Sharing Is Caring: Restaurants With Shareable Plating In Melbourne

How many times have you wound up at a restaurant wishing you could try multiple dishes? Whether it’s cost or appetite that’s holding you back, it’s likely that there’s been an occasion where you’ve wished you could just share and sample many different foods. Some restaurants, like Middle Eastern restaurants or street food joints, are better at accommodating this than others, creating shareable and delicious items that are perfectly portion sized for multiple plates. Whether you’re craving Middle Eastern food or something you could find in a street vendor’s cart, these sharing-friendly restaurants are sure to have something for you!

1. Dukkah Restaurant

A staple Middle Eastern restaurant that never fails to amaze, Dukkah serves up a great menu of family-based recipes that run the gamut from full entree to shareable appetizer. Their pride and joy are their Middle Eastern food fusion dishes, arising from decades of traditional recipes the owners and chefs have tweaked to make entirely their own. From their deliciously traditional dip trio to their stuffed cheese cigars and savoury chicken and kofta skewers, each meal is designed to totally satisfy. Their halal food is some of the best near me, which certainly makes it hard to share, though I’m still willing to!

2. Issan Thai Street Food

Issan Thai houses a rotating menu of delights like spicy and sour catfish stew, rubbles of fiery larb, and spicy jungle curry. Coast past the pick-your-protein stir fry and head straight for som tum as well. At the heart of the menu are grilled meats ready to be bundled up with a leaf or tacky ball of rice, so if you like ssam, you’ll love this too. Everything is also perfectly portioned and customizable, so you can order a large plate with friends and try a little bit of everything!

3. Shan Dong MaMa

This dumpling den features consistently amazing dumplings that astound with their crazy freshness and flavour. My favourite are the fish dumplings – a loose mince of oily mackerel, fragrant with ginger, coriander root and chives, captured in the thinnest white dinner jackets. Dumplings are also some of the easiest foods to share or order multiple of, and they store well too, so you can go all out and make your dumpling leftovers last for several more meals as well.

4. Coppe Pan Japanese Bakery

At Coppe Pan, classic Japanese street food dishes from dumplings and octopus balls to friend chicken and stir fry are sandwiched in pillowy white bread rolls known as ‘pan’. This isn’t your ordinary crusty sourdough – Coppe Pan’s bread is soft and fluffy as a result of its high percentage of water and sweeter than your average Western loaf of bread. Lighter than air and made for trading, this is shareable street food at its finest.