Beautifully executed Japanese (and other east Asian cuisines) by celebrated chef Andrew McConnell.

Supernormal: The Gold Standard of Modern Asian Dining

Few restaurants have captured Melbourne’s dining rhythm quite like Andrew McConnell’s Supernormal. Since opening in 2014, it’s become a Flinders Lane fixture — part diner, part late-night canteen, part benchmark for how casual dining can still feel world-class. It’s McConnell at his most confident: familiar flavours elevated through precision, restraint and a sense of fun that never feels forced.

The menu reads like a greatest hits of East Asia filtered through a Melbourne lens. Think delicate raw kingfish with wasabi leaf, Korean-style barbecue beef, and Shanghai-style dumplings with just the right amount of chew. Everything is refined yet approachable, built for sharing, and perfectly engineered for another round.

The Dish That Made It Famous

The lobster roll. It’s an icon — sweet, buttery, perfectly balanced — and the one dish that never leaves the menu. Served in a toasted milk bun with just enough mayo to coat each chunk of tail meat, it’s worth the hype. Pair it with a crisp Riesling or something from the sake list, and it becomes one of Melbourne’s great small luxuries.

Yet to stop there would be missing the point. The real pleasure of Supernormal is in the rhythm of the meal: raw, steamed, grilled, sweet. Dishes arrive fast, the service is instinctive, and the open kitchen buzzes with a kind of calm choreography that few venues sustain this long.

A Room That Sets the Pace

The dining room mirrors the food — clean, bright and quietly deliberate. Long communal tables and low-slung booths give it that Tokyo-meets-New-York energy, while the soundtrack leans modern without intruding on the conversation. It’s a place where deals are made, dates unfold, and chefs from across town come to eat on their nights off.

Supernormal remains what many have tried to copy: a restaurant that feels effortless but is executed with military precision. It’s the kind of consistency that turns a good meal into a Melbourne institution.