Food and Shopping in Melbourne

Food

A multicultural city enriched by 170 ethnic groups, sometimes called the culinary capital of Australia, Melbourne has a vast array of restaurants, offering a variety of international cuisines.

Bustling Chinatown in the heart of the city, serves up the finest of Asian cuisine and culture. Several other Melbourne streets are dedicated to Vietnamese, Japanese, Italian and Greek food - cuisine to suit every palate and many to suit a student's budget!

The city is also a great place for buying fresh food. Queen Victoria Market is the largest open air market in the southern hemisphere. For the gourmet traveller, David Jones Food Hall is a must while chocoholics will be torn between Haighs, Max Brenner, Koko Black and The Chocolate Box. Most stores are open seven days, and many stay open late on Friday.

As a general rule, trading hours for the City shops are:
Saturday to Wednesday: 10.00am - 5.00pm
Thursday: 10.00am - 7.00pm
Friday: 10.00am - 9.00pm

Shopping

Melbourne has long been recognised as Australia's shopping and fashion capital. The city centre is a good place to start with many cool laneways and tree-lined streets that are a haven for small boutiques specialising in Australian designers, jewellery, accessories and international fashion.

Leading international fashion labels including Chanel, Hermes, Gucci, Bvlgari and Louis Vuitton, as well as Melbourne icons Miss Louise and Le Louvre can be found down Collins Street.

All fashion tastes are catered for by flagship department stores, David Jones and Myer, both in Bourke Street Mall. For a wide range of designers and retailers under the one roof you can't go past retail centres such as GPO Melbourne, Melbourne Central, QV, Collinstwo3four, Australia on Collins and Collins Place.

Other popular shopping destinations include Chapel St, near South Yarra station, Acland St, St Kilda and large shopping centres such as Chadstone and Southland.