Hare and Grace

What was not to like? Nothing
Service, layout, food, were superb, classy, and professional.
We had a function for 50 persons and everything was perfect. The venue was entirely set up when we arrived, drinks and canapés were provided almost immediately. Clean and quiet, the bar area that was open to the public never seemed intrusive.
As to the service, the best I’ve experienced in Australia. Wine glasses were never empty, and yet I never felt like I was being watched. As we’d planned for 52 but had 45 show up, there were extra meals; the staff prepared and served these to each table. Bathroom was clean and elegant. Cloth napkins (serviettes) that the wait staff unobtrusively and neatly rolled when a diner left his seat
As to the food, the crème brûlée was almost as good as what I make — not bragging but that makes it really great. And the chocolate pie was richer, with a pleasant not overpowering sweetness that lingered on the tongue for at least a minute
Steak properly prepared — I’m sure they can cook to order if you’re not going with 50 other guests. My neighbor received a steak knife but that was for the pork belly. We switched knives initially, and the waiter swiftly replaced each knife to be proper. Not that my steak needed a knife. So tender that a girl sufficed! Carmelized onions perfect. Salmon dish was well received.
Bread excellent, and when I asked for more with the main, I barky had to wait to ask and it was brought promptly. No waiting five minutes while the food goes cold. Also, the soft butter and rock salt, and special bread plates with slots cut out to rest the knife is a nice touch. Suggestion: balsamic vinegar and olive oil in addition
I’ll definitely be returning. Often

Went w workmates for my B-​Day lunch. Yum! Good service (slow but i guess lunchtime is reason). Great food. Interesting décor (reminds me of a ‘Tiki Room’). Lovely outdoor seating but no heaters!

When you’re meeting someone for after work drinks in the city and going to spin a few yarns, I couldn’t think of a better setting than Hare and Grace.
It’s surrounded by office buildings so during weekdays it’s a popular haunt for corporates to unwind and would be an apt place for having offsite meetings or entertaining your clients.
Genial and quick bar service. Spacious table layout. Even with groups chatting on either side of you, you can still hear your own conversation without distraction.
I’m a fan of the elegant decorum and nice finishes. There’s a lot of charm at the Hare and Grace and I intend on coming back to see if their attention to detail and great taste extends to their menu.

«Hare & Grace’s story is sometimes difficult to translate let alone comprehend.» What does that mean?
What can’t we just go out and eat without having to conjure up a bunch of literary references? Reading some of the other reviews, this place might seem to be a bit less accessible and more of an «event» than it really is. It’s just a really great place to eat and not as pretentious as all that.
The food was superb. Just great. We had pork belly and lamb and both were cooked to perfection. Their house beer is worth a try as well. In general the menu looks, to me, to be a sophisticated takes on classic comfort food. Everything was incredibly high quality and fresh and very nicely presented.
For me, the interior design is bit schizophrenic: really thoughtful decoration of the ceiling and featuring the original stone walls but yet finished with sort of bland hotel-​looking furniture and carpet. But don’t get me wrong, the feeling was calm and pleasant and perfectly lovely. Take a date, take your boss, take your parents. It’s nice. I am just not sure it was fully realized vision. But it did *not* really seem to be «a closed, untrespassable world of its own». I hope these other reviewers were being cheeky.
We wanted to sit in the bar area as it was later and the dining room was almost empty; that took a little negotiation. Staff were quite nice, attentive without being in your business. Things did seem to close down there a little early for a Friday night. I think you need to arrive by 8 or 830 at the latest. I am not sure by «a short tram ride out of the city» comment. It’s right in the city.
For Melbourne, the service and value were quite good. I will absolutely go back. I think the menu is diverse enough where this is one of those few places where you can take a group and everyone will be happy.

I am so disappointed. After three magnificent visits here the food tonight was a pale imitation of what Here and Grace does best. The servings were massive and clunky, the quality of the produce was ordinary. Our liver parfait was too salty and way, way too thick. It was like a supermarket pâté. The scallops were badly cooked, the licorice was dry. The chocolate fondant was burnt. I found a piece of plastic in my salad. Oh I am so sorry to see a fabulous restaurant become mediocre but that is how it felt tonight. Heavy heart!

I won’t recap the other fabulous reviews about this place: historic building, fantastic interior, a heap of suits and great terrace for Friday night drinks.
What I WILL recap is that the food is so good that I am already planning my return visit.
I had a «spring» lamb roll, which was delicately spiced minced lamb in a thin crunchy not-​quite-​puff pastry. Peas and broad beans were just cooked to the perfect side of mushy and the accompaniment of grilled cucumber was (if not the most tasty of sides) something that I haven’t had before. Extra points for making me feel adventurous!
Recommended for work lunches in the CBD. Although if you are planning on wine, maybe wait until the boss is paying, or you are being shouted for your farewell lunch!

Those who lived their childhood in the last decade of the millennium will have been weaned on the fantastical magic conjured by authors of Harry Potter, Eragon and the never-​dying stream of vampiric beings. For others, Herge’s intrepid Tintin, Roal Dahl’s wit, Enid Blyton’s faraway trees, and Beatrix Potter’s talking animals would be more familiar. Located amid the surrounding bleak glass and steel office buildings of Melbourne’s business-​centric Collins Street, across from the Stock Exchange building and under the Rialto, once you push and elbow your way through a 35±year-old something crowd that seems to be perpetually affixed to the frontage, descending underground into Hare & Grace is like stepping into the pages of a Beatrix Potter tale. Divided into two areas, the décor is farmyard chic. Chairs are upholstered in a scratchy moss green and vintage white fabric. Generously-​spaced tables are configured from varnished wood slats that could have come from packing crates. They are laid with tea towels as napkins and topaz-​tinted water glasses. Murals of pigs and cows are stencilled brown on painted cream walls, and black cages hang from dark exposed foundation beams. But it is the ceiling that sears Hare & Grace’s décor into one’s memory — shafts of halogen light intermittently penetrate through a ceiling of hacked branches in the same way as sunlight pepping through a forest canpy. It’s a strangely beautiful, other-​worldly dining setting.
…Beatrix Potter succeeded in translating farm animal talk into prose that could be comprehended by ordinary people, bringing alive an imagined world of hares, ducks, echidnas in a country wilderness. By contrast, Hare & Grace’s story is sometimes difficult to translate let alone comprehend. There’s clearly an extraordinary mind/​s behind Hare & Grace — the culinary creativity is evident and arguably, unsurpassed in Melbourne. But, Hare & Grace seems like a terrarium. A compact, visually-​beautiful space that brings the outside world in, but is simultaneously, a closed, untrespassable world of its own. Hare & Grace can be understood by those who live within this bubble-​world — the professional food critic or the hospitality worker — but for the ordinary diner, it speaks too different a language for the latter to fully appreciate its pursuit of an other-​worldly culinary dream. The inconsistent service certainly doesn’t assist in guiding such lesser persons across that glass terrarium wall of Hare & Grace’s highly refined, highly creative, sometimes almost molecular gastronomy. That said, where the rest seems lost, Hare & Grace’s desserts succeeds, striking that balance between aspiration and inspiration. Extraordinary. The more casual food at the front dining area isn’t that bad either, but can’t be said to be entirely memorable. It is in MoMo & Coco’s good opinion that it would be surely something very very good if the front dining area was converted into a permanent dessert bar… Melbourne’s first, perhaps. Now that would be a beautiful beautiful fairy tale

I’ve never tried the restaurant. However, open air bar is really good for Friday night drinks.

With Raymond Capaldi in the kitchen and an interior designed by Joost, Hare and Grace is kind of special. Think English pub meets enchanted forest. It’s hidden underneath the Rialto building, so you need to keep an eye out for the sign.
The front mini bar and outdoor terrace are popular with the after work office set. A small menu in the bar has lots of easy and quick to eat items — sandwiches, burgers, salads, fish of the day and assorted nibbley things. If you want to come with a group and book a dedicated section be prepared for a possible minimum spend booking charge.
The restaurant at the back has a much larger and more complex menu that is divided in to «Composite, Principals and Accomplimain» (read: small plates, big plates and sides). In true Capaldi style, each dish is a work of culinary expertise and creativity. Each dish: a work of art. It seems a little incongruous that this beautiful and fine restaurant exists alongside the busy bar out front, but somehow it seems to work.