• Solace in the city: Gill’s Diner

360 Little Collins St
Melbourne 3000
03 9670 7214

It took me a while to discover that bakeries exist in the CBD.  It took me even longer to discover that some of them were good.  Gill’s was one of these discoveries – a little glass door down a side lane opening up to a large bakery and restaurant.  What could be more Melbourne than that?

Gill’s dinner is always abuzz with lunchers.  And I admit I appreciate the atmosphere in the middle of a working day.  Spacious but cozy, Gill’s dinner has a relaxed but trendy aura - here, I forget that I am in the central business district.

There are usually a couple of pasta dishes, but wanting a lighter lunch the other day, I ordered the spanakopita with beetroot salad.

“The spanakopita is delicious,” my friend advised.  It was hard to go past her lively description.


The spanakopita was better than most.  The pastry was crispy and the spinach and cheese filling was flavoured with lemon.  Strangely the accompanying salad was also spinach and I was reminded of the Bell Jar where Silvia Plath attacks the man who serves her beans with beans for dinner.  There was not much beetroot either.

The food is good but overpriced.  Yet somehow I keep returning for the warm, inviting atmosphere that this bakery/restaurant permeates.

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