New Openings in South Yarra: The 2025–2026 Edit
South Yarra’s dining scene has been doing something it hasn’t done since the Caffé e Cucina glory days — making people pay attention again. The stretch between Toorak Road and the Prahran border has cycled through a pile of closures, rebrands, and surprise takeovers over the past 18 months, and the result is a dining strip that feels genuinely fresh rather than just repainted.
We’ve walked the strip, eaten at the tables, and done the hard yards so you don’t waste a Friday night somewhere ordinary. Here’s what’s actually worth your time.
Last updated: March 2026 | South Yarra Vibe Score: 87/100 🟢
1. Bar Carolina — Karen Martini’s South Yarra Comeback
The vibe: Old-school Italian warmth with a celebrity chef’s precision. The room glows.
When Bar Carolina quietly closed in August 2025 after eight years under founder Joe Mammone, South Yarra locals braced for another beloved venue lost to rent hikes and exhaustion. Instead, the opposite happened. Karen Martini — Melbourne’s most persistent and talented chef-entrepreneur — stepped in alongside her husband Michael Sapountsis and reopened the doors on 18 September, barely a week after Mammone’s farewell.
The food is broadly Italian but never predictable. Martini’s pappardelle with rabbit ragu, crispy artichokes, and truffle pecorino has already earned a spot in the Good Food Guide, and the Good Food critics awarded the revamped restaurant an instant hat. The crudo section is excellent, and the wine list leans hard into Italian producers you haven’t heard of but will remember.
Order this: Pappardelle, rabbit ragu, crispy artichokes, truffle pecorino ($34) Address: 44 Toorak Road, South Yarra VIC 3141 Hours: Lunch and dinner daily (check website for seasonal hours) Insider tip: Sit at the bar if you can. Martini works the pass most nights and you’ll catch the kitchen in full flow — it’s more entertaining than anything on Netflix.
2. Nobody’s Baby — The Bar That Never Serves the Same Meal Twice
The vibe: A dimly lit lounge where the cocktail menu is serious and the kitchen belongs to someone new every three months.
Opened in April 2025 by Tim Badura (ex-Young Hearts) and Gustavo Prince (Pizza Meine Leibe, Joe’s Shoe Store), Nobody’s Baby is South Yarra’s answer to the rotating-residency model that places like Melbourne’s own Residence at the Potter have proven works brilliantly. The concept is simple: the bar stays, the chefs rotate. Three-month stints. New cuisine each time.
First up was Very Good Falafel from Brunswick, bringing sumac-cured sardines and hibachi-spiced chicken skewers. Then Rocco’s Bologna Discoteca took over with their famous meatball sub — the first time south-siders could get their hands on one without crossing the river. As of January 2026, Basque-born chef Aitor Jeronimo Olive is running the kitchen with authentic Txoko-inspired cooking.
The cocktail list is independently excellent. The Baby Misu (tiramisu in drinkable form) and the Emerald Green (basil, honey, Montenegro, gin) are worth the visit on their own.
Order this: Whatever the current residency is serving — that’s the whole point Address: 19–21 Toorak Road, South Yarra VIC 3141 Hours: Tue–Thu 4pm–11pm, Fri–Sat 4pm–12am, Sun–Mon closed Insider tip: Follow @nobodysbabybar on Instagram. They announce residency changes there first, and the first weekend of a new chef always has the best energy.
3. Le Splendide — The No-Phones Wine Bar from France-Soir
The vibe: A Parisian members’ club where you’re not a member but might as well be. Phones get stickered at the door.
It took Jean-Paul Prunetti 38 years of running France-Soir — one of Melbourne’s most enduring French restaurants — to open a bar next door. Le Splendide debuted in October 2024 and immediately became the most talked-about reservation on Toorak Road. The concept is aggressively analogue: upon entry, your phone camera gets a sticker. What happens inside stays inside.
The room seats just 40 behind wood-panelled walls with slinky banquettes and theatrical lighting. The wine list draws from France-Soir’s legendary 2000-plus bottle cellar. Hors d’oeuvres are classic French — think gougères, cured meats, and small plates designed to accompany a serious Burgundy. The crowd is exactly the sort you’d expect: well-dressed South Yarra regulars who’ve been drinking at France-Soir since the ’90s, mixed with younger wine nerds who saved for a month to afford a bottle.
Order this: Start with a glass of Champagne and let the sommelier guide you from there Address: 9 Toorak Road, South Yarra VIC 3141 Hours: Evening service (bookings recommended) Insider tip: The sticker-on-phone rule isn’t a gimmick — it genuinely changes the atmosphere. People talk to each other. It’s revolutionary in 2026.
4. Bar Yarra — Ovolo’s All-Day Neighbourhood Local
The vibe: The hotel restaurant that doesn’t feel like a hotel restaurant. Relaxed enough for a Tuesday coffee, slick enough for a Friday night cocktail.
Bar Yarra replaced Lona Misa (Ovolo’s plant-based Latin experiment that ran for five years) on 12 January 2026, and the shift from conceptual dining to neighbourhood comfort food is a welcome one. Head chef Santiago Ospina has built a menu that runs from shakshuka with whipped fetta at 7am to a 250g striploin steak frites by dinner.
Breakfast is the sleeper hit — the Nordic plate with smoked salmon and pickled veg, and crème fraîche pancakes with seasonal fruit compote are both well above hotel-breakfast standard. The coffee runs on St Remio beans. By evening, the bistro staples kick in: fried calamari with chilli salt, roasted pumpkin ravioli with miso butter, and the Yarra Smash Burger (double beef, bacon, dirty mayo) that’ll ruin you for every other burger on Toorak Road.
Daily happy hour (5pm–7pm) features $8 house wines, $10 spirits, and a $15 cocktail of the week. Throwback Thursdays bring vinyl DJs spinning through the back catalogue.
Order this: Roasted pumpkin ravioli with miso butter ($26), followed by the Elderberry Bloom cocktail ($20) Address: 234 Toorak Road, South Yarra VIC 3141 (inside Ovolo Melbourne) Hours: Breakfast Mon–Fri 7am–10.30am, Sat–Sun 7am–11am; Dinner 5pm–late Insider tip: The $10 snack of the day during happy hour changes constantly. On Thursdays, time your arrival for 6pm — vinyl starts, happy hour’s in full swing, and you’ll feel like a local by your second glass.
5. Yugen Tea Bar — Specialty Coffee and Japanese Sandos in Capitol Grand
The vibe: A bright, considered cafe tucked into the base of South Yarra’s most polarising apartment tower. The coffee is serious; the matcha is ceremonial-grade.
Yugen Tea Bar sits in the Capitol Grand precinct at the corner of Chapel Street and Toorak Road — the same building that houses the subterranean Yugen Dining below. While Yugen Dining does the omakase theatre downstairs, the Tea Bar above does everyday cafe business with unusual care. The menu is curated by Stephen Nairn (the chef behind both Omnia Bistro and Yugen Dining), which means you’re getting fine-dining sensibility at cafe prices.
Japanese-inspired sandos sit alongside colourful salads, in-house baked pastries, and a drinks menu that spans specialty coffee to premium teas and ceremonial matcha. It’s the kind of place that could easily coast on its Capitol Grand address but instead puts genuine effort into the food.
Order this: The Japanese-inspired sando ($16–18) and a ceremonial matcha ($7) Address: Capitol Grand, corner of Chapel Street and Toorak Road, South Yarra VIC 3141 Hours: Daily (check Instagram for current hours) Insider tip: If you’re heading to Prahran Market on a Saturday, grab a takeaway matcha here first. It’s a five-minute walk and considerably better than anything you’ll find at the market’s own cafes.
6. The Frog Club (Opening August 2026) — The One Worth Waiting For
The vibe: The Gilson crew goes dark. Charcoal grills, midnight finishes, serious vinyl.
This one isn’t open yet — but it’s the most anticipated opening on Chapel Street for the back half of 2026. James McBride and Marc Gurman, the duo behind South Yarra’s decade-old all-day institution Gilson, are taking over the former Morris Jones site on Chapel Street and transforming it into a late-night grill club.
The Frog Club will serve charcoal-grilled steaks and seafood until midnight, with a cocktail program described as “timeless” and a music-forward atmosphere built around vinyl. It’s a deliberate counterpoint to Gilson’s sunlit daytime energy — this is the after-dark sibling.
Morris Jones was itself a Chapel Street landmark, so the bones of the space are strong. If McBride and Gurman bring even half the attention to detail they’ve poured into Gilson over the past ten years, this will become a default Friday-night destination faster than you can say “last seating.”
Address: Former Morris Jones site, Chapel Street, South Yarra (exact number TBC) Expected opening: August 2026 Insider tip: Gilson regulars will likely get first-dibs reservations. If you’re not already a regular, now’s the time to start. Book a brunch. Get on their list.
Also on the Radar: Omnia Bistro & Bar
We’d be negligent not to mention Omnia (625 Chapel Street), which has held two Good Food hats in consecutive years and continues to be the most technically accomplished restaurant in the immediate area. It’s not “new” in the strictest sense — the venue has operated from the corner of Chapel and Toorak since 2019 — but chef Stephen Nairn’s seasonal menu refreshes keep it feeling current. The European bistro classics are executed at a level that’s hard to find south of the river. If you haven’t been in the last six months, you haven’t been to the current Omnia.
What We Skipped and Why
We review every venue in South Yarra before including it, and some that people ask about didn’t make the cut. Here’s why:
Beverly Rooftop (Level 24, 627 Chapel Street) — Still operating and still delivering legitimately great views from 24 storeys up. But it opened in 2023 and the menu, while competent, hasn’t changed enough to justify a “new openings” spot. It’s a destination for a sunset cocktail, not a dining discovery.
Stella Dining & Rooftop (462 Chapel Street) — The four-storey Italian venue has been open since late 2022 and has settled into a reliable groove. Good for large groups and rooftop bookings in summer, but the kitchen isn’t doing anything we’d call newsworthy right now.
Commonfolk Coffee (Murphy Street) — A solid specialty coffee spot, but it’s been serving South Yarra for long enough that calling it a “new opening” would insult your intelligence and ours.
Venues we couldn’t verify — There are rumoured openings along the Greville Street end and near Prahran Market that we’ve heard whispers about but can’t confirm with specific details. We’d rather leave them out than send you to a construction site.
Getting There and Getting Home
South Yarra sits on the Sandringham line (South Yarra Station) and is served by trams along Chapel Street (route 78/79). If you’re coming from Melbourne CBD, the train takes about 12 minutes from Flinders Street. If you’re coming from Prahran, it’s a 10-minute walk down Chapel Street — or one tram stop.
Late-night transport: the 96 tram runs until around 1am on weekends. Otherwise, rideshare pickup on Toorak Road is your best bet. Avoid the side streets off Chapel between 1am and 3am on weekends — it gets rowdy.
For a full breakdown of transport options, check our South Yarra transport guide.
The Verdict
South Yarra in 2026 is a suburb that’s remembered what made it worth visiting in the first place — good food, interesting people, and enough new energy to shake off the post-pandemic malaise that hung over Chapel Street for too long. The Karen Martini takeover of Bar Carolina alone would make this a notable year. Add in the rotating-kitchen concept at Nobody’s Baby, the analogue rebellion of Le Splendide, and the promise of The Frog Club, and you’ve got a dining strip that’s earned its strip back.
Your move, Prahran.
This article was researched and written in March 2026. Venues, hours, and menus change — always check before you go. If we’ve missed something, drop us a tip.
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