The Specials Board: These Are Melbourne's Must-Try Food and Drink Specials for June

It's official: winter is here. While we may have entered the inevitable takeout-on-the-couch season, Melbourne's restaurants and bars are doing their best to get you out of your seasonal slump with a range of deals. If you are going to take off the trackies and brave the chill, it better be for a good reason, so here, we have lined up the best specials this June that are worth skipping Love Island for.

From hearty winter roasts to weather-priced cocktails, express lunches to recently launched happy hours, there are plenty of bargain deals to try out this month. There are also some boujee, deluxe specials that are worth a splurge, whether it's a caviar degustation, a martini selection, or an exclusive opportunity to sample a rare collection of French wines; it's worth heading out this June to check them out for yourself.

Weather Priced Cocktails, Stokehouse Pasta & Bar

Seaside spot, Stokehouse Pasta & Bar, is leaning right into the winter blues with its Weather Priced Cocktails special. Throughout winter, the St Kilda restaurant is pricing its cocktails to match the day's minimum temperature. Choose between a negroni, martini, and a limoncello spritz (max two per guest) and hope the temperature keeps dropping outside. A 12-degree afternoon? That's a sweet $12 spritz. A rough 3-degree evening? Believe it or not, score your drink for just $3.

$2 Oyster Happy Hour, Cha Ching

Flinders Lane's dynamic Asian-fusion restaurant, Cha Ching, is encouraging city workers to stick around for a couple of drinks after work with their weeknight happy hour. Running between 4 and 6pm, you can score $15 cocktails, $8 beers, and oysters for just $2 a pop. While you're at it, why not settle in for a taste of its signature dishes, including Korean fried chicken, wagyu cheeseburger spring rolls, five-spice crispy pork belly, and soft-shell crab curry.

Caviar Degustation, La Madonna

Sure, this may not classify as a money-saving deal, but it certainly is special. Next Hotel Melbourne's La Madonna French-Italian restaurant is offering an exclusive, five-course caviar degustation this winter. Each dish showcases sustainably produced Anna Dutch Caviar. Try the likes of an oyster raviolo with leek velouté, tuna tartare with basil coulis, lemon-butter spaghetti, and lobster with champagne sauce, all with caviar, of course.

$45 Portugese Steak Lunch, Marmelo

It might be cold and gloomy in Melbourne, but at Ross and Sunny Lusted's Marmelo, they are channelling the warmth and vibrancy of long Iberian lunches with their weekday special. Available from Tuesday through Friday from noon to 2.30pm, sample the Marmelo Bife à Portuguesa, a Portuguese take on steak and chips. A wood-grilled eye fillet is topped with whipped anchovy butter, a fried egg, and served with thin-cut potato crisps. Whether it's a quick corporate lunch or a leisurely midday celebration, the team at Marmelo will take care of you.

Exclusive Wine Release, Bistro Guillaume

Well, there's one easy way to warm up this winter, and that's with a comforting glass of wine. And with Bistro Guillaume's La Cave Privée special, you can make it a seriously special glass at that. The renowned French restaurant is offering a taste of rare collection French wines drawn from Crown Melbourne's exclusive cellar. Through Coravin, you can taste certain exclusive drops by the glass, and also access a range of perfect condition wines by the bottle. The quantities are extremely limited; once a wine is finished, it will not return.

Winter Roast Specials, The Waterside Hotel

Warm the cockles of your heart with a hearty winter roast this winter at The Waterside Hotel. The multi-level, dynamic CBD drinking and dining destination is showcasing a rotating menu of classic roasts on Saturdays and Sundays. You might get to sample a roast pork and fennel porchetta with baked potatoes and carrots, a roast chook with buttered leek mash, or a slow-cooked lamb shoulder with creamy polenta. Whatever main is on the menu, you can be assured that it'll be served with everyone's favourite aspect of a roast: gravy and Yorkshire pudding. You can supplement your roast with the full á la carte menu, so why not plan your next weekend around this great special?

Mini Martini & Snack Deal, Various Locations

To celebrate World Martini Day this month, Four Pillars is teaming up with some of Melbourne's most beloved restaurants for this year's Martini Collective. A great way to kick off an evening out on the town, head to one of six select venues for a mini martini made from Four Pillars' Olive Leaf Gin, paired with a signature snack. At Carlton Wine Room, said snack is the famous anchovy, fried bread, ricotta and pickled cucumber creation; at Maison Bâtard, try a steak tartare tart with confit egg yolk; and at Bar Bellamy, a Comte custard tartlette is paired with pickled radish, grapes and gooseberries. Find further details here.

Club Ramen, Tokyo Tina

One of Melbourne's most continually buzzing Japanese restaurants, Tokyo Tina from the Commune Group, is beating the winter chill with its Club Ramen special. Every Wednesday evening, Tokyo Tina is serving a selection of made-to-order, hearty and warming ramen, until sold out. The chashu pork ramen is rich and decadent with garlic oil, soy egg and chashu pork scotch; the creamy tantanmen ramen with minced chicken, soy milk, sesame paste and itokiri togarashi is a riot of flavours; and the vegetarian kakiage ramen with an umami shiitake dashi, bamboo, and nori is an excellent meat-free alternative.

$15 Soups & Bowls, Hanoi Hannah

Perennially popular modern Vietnamese eatery, Hanoi Hannah, with outposts in Elsternwick and Windsor, is offering an unmissable deal this June. For just $15, you can wrap your grubby hands around a steaming bowl of soup to warm you up from the inside out. The crowd favourites phos (mixed mushroom, poached chicken, tender beef, and chargrilled chicken) can be supplemented with extra protein, veggies, and noodles. For the same price, you can also snag a fresh and vibrant vermicelli bowl topped with spring rolls, lemongrass beef, crispy tofu, or chargrilled chicken. In this economy, it's not that common to find a generous lunch for just $15, so don't miss out on this deal this June.

Lisbon Nights, Bar Marmelo

HYDE Melbourne Place is one of Melbourne's most happening hangouts, and its drop-in drinking hole, Bar Marmelo, has launched a new happy hour, Lisbon Nights, celebrating Portugese culture, food and drinks. From Tuesday through Saturday, between 4 and 6 pm, grab $9 aperitifs and $14 cocktails, highlighting classic Portugese drinks such as port and tonic and Madeira with ginger beer.

Bologna Nights, Figlia

Brunswick East's Figlia has introduced a Monday night special to help make the long week ahead less daunting. Every Monday, Executive Chef Alberto Fava brings a taste of the Emilia-Romagna region to Melbourne with mortadella, prosciutto, lasagne and bolognese. For $30, choose between a wood-fired pizza or a hearty bowl of pasta, alongside a glass of wine, and enjoy a great start to the week.

Sipper Club, Mr Mills

Mr Mills at HYDE Melbourne Place has launched a hot new offering. Mr Mills' Sipper Club includes a cocktail and a paired snack for $18. The special, which runs from Tuesday through Saturday between 5 and 9pm, showcases mini versions of the bar's signature cocktails. Pair a green apple and bergamot margarita with a swordfish gilda, a 50/50 Dirty Martini & Tonic with a bikini (a jamón and cheese toastie), or an artichoke clarified Bloody Mary with an oyster and fermented chilli.

Midweek Lunch Special, Lucia

South Melbourne's Lucia is making leisurely lunches more affordable with their midweek lunch special. Between Tuesday and Friday, grab bistro classics such as a Caesar salad for $23, a burger with provolone and special sauce for $25, and veal cotoletta for $30. Pair it with a glass of wine or a martini and make midweek much more exciting.

Tuesday Date Night, Ruzias

Hidden in plain sight along busy Balaclava Road is Ruzia's, a suburban wine bar that locals are proud to call their own. The open, warm and informal space lends itself to convivial dining, chitchat amongst neighbouring diners and with staff, and to settling in for a simple yet deeply satisfying meal of salty snacks, Eastern European delights, and plenty of generously poured drinks. Its newly introduced $45 Date Night is a sure-fire way to make Tuesdays special, featuring Baker Bleu bread, signature meatballs, a warm cinnamon doughnut with ice cream for dessert, and a glass of wine.

After Dark, Juni

One of the CBD's best Southeast Asian restaurants, Juni, has welcomed a playful new deal this month. Introducing a fresh take on a traditional happy hour, Juni's After Dark special kicks off at 9pm every night and lasts late into the evening. For $38, snack on a selection of bite-sized dishes such as Szechuan-spiced salmon gravlax with whipped tobiko and finger lime, prawn and chive dumplings with red chilli vinegar and lamb skewers with cumin and crispy chilli oil. The moreish mouthfuls are designed to be enjoyed alongside a curated list of $15 cocktails.

Feature image: Tokyo Tina. 

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