Grill Americano

Grill Americano is an Italian steakhouse on Flinders Lane in central Melbourne. It belongs to the restaurant group of Chris Lucas.

Lucas opened it in July 2022 with Northern Italy and its bistecca alla fiorentina in mind. He designed the room with Samantha Eades, who had worked with him for years. A curved band of white marble wraps the long bar and part of the open kitchen, under high ceilings, with terrazzo floors, brass fittings and royal blue seats. Waiters in white jackets work the floor, and Gourmet Traveller read the whole room as a tribute to the old dining rooms of New York and Paris.

The beef is Australian, aged wet or dry and cooked over wood on an open-flame grill, next to a Josper and an oven built in Naples. Cuts have included a New York sirloin, a wagyu bavette and a Florentine bistecca, with black truffle butter or a green peppercorn and cognac sauce on the side. Before the meat come arancini, fried polenta with parmesan, green olives stuffed with chicken, pork and veal, and carpaccio of either octopus or beef with tuna mayonnaise. Saffron tagliolini with scampi and burrata with grilled leeks sit between the starters and the grill.

Desserts look back to Venice: a vanilla meringue cake modeled on the one at Harry's Bar, a Venetian trifle, and tiramisu spooned out of a glass dish at the table. Barolo and Barbaresco lead an Italian wine list built to stand up to the steaks. Time Out gave the restaurant five stars soon after it opened, and it was on the World's Best Steaks list in 2026.