Best Food & Wine Experiences

From cellar doors to chef’s tables

Geelong’s food scene punches well above its weight. Here are the tables and tastings worth planning a weekend around.

The guide runs from a dinner worth dressing up for and brunches where the locals queue, to a Chef’s Hat wine list, a brewery and a long lunch on the water. At the end is a way to taste the Bellarine’s wine without driving. We update the details whenever we re-check a place.

1. Alma Restaurant

Seasonal Victorian produce and natural wines. Alma is a restaurant at 93–95 Ryrie Street in central Geelong serving South American-inspired food. It sits at the top of our price range ($$), takes bookings for private functions and weddings, and is built around dinner. Book ahead and check its current trading days.

2. Pakington Pantry

Where locals brunch on weekends. Pakington Pantry is a small, casual brunch cafe on Pakington Street in Newtown, open since 2013. It is known for its coffee, bold flavours and breakfast wraps, and was voted Geelong’s best brunch spot in a Geelong Advertiser reader poll. It also takes part in the CafeSmart program, which raises money to help end local homelessness. It is a daytime cafe, so go in the morning or around lunch.

3. Winters Cafe

A neighbourhood cafe at the river end of Pakington Street in Newtown, serving all-day breakfast and lunch built around local, seasonal produce. Think free-range eggs, sourdough and fair trade coffee, with dietary requirements catered for. It makes an easy second stop if you are working your way along Pakington Street.

4. Tulip Bar & Restaurant

Shared plates from a chef’s selection, matched with local and international wines, in a relaxed room on Pakington Street in Geelong West. Tulip has held a Chef’s Hat in the Good Food Guide for several years, including 2023 and 2024, so it is the pick if wine is the point of the evening.

5. Little Creatures Brewery

Beer rather than wine, but the setting earns it a place here: a brewery and Canteen in the heritage Valley Worsted Mills building in South Geelong, open since 2013. The Canteen serves pizzas and share plates, and there is a kids’ playground and pet-friendly laneway seating, which makes it a sensible choice for a group with mixed tastes. Brewery tours run Friday to Sunday and need to be booked.

6. The Wharf Shed

A large, casual, all-day venue right on the water at Eastern Beach. The menu is big enough that a group will find something each, and there is a park next door for the kids. The food is solid rather than spectacular and service can stretch on busy weekends, but the location does most of the talking. It started life as a bond store on the old Moorabool Street pier.

How to use this guide

Alma and Pakington Pantry bookend a day. Start with brunch at Pakington Pantry or Winters Cafe, spend the afternoon on a winery tour, at Little Creatures or on the waterfront at The Wharf Shed, and finish with dinner at Alma or a long wine-led evening at Tulip. If you would rather not drive between cellar doors, the guided tour below handles the logistics.