- AMAEBI 🦐 // Dashi Buttermilk/ Pineapple/ Jalapeño/ Bullhornpepper/ Yuzu Caviar/ Geraldton Wax/ Prawn Oil/ Tarragon 21.0 - POTATO BREAD 🍞// Nori Butter /Macadamia 7.0 - CHARRED CUCUMBER 🥒// Muscat /Smoked Yoghurt / Shichimi 11.0 - POTATO CAKE 🥔// Vinegar Salt /Black Garlic Mayo 11.0 - BBQ CALAMARI 🦑// Fennel Kimchi /Pickled Kohlrabi / Olive Herb 23.0 - MURRAY COD 🐟// Muntrie / Gochuiang Emulsion / Bronze Fennel 31.0 - MISO CUSTARD 🍨// Almond Biscuit /White Chocolate / Roasted Koji/ Yoghurt Ice Cream 15.0 James is definetly my recent favourite restaurant in Melbourne. A hidden gem in South Melbourne serving Korean and Australian fusion food. I cannot stop raving about it because every dish I tried was divine. The choice of ingredients, the combination of different texture, the execution and presentation were just unbelievable. Every bite was a surprise and I was genuinely impressed by the creativity and effort from James. Heaps of people recommended the charred cucumber! It was delicious but the Amaebi dish really got me. The freshness from the prawns, sweetness from the pineapple, nice kick from the jalapeño, burst of tanginess from the yuzu caviar, the umami from the prawn oil brought together with a mild buttermilk. It was heavenly amazing. My other favourite was the miso custard. The custard itself was salty but it was well balanced with the ice cream and the sweetness of white chocolate cut through the saltiness. Food was sensational, good value of money (~$60 pp w/o drinks) and lovely vibe. I would try everything on their menu next time 😋

Absolutely fabulous place! As a Korean chef, I am so glad we can finally have this beautiful Korean inspired dining area here in Melbourne. Although James left a bit earlier during service (just because we are all fans of you, we knew how you look like ;) all dishes were on point, refine and devine. Definitely deserve at least one hat for this restaurant as even service was so smooth and professional. The restaurant manager Covi was looking after us for whole night with top level of skills and her own passion of her job. Definitely will revisit very soon with my other friends. The lobster dish and potato cake and bread are must try items and all desserts are something you should try all of them! They have beautiful wine list but also such a beautiful dessert wine as well which I usually give extra extra more point! Much appreciate for beautiful service and foods James and Covi!

Beautiful flavours and lovely presentation for each dish but let down by the service when seated outside (almost like they forgot the 4 tables outside). It took an hour from entrees to order and receive our mains and we had to go inside to request more water. Highly recommend the “non” range (no alcohol) if you are doing Feb fast as well.

Amazing service, super friendly staff! The food was very good as well- such a little gem in South Melbourne! Japanese-inspired modern Australian cuisine would probably best describe this - we started off w piping hot potato bread with nori butter, potato cake Mille feuille style w cheese and black garlic sauce, mushroom and edamame w cannellini cream 💓 We then got the ramen w pipi and seaweed dust which was surprisingly slightly spicy and a beef rib which was beautifully cooked. The fries are not to be missed. Served w truffle oil and came out freshly fried. Oh how I missed my fries freshly fried during COVID! Honestly the best fries I have tasted in the last year! The basque cheesecake was solid but not amazing, w an interesting red wine sauce cream thing which didn’t taste like red wine but it tasted quite nice.

Yum! Easily one of the best tasting menus we've had this year. Everything on the menu was fantastic (although I thought the Hotteok was a bit hard & doughy - but that was probably the intent. Would recommend this place to anyone who enjoys Asian inspired dishes. Loved the potato bread with the marron butter, and the marron dish too! One improvement peeps ally I think is that they could have more cocktails on the menu!

Amazing atmosphere and food! Alot of attention-to-detail went into every dish and each course was well paced out so there was time to experience and appreciate the food. Loved it!

Riding my bike past here and stopped in for a quick bite at lunch and was seriously impressed by the fare. See photos. Good coffee too. Will definitely be back for dinner with the wife. This one is a gem!

The lunch food experience was awesome. I enjoyed the lunch set with the added fish dish and my other half chose a few more dishes on the regular menu so we were able to try many dishes from James. Each dish was creative, expertly plated and tasted amazing. It’s a Korean fusion restaurant using Melbourne local products and it was a perfect lunch out to experience what Melbourne has to offer. The service was great, food came out in a timely manner as the lunch crowd picked up. We didn’t have much to drink but the house made Yuzu soda was refreshing. Overall great experience and would recommend to anyone visiting Melbourne.

Though all the restaurants use the same raw materials and ingredients, this place can still surprise you. I love the style of their interior design, showing a vibe of European and a bit Korean. You will have a holiday mood once you step in. I recommend potato cakes, cucumber and the mussels.

Came for a business lunch. All food was excellent, beautifully prepared and a lot of care taken on flavours, quality of ingredients and presentation. Standout dishes for me were the kingfish tartare, prawn on cracker and potato bread. Definitely coming back

Nice looking cafe space with excellent coffee! We booked for a Saturday morning visit and realised what a good idea it was when we got there. Service is great and did I mention the coffees are excellent? Our food took a little while to come out but that's understandable given the crowd. Excellent scrambled eggs thought for a chilli scramble it could have used more chilli. Will be sure to go back and try more from their menu!

A Korean x Australian inspired resto truly delivered a great experience from start to finish 😍 We chose the tasting menu which was $155 pp and had a total of 11 courses Our fav throughout the night (in no particular order) : 💫 Charred cucumber had a great smokey yogurt with dried olive on top. 💫 Abalone sticky rice was phenomenal - almost like a risotto - coming from not so abalone fan 💫 The quail has nice crispy skin, all the flavour incorporated was presented really nicely. 💫 Miso custard was really creamy giving a mix of sweet and savoury taste. I honestly don’t think you could find a bad dish here. All dishes was great! A great way to start my Birthday month 😋 Highly recommended trying this out 🥰

This relatively small restaurant is surprisingly impressive. Decor of the restaurant is very much minimalist, and there are only approx 12 tables in the restaurant. But the foods….so so good!! You can choose between set menu ($165/person). For the set menu, it looks like you get a sampler of each item in their menu. We opted for Ala Carte as we only wants to order the ones we are interested. If you have to choose just two entree, go with the Potato Bread & Oyster Blade Yukhoe. The Potato Bread is one of their signature dish and I can definitely see why! Oyster Blade is a beef tartare but it is soo tasty!! Their charred cucumber is good too, very fresh taste! For main we had Jade Tiger Abalone, Aquana Murray’s Cod, Smoked Gohujang Chicken. All are really good!! If you cannot take spicy foods, avoid the Smoked Gohujang Chicken as it is a little bit spicy (not overly spicy). Their Tiger Abalone was so good that our table ended up ordering a second serve. We ordered the desert as well to close off our dining experience. I can’t remember what the waiter said abt the ice cream, but I think it tasted like Yuzu (there’s a bit of sourness) but it was served with other things (no idea what they are) but the other things that was in the ice cream bowl has a sweet & salty taste. So when you mixed the ice cream with them, it gives you a mixed of sour, sweet & salty which surpisingly taste good too. As part of the desert, they also served 2 cookies, one of them is black sesame which is more on the sweet side, but not overly sweet. I quite like the sesame cookie. I didn’t quite like the other cookie that came with it as it has a strong cinnamon taste which is my least favorite spice. Overall, very good experience, waiters were attentive & very helpful.

An amazing experience at JAMES for our date night. This was our first meal of the trip to Melbourne. As a Korean, I really loved the fusion food and the Korean twist to all the food. Some flavours were so familiar, yet so different. For example, one of the dish taste just like 전복죽, but at the same time so different… Downside was that I just wished there was more. I know that this restaurant is for the flavour and experience of tasting and its delicacy but we were left feeling that we could’ve had one more bite of each dish to try more and really experience the dishes The cod dish (im pretty sure it was cod) was also good! I would recommend everyone to visit here Murray cod was one of my favourite. The potato bread and cake was unique

We were just stopping by the door and the pretty friendly came out and greeted us and we came in to have this super good dinner! It's like fine dining but very much affordable. I would recommend the truffle fries and pipi ramen. BTW we mentioned the ramen was a bit too salty and the chef remade one for us. Great service! Will come back for other dishes 😊😊😊

We’ve been to James many times and each time doesn’t disappoint. Menu is exceptional. Pay them a visit to taste first hand what we mean. Much love!

This is some of the best food in Melbourne right now. I've not stopped thinking about it since I dined here on the weekend. Very reasonably priced tasting menu, and the food was superior to all 5 of the 3 hatted restaurants I've experience in this city. Also, it's BYO which is just insane to me!

Such a gem, the food was really well thought out, refined and (most importantly) tasty! I can’t decided between the two - the potato bread with marron butter and abalone and sticky rice stole the show for me. The rest of the dishes on the tasting plate were amazing but these two stood out for me. For my hubby it was the pea tart and the abalone. Noise level can be a bit much but the tables are intimate enough to still have a decent conversation. I’d def be back for next season’s menu.

Small portion, almost 1 bite to finish.

Overall, it was a pretty good experience. Food had some Korean influence to them. Loved how they used Australian native herbs too. Platings were creative, simple and clean. The little things were the ones that made it special — when we first came in we received both still and sparkling water on the table, no questions asked haha We came in on a Friday afternoon. It was quiet when we came in - us and another 2 tables, which was nice: service and food came out quick. The FOH had good knowledge of the food as she’d always serve the food and explained what they were to us. Though the chefs would just serve the food without explaining anything.

Honestly loved everything from the moody fit out, drinks and delicious unexpected Korean x seasonal Australian produce, every dish was special in its own way. 🍸 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲𝐝𝐞𝐰/ 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐥 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐆+𝐓 ————————— 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐞𝐛𝐢 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐮𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐥 To start off with these dishes were so refreshing, sweet spot prawns paired well with the beautiful savouriness of the dashi buttermilk and bursts of freshness from the pineapple, yuzu caviar and jalapeno. The cucumber is a notable dish here and it certainly lives up to the hype. 𝐏𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐤𝐞 • As soon as I saw the golden crispy potato approaching I knew it was going to be good, paired with the black garlic, it was hard to stop at one 𝐋𝐚𝐦𝐛 𝐑𝐮𝐦𝐩 • The purslane added a nice crunch to the charred lamb with ssamjang 𝐌𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐝 • muntrie relish and gochujang emulsion was such a creative mix of flavours 𝐁𝐁𝐐 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐢 • uncovering the pickled kohlrabi revealed the perfectly smoky calamari and crunchy fennel kimchi 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐢 • loved the dessert limes in the broccolini as it added a pop of sweetness + acidity against the cashew cream and pistachio 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐨 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐝 This dessert is definitely more on the savoury side but once you have it with the other sweet and tangy elements it balances out. The yoghurt gelato was super smooth, I also loved the caramelised crunch of the almond biscuit and toasty crumbed white choc throughout the dish. Easily bookmarked as a new-found favourite and I’ll be on the lookout for their next menu rotation!🥂

James wine Bar - lovely passionate staff, knows their food and wine well! Cucumber - smoky grilled char taste yet fresh Wine - amazing, sweet tart crisp Amaebi - creamy sweet prawn, spicy umami cracker Potato bread crisp crust paired with a umami butter warm soft pillow inside Mussels - Dashi umami vibes pickled daikon instant fresh crisp cut through pickling creamy mussels Abalone - smell hits first, grilled, umami, creamy, subtle abalone - a little bit forgotten, overly rich and overpowers the abalone Potato cake - black garlic emulsion by itself is a send, buttery potato in middle was soft, rich, crisp outer - too much potato Quail - elevated Nandos peri peri vibes, pickled thin daikon did little to nothing for the dish Jeuraselem artichoke tarte tatin - innovative, can definitely taste the artichoke but also complimented by a deep charred smooth chocolate vibe

This restaurant serves not only dinner menu but also brunch menu during the day. The dishes are pretty good but doesn't really stand out from all the other brunch joints. The vibe is relaxing and can be romantic for dinner time. Food - 7 Service - 9 Vibe - 9 Price - $$$

Having the set menu for Saturday afternoon lunch and it was an an amazing experience. If you love Australian fusion food with native ingredient and a hint of Asian (Japanese & Koren) influence, you should not miss this.

Just go!! Service was spot on, and they were so generous and accommodating. It was refreshing to have such hospitable service. The food was delicious, looked stunning, and the flavours and textures were fantastic. Great wine list. Couldn't fault the experience. Already rushing back! The venue was clean and chic, but they had a perfect play list to set the tone. Great job, team 👏

Best lamb I’ve had in Australia! The service is thoughtful, warm and attentive. Delicious cocktails and excellent accomodations for dietaries. Even the dairy & gluten free dessert. I’ve eaten here several times already and plan to many more. Honestly couldn’t recommend enough!

Oh my gosh. I mean, the wine is great, but of course it is. It's a wine bar. But the food!!! Amazing! Pork doughnuts with black apple jam was absolutely incredible. Good prices. Nice service. Will be back again and again and again

Have been to James twice now and both times food was amazing! Hidden gem! Love their service, wine list and delicious food. Please bring back those truffle fries :)

A cosy restaurant serving delicate Asian leaning dishes with thoughtful, new flavour combination. We have only tried the lunch menu. So far, the stand out are the small plates. Potato cake is thinly sliced potato, stacked into a rectangular - its creamy like dauphinoise but with an ultra crispy skin. Charred cucumber not only look very pretty, it delivers in flavours - refreshingly crunchy, sweet from the muscat and peppery from the shichimi (Japanese peppery spice). Spanner crab ramen noodle is delicate and sweet. Now, one of my pet comfort food in winter is drowning white rice with good, hot broth. I was very surprised when the duck broth with sticky rice dish is just like that. The broth has good depth, but for me, the ratio of broth to rice is somewhat unbalance. The duck, sans skin, is quite plain (the duck skin is paired with the chocolate tart). I think, I was not served the kolrabi kimchi, listed on the menu. Hotteok is a popular sweet snack in Korea - it is usually made from yeasted flour/rice flour, filled with sweet things and pan fried. The version here is more like a donut - thicker, the texture more dense - topped with creamy ricotta and a crispy disc of black sesame seed. There are quite a number of restaurant that anoint themselves as offering "new" / "modern" dishes, but I think James is more deserving of that descriptive than most wannabes. Definitely worth returning to try their dinner menu. Service is brisk.

Meals were absolutely sensational and total value for money. I thought the service was outstanding too. Just sad I don’t live local because I would regularly frequent this place if I did!

Nice little cafe (now restaurant/cafe) tucked away in a lane way. I absolutely loved their coffee, salads, and baked good selections - perfect for breakfasts and lunches.

A new and trendy little cafe / bar on Clarendon st. Plenty of seating outside and inside however as with all new places, you may have a short wait to sit inside. Fresh and minimalistic decor with galley style coffee space. The service is Friendly and the food is great. It can be a little noisy as the seating is close in the front section loved the folded eggs and the kombucha. Worth a visit.