The Tastiest Things Happening at Melbourne Food and Wine Festival This Year

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is back, and this year’s program is less “polite tasting” and more “clear your calendar and pace yourself.” From a 600‑metre Greek feast unfurling through Kings Domain to a laneway fried chicken free‑for‑all, a perfume-inspired degustation, karaoke-fuelled night markets and French wine showdowns, the city is entering full-on party mode from 20 to 29 March.

Whether you’re here for white-tablecloth flexes or snacks in cardboard trays, these are the ten events worth planning your March around.

World’s Longest Lunch: 600 Metres Of Greek Kefi In Kings Domain  

If you only clear one Friday, make it 20 March for the city’s most extra long lunch—600-plus metres of white-tableclothed theatre snaking through Kings Domain, feeding 1,600 very happy diners. In 2026, the brief is Greek, and they’ve handed the keys to Ella Mittas, Yarraville’s cult favourite Tzaki, and CBD darling Kafeneion. Expect meze overload–zucchini fritters, lemony fava, sour cherry dolmades, kefalograviera with honey—before slow-roasted lamb shoulder with chickpeas and mustard greens lands like a hug from Athens. It all finishes with portokalopita, Greek orange filo cake, plus Tahbilk wines, Holgate beers, Five Senses coffee and the kind of kefi-fuelled live music that makes a three-course lunch feel like a mini island holiday. Get your tickets here. 

France V Australia Wine Dinner: Friendly Fire In The Glass  

If you’re the person who loves to argue about old world versus new world at the table, this is your arena. France v Australia Wine Dinner sets up a playful showdown between European classics and the best of homegrown, with each course designed to show how different regions tackle similar themes in the glass. Think side-by-side pours, a little gentle debate, and food that’s carefully pitched to showcase structure, acid, texture and all the other things you pretend to understand when swirling. Come for the rivalry, stay for the discovery—and leave with a few new bottles on your must-buy list, regardless of which side of the draw you swear won the night. Get your tickets here.

The Festival Of Korean Fried Chicken: K‑Wave In A Laneway  

Melbourne’s Koreatown is throwing the ultimate love letter to the city’s most addictive bar snack: Korean fried chicken, in all its crisp, crunchy, twice-fried glory. Off Healeys Lane on Park Street, the Festival of Korean Fried Chicken is basically one long midday wing session, dialling up the K‑wave with a thousand free serves from 11am to 2pm (or until the last drumstick disappears). There’s no ticket price—just turn up early, lean into the crunch, and let the soy-garlic and gochujang do the talking. Think of it as lunch, a laneway block party, and a reminder that sometimes the city’s best festival dish comes in a cardboard tray, eaten standing up on the street. Get all the juicy details here. 

Feast for Freedom—A Longer Table: Eat For Something Bigger 

At Footscray’s Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, dinner is doing some serious heavy lifting. Feast for Freedom—A Longer Table invites you into the centre’s own community dining hall—usually reserved for staff and volunteers—for a one-off feast cooked by refugee chefs from Palestine and Sri Lanka. Think cauliflower with tahini, Musakhan chicken rolls and eggplant moussaka alongside lamb curry, Parippu dhal, onion bhaji, sambal and a spread of desserts, served family-style at long tables. It’s $175 a head, but you’re not just buying a seat; you’re funding the work that turns this “Home of Hope” from slogan to reality, and hearing the stories behind the dishes firsthand.

Karaoke Night Market At Luxsmith: Seddon Goes Late‑Night Southeast Asia  

On one night only, Seddon favourite Luxsmith stops being your go-to neighbourhood dinner spot and turns into a sweaty, neon-lit karaoke night market. The energy is straight out of Bangkok and Saigon: grilled skewers, wok-tossed noodles and bold, snacky plates moving through a room buzzing with cocktails and crowd-pleasing ballads. Your $35 ticket gets you two food tickets on arrival, with extra snacks and drinks ready for when the munchies inevitably hit between songs. Karaoke runs all evening in the background, so you can either be the person belting out power ballads or the one in the corner, drink in hand, happily heckling and working through a plate of smoky skewers. Get your tickets here. 

Amaru X Restaurant Botanic: Two Heavy-Hitters, One Very Luxe Menu  

If your festival style leans more “chef’s counter flex” than “street food crawl,” book the collab that has Melbourne fine-dining fans refreshing their browsers. Amaru’s Clinton McIver teams up with Adelaide’s Restaurant Botanic chef Jamie Musgrave for two nights of fully co-created dishes, each course a genuine meeting of minds rather than a polite handoff. The menu reads like a field guide to Australia’s landscapes with region-specific ingredients you almost never see outside serious kitchens—all reframed with sharp, modern technique. With tickets starting at $450, this is the big-ticket, white-tablecloth festival moment, complete with polished service, a tight drinks match, and plates that feel as if they’ve been plucked straight from the country’s most remote corners. Get your tickets here. 

A Night At Caregiver’s Place: One-Off Dinner, Big Impact  

Sometimes the most memorable festival events aren’t just about what’s on the plate, but what they’re raising money for. A Night at Caregiver’s Place takes over the heritage-listed School House at Wesley Place for an intimate, one-night-only dinner supporting MND Victoria. Caretaker’s Cottage—currently ranked 19th best bar in the world—handles the drinks, while a stacked chef line-up (Rosheen Kaul of Bistro Marigold, Junda Khoo of Ho Jiak, Mark Hannell of Reed House and Dessert Masters champ John Demetrios of Butter Days) cooks. Hosted by food writer and MasterChef Australia judge Sofia Levin, expect big-hearted food, emotional speeches and a charity auction stacked with money-can’t-buy experiences that make this one of the festival’s most meaningful tickets. Get yours here. 

Malin X Maison Balzac: Eat The Perfume  

If you’ve ever wanted to know what your favourite candle tastes like, this is your moment. Carlton North’s Malin teams up with Australian lifestyle brand Maison Balzac for a five-course, multi-sensory dinner where fragrance and flavour are completely intertwined. Both the main and private dining rooms are reimagined as a dreamlike Maison Balzac universe, and every course riffs on a different scent—from Le Sel, served with oysters, beef tartare, a seaweed tartlet and sourdough with shellfish butter, to Le Rouge 1924, which becomes red mullet, langoustine bisque, orange blossom and veal sweetbreads with cassis jus. You leave with a special gift, plus the smug knowledge that you’ve literally eaten a perfume wardrobe in one night. Get your tickets here. 

Shuck Don’t Chuck Brunch: Bubbles, Bivalves And Zero Waste  

Oyster fiends, this one’s for you—and the ocean. Shuck Don’t Chuck Brunch takes the classic boozy brunch model and gives it an eco-minded twist, pairing excellent shellfish and drinks with a crash course in why those empty shells shouldn’t be headed for landfill. Expect a line-up of briny, just-shucked oysters, clever shellfish pairings and plenty of chatter about how recycling shells can help restore marine ecosystems. It’s the kind of event where you walk in thinking about mignonette ratios and walk out ready to evangelise about reef regeneration to anyone who’ll listen over your next round of natural wine. Get your tickets here. 

Lunch With Helen Goh: A Taste Of Her Debut Cookbook  

Clear your calendar, because pastry legend Helen Goh is doing lunch, and it’s the kind of midday sit-down Melbourne dessert fans will be talking about for the rest of the year. Expect a menu that reads like a greatest hits list of clever sweets and deeply comforting savouries, built on the flavour-first, texture-obsessed style that’s defined her career. This isn’t just a sugar hit; think nuanced, layered dishes, gently spiced elements, citrusy brightness and the kind of cakes and tarts that make you question every home bake you’ve ever attempted. Factor in good wine, a room full of people who care deeply about crumb structure, and you’ve got the festival’s most softly spoken flex. Get your tickets here. Get your tickets here. 

Tour De France: A French Road Trip, Minus The Lycra  

No flights, no jet lag, no questionable bike shorts–just a roaming, glass-in-hand tour through France’s key regions, conveniently condensed into one very polished event. Tour de France lines up wines that chart a path from classic appellations to lesser-known pockets, with plates to match and enough storytelling to make you feel like you’ve been dropped into a bistro in Lyon or a seaside bar in Nice. Expect pours that move between crisp whites, elegant reds and maybe a wild card or two, all anchored by food that leans French without being stuck in cliché. It’s the perfect festival fix for anyone whose love language is cheese, baguettes and a well-timed top-up. Get your tickets here. 

Head here for more details on MFWF's stacked 2026 program. 

Find out all the other food news in Melbourne here. 

Main image credit: Feast for Freedom | Supplied