Armenian-Lebanese Restaurant Zareh Named Australia’s Restaurant of the Year

An Armenian-Lebanese restaurant in Melbourne has won one of Australia’s most prestigious dining honors, less than a year after opening its doors.

Zareh was named Restaurant of the Year by Gourmet Traveller, breaking into an award category historically dominated by fine-dining restaurants and European-influenced cuisine, according to The Guardian.

The restaurant opened in Melbourne in August 2025 and is run by Tom Sarafian and Jinane Bou-Assi. Its food reflects the owners’ Armenian, Lebanese and Egyptian roots, pairing family traditions with ingredients sourced in Australia.

Among the dishes are aish baladi, an Egyptian flatbread made with flour milled on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, and kafta nayyah prepared with raw minced lamb from Tasmania and Victoria. Zareh also serves hummus topped with Australian spanner crab.

The restaurant is named after Sarafian’s paternal grandfather, Zareh.

For Sarafian, the award was unexpected, particularly because the restaurant takes a more relaxed approach than many previous winners.

“I guess it’s imposter syndrome because it’s not fine dining, but we may be part of the new sort of scene that handles food [just] as well … but a bit more casual in their approach,” Sarafian said. He also pointed to what he described as “a lot of really fantastic Arab restaurants in Australia.”

Previous Restaurant of the Year winners include some of Australia’s best-known establishments, among them Saint Peter, Attica, Quay and Orana, the Adelaide restaurant founded by the late chef Jock Zonfrillo.

Behind Zareh’s menu is also a story of migration and the relationship between Armenian and Lebanese communities.

Lebanon became an important refuge for Armenian Genocide survivors in the early 20th century and later developed into one of the most significant centers of Armenian life in the Middle East.

Sarafian said that history is part of what the restaurant represents.

Zareh is “a love letter from us to Lebanon, who opened their arms and their country to Armenia and went so beautifully to let us in,” he said. “It’s a cross-cultural celebration.”

The award puts Zareh — and the Armenian, Lebanese and Egyptian traditions behind its kitchen — among the restaurants shaping Australia’s contemporary dining scene.

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