Carnation Canteen
Audrey Shaw worked at Kerstin Thompson Architects before she cooked professionally, designed this twenty-seat corner room herself, and rewrites the hand-written menu every week.
Why go
The cooking pedigree is specific and it shows on the plate. Shaw cooked at Ellory in London, which held a Michelin star and has since closed, then with Ruth Rogers at The River Cafe, then with Brigitte Hafner at Tedesca Osteria (Broadsheet). What comes out of that is a short European menu built on organic vegetables from Days Walk Farm in Keilor, changing weekly, with a whole King George whiting as the single constant. Gourmet Traveller writes that the brevity is the mechanism: the succinct, hand-written menu means it's nimble, so Shaw's Euro-leaning dishes... can change regularly to reflect the seasonal in real time
(Gourmet Traveller). She runs it with her husband Alexander Di Stefano, and the wine list is chosen around sustainability and female winemakers.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the whiting if you want the fixture, the scotch fillet if you want the dish that stops the table. Baked ricotta cut from the cake on the counter goes onto black kalamata olive crostini. Finish with the rhubarb trifle, or the affogato with a shot of Montenegro in it.
- Avoid: arriving very hungry, and any night you need the floor to move fast. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
What locals & experts say
- Sonia Nair, Time Out Melbourne, three stars (2024):
while there's much to love here - the beautiful decor, the unhurried feel, certain standout dishes - refinements to both service and substance will ensure Carnation Canteen's offering catches up to its style.
She was specific: portionstend towards the insubstantial
, the horseradishcould've been dialled up
, and service wasneither preemptive nor responsive
. Time Out states it pays its own bills.1 - The same review on what worked: the scotch fillet
is the first dish to elicit a wow - there's good fat cap on the steak, which is immaculately cooked... The roast potatoes are faultless.
1 - Gourmet Traveller (2025), nine months later and warmer:
calm, generous service and a smart wine list that refreshes as frequently as the menu.
2 - Broadsheet carries it on its Hot List as
a beloved local spot that has become an essential part of its neighbourhood.
3
Good to know
- Where: 165 Gore St, Fitzroy, on a residential corner in the backstreets.
- Timing: closed Monday and Tuesday. Lunch and dinner fall on different days, and the two published schedules disagree, so check before you book a Friday night.
- Booking: recommended. Twenty seats.
- Access: step-free, per Gourmet Traveller's listing.
- Food safety: no entry for this business on Safe Food Victoria's register of convictions as at its 21 July 2026 update.4
- Near MCEC: no. Fitzroy, about 4km from South Wharf.
Verdict
should-visit — It is worth rearranging a lunch for, with one caveat about how hungry you arrive. Audrey Shaw trained as an architect at Kerstin Thompson Architects, cooked at the Michelin-starred Ellory in London and with Ruth Rogers at The River Cafe, then with Brigitte Hafner at Tedesca Osteria, and now runs twenty seats on a Fitzroy corner with her husband Alexander Di Stefano. The menu is hand-written and rewritten weekly, often around organic vegetables from Days Walk Farm in Keilor, and the only fixture is a whole King George whiting. Gourmet Traveller found the kitchen nimble and the service calm and generous in August 2025. Time Out's Sonia Nair gave it three stars nine months earlier and was specific about why: the portions tended towards the insubstantial and the service was neither preemptive nor responsive. Both are true reports of different nights and the later one is warmer, so it lands here rather than higher. The scotch fillet and the roast potatoes are the dishes that made her stop and notice.