A Review of Attica: Respect for the Land
- Ava Lyn
- Dec 12, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: May 1
Attica
74 Glen Eira Road
Ripponlea, Victoria 3185
Attica is Ben Shewry's brainchild. And one that remains truly authentic to its ethos. When you arrive, you see an experimental area with an Attica in bright pink rockschool font and then you find the main restaurant, sleek and modern.
The food pays respect for the land and showcases Australian produce in such a fun way. Through our night, we got to try green tree ants, australian bush plants, crocodile, kangaroo and everything Australia. It was very unfamiliar, but the flavours were excellent and gave us a fantastic insight into the produce.
After the mains, the experience continued with a grilled cheesecake in the back of the restaurant just like when you go camping. It is all a very fun experience.
Attica has consistently ranked highly and won all sorts of accolades. And although Ben Shewry has openly discussed his disdain for awards and chef hats and ranking, we truly believe that his restaurant is well deserving of these awards. As a visitor to a country, sometimes it is difficult to truly get a good local recommendation and these lists do help to narrow our choices. On saying that, we have had our fair share of disappointments with highly ranked or restaurants with multiple chef hats and michelins and don't necessarily think that they represent the best a country has to offer. But Attica? Its a keeper.
Booking
Tables here are not particularly difficult to get. We managed to secure our table about a month out from our travel. However, we would still recommend booking early in order not to disappoint. The Attica website indicates that reservation slots are available 3 months in advance at 0900 (AEDT) and requires a 150 AUD pp deposit at the time of booking.
Accessibility
We highly recommend not driving. The restaurant is outside of the free tram zone of Melbourne CBD but is easily accessible by train (3 min walk from Ripponlea Station) or by Tram 67 (6 min walk from stop).
Price
The damage? 385 AUD per person (plus more for drinks).
Would we recommend?
Yes and yes! If you dont know too much about Australian native food, this will be an incredibly exploratory journey. We enjoyed the fact that the staff were incredibly attentive, never once rushed us and made the entire dinner very engaging.
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