Stalactites Restaurant

UPDATE: APRIL 24, 2020 — This Melbourne institution is still open for delivery and takeaway — and you can score free baklava or rice pudding if you pick up. To order, head over to the website.

Stalactites is a 24-hour Melbourne institution — it's been owned and operated y the same Greek family since 1978. It is, by legend, the occasional site of a physical brawl over tables (chairs were thrown in 2014 during an altercation). This, we think, must mean that people over there are serious about their food and where they sit at Stalactites — indeed, late-night gyros is something to be serious about.

The restaurant's souvlakis are a late-night rite of passage for Melburnians — complicated, meaty and ready to hit your tum with what it needs at 2am. You should try the lamb gyros ($17) or, if you're late enough (that is, between 6–11am on weekdays and 7–11am on weekends), the brekky souvlaki with bacon and eggs wrapped in a pita ($15). Otherwise you can always sit in — there's an extensive menu of dips and breads, meat platters, seafood and specials like moussaka and cabbage rolls.

To top that off, Stalactites recently introduced an extensive gluten-free menu — and new cooking and serving processes — that has been certified by Coeliac Australia. That means that everything from the pita bread and souvas to the chips and grilled meats can be done gluten-free.