Thirty years on Acland Street and still the first name locals give when someone asks where to take a date. The front room is the restaurant; the Back Saloon is the reason to come — a small, dark, no-bookings bar where you put your name down, order a glass of something, and wait. The waiting is part of it.

The food is Italian in the confident, unfussy way that Melbourne does better than most cities. Handmade pasta, a serious wine list, and a room that has absorbed three decades of people having a good night.

The highest-rated venue on this list, and it earns it. A proper neighbourhood bistro on Armstrong Street with the kind of service that anticipates what you want before you've said it — oysters, burrata, steak frites, a wine list deep enough to be interesting by the glass.

Two rooms with different moods: the front is bright and social, the back is dim and quiet. Ask for the back. Happy hour runs early with $10 wines and $12 spritzes, which makes an unplanned Friday considerably easier.

Moody, elegant and deliberately small. Bottles line the walls, booth seating runs down the sides, and the menu changes daily — which tells you the kitchen is paying attention. The staff know the list properly and will guide you through it without condescension, which is rarer than it should be.

The smoked fish toast has a following. The cheese plate arrives with a pear dip that people write reviews about. It's a short menu done precisely rather than a long one done adequately.

Tucked inside The George — the enormous heritage building at the top of Fitzroy Street — Volière does classical French without irony. Steak tartare, escargots, confit d'agneau, a chocolate fondant that arrives with a certain amount of theatre.

On a wet Melbourne night the room does something particular: heavy stone, low light, a Picpoul that's colder than it needs to be. One reviewer described it as a Parisian dungeon where poets drink. That's about right, and it's a compliment.

Built in 1936 and one of the last single-screen cinemas of its kind anywhere in the world. The Astor programs new releases alongside restored classics and double features — you might catch a 35mm print of something you've only ever seen on a laptop, in a jazz-moderne room with a balcony.

It solves the problem of a first date that needs a shape: film first, then somewhere on Chapel or back toward Acland Street for a drink and something to talk about. The foyer has booths if you arrive early.

The most ambitious cooking on this list. Yan is a smokehouse working through a contemporary Chinese lens — the menu tells you what each dish has been smoked with, which sounds like a gimmick until you taste how carefully it's calibrated. Duck cigars, smoked prawns, beef short rib, lamb with eggplant.

It's a room designed for a date that's meant to mean something: an anniversary, a first proper dinner, the night you're trying to make an impression. Book ahead — it's small and it fills.

A St Kilda institution sitting directly on the foreshore, done out like a well-loved beach house — armchairs, open fire, books on shelves, palm trees framing Port Phillip Bay through the windows. It has been the special-occasion restaurant of Melbourne's inner south for decades.

Seafood is the thing: scallops, oysters, a seafood linguine people order twice. It's the priciest entry here and the one to hold for a birthday or an anniversary rather than a Tuesday.

Modern Japanese built around a hibachi grill you can watch from the counter — which is the seat to ask for. Kingfish sashimi, wagyu flank, octopus skewers, and a pumpkin agedashi tofu that turns up in more reviews than any other dish on the menu.

Counter seating is underrated for a date. You're side by side rather than across a table, there's something to watch when conversation dips, and the chefs will talk to you if you want them to.

An open-air rooftop at the beach end of Fitzroy Street with the bay in front and the city skyline behind. Tapas built for sharing, a cocktail list that holds up, and a golden-hour view that makes St Kilda feel like a coastal town rather than a suburb ten minutes from the CBD.

Best as the opening move rather than the whole evening — drinks at sunset, then walk down Acland Street for dinner. The Thursday tapas-and-a-drink deal is unusually good value.

Not every date needs a bill. The St Kilda Botanical Gardens sit a few blocks back from Acland Street — a Victorian-era garden with a rose garden, a conservatory, a pond, chess tables and enough old trees to make it feel considerably further from the city than it is.

Best as a daytime date, or as the thing you do the morning after. Pick up coffee and something to eat on Acland or Blessington Street and take it in with you.

Sunday and Monday are quiet.

Several of the best small rooms — Future Future, Yan, St LuJa, Ines — close early in the week. Check before you walk.

Book the smaller venues.

Clover, Yan and Middle Park European seat fewer than fifty people. A Friday walk-in is optimistic.

Winter is the easy season.

June through August, tables that need a month's notice in November open up within days.

Mention the occasion.

Anniversaries and birthdays get treated well at almost every venue here — a note in the booking costs nothing.

Two venues beat one.

Drinks somewhere, dinner somewhere else. It gives the night a shape and a natural exit if it isn't working.