy, baker-owner of Daybaker, also there: "It's lively, a little chaotic, but full of charm." ref
• On counting those three: all three chefs answered the same question in the same article, so the vote model records one independent interest, not three. It is still the highest single-venue tally in that roundup.

Good to know

• Where: 32 Johnston Street, Collingwood, about 3km northeast of the CBD.
• Timing: dinner daily. There is no lunch service.
• Booking: recommended, and worth doing for anything over four people.
• Drink: BYO. Bring beer, wine or a bottle of ouzo.
• Price: the $75-a-head set menu is the default and the easiest way through it.
• Payment: the master spreadsheet calls this a cash venue. No source consulted supports that, so treat it as unconfirmed and carry cards and cash both.
• Hygiene: Victoria publishes no consumer-facing food-hygiene rating, so there is no Australian equivalent of an FSA score to record here.

Jeff's take (his words)

Nothing. Melbourne has no _src saved-places export in this repo, so there is no Jeff note behind this row and none has been written for him. The strong claims above all belong to Michael Harden and to three named Melbourne chefs, with their links attached.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

must-visit — This is the answer to the complaint that Melbourne's list reads as fine dining. Eight people, a boot full of BYO, seventy-five dollars a head, and a room that has been doing it since 1980. Michael Harden, Gourmet Traveller's Victorian editor, has eaten here for years and calls it a restaurant unicorn hiding in plain sight, and his reason is the one that matters: this volume, at this standard, for this long. Three working Melbourne operators named it in the same Broadsheet group-dining piece, which is one independent interest rather than three, and all three named the same thing, which is that you bring the drink and the room handles everything else. Melbourne holds one of the largest Greek populations on earth and the corpus had no evidenced venue for that at all, so this row carries the city's Greek signature on a critic's description of what is actually on the plate. Go with a group, book, and let the waiter run it.