25 places to eat on the Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road begins at Torquay and ends at Allansford, and most people spend the drive looking at rocks. This list is for the passengers who would rather look at lunch, dinner or afternoon tea. It runs in road order from east to west, detours inland for Brae and carries on to Portland, because the regional tourism body counts it. The Twelve Apostles are optional. Lunch is not.

Samesyn 2.0, Torquay

Samesyn is the Afrikaans word for togetherness, which suits a menu designed for sharing. It holds two hats in the 2026 Good Food Guide and runs as a profit for purpose business with food waste kept low on purpose. Wood fire and fermentation do much of the work, so the vegetables have usually had a busier life than yours. Book ahead. The name is a request.

Try the Great Ocean Duck

Bellbrae Estate, Bellbrae

Bellbrae is a family owned winery five minutes from Bells Beach, rated excellent by the Halliday Wine Companion. Tasting is the point, though eating is wise. At the weekend the kitchen adds woodfired pizza to the tasting flight, which handles lunch and the wine in one stop.

Try the woodfired pizza

Fish by Moonlite, Anglesea

Chef Matt Germanchis cooked in Skiathos, where dinner is whatever the fishermen bring in the same day, and took the idea home. His shop on the Anglesea strip, run with Gemma Gange, sells seafood delivered daily along with advice on cooking it, which is more than most fishmongers risk. The fish and chips are the thing to order.

Try the fish and chips

A La Grecque, Aireys Inlet

The Talimanidis family has been cooking along the Great Ocean Road for more than forty years, and A La Grecque is the Aireys Inlet branch, now run by Stratos. His brother Dom runs Ipsos in Lorne, which keeps the Greek food in the family. The menu turns with the season and may include grilled whiting, a char grilled Porterhouse from the Otways or a rack of lamb. The spanakopita is the signature.

Try the spanakopita

Totti's, Lorne

Totti's sits inside the Lorne Hotel and cooks simple Italian: antipasti, woodfired bread, handmade pasta and tiramisu, with wood grilled King George whiting and Apollo Bay calamari for the fish. Executive chefs Mike Eggert and Matt Germanchis, of the Anglesea fish shop above, share the pass. Step off the beach and you are at the door.

Try the lobster pasta

Ipsos Restaurant & Bar, Lorne

Ipsos gives Greek cooking a modern turn with salads, dips and grilled meats, and a cocktail list worth reading. It suits a night out with friends. Order widely and share.

Try the grilled meats with the dips

The Wye General, Wye River

Wye River is small, so the general store does extra work: all day brunch, good coffee, fresh pastries, burgers and a full breakfast with some muscle. A combustion heater keeps the cooler months bearable and there is a play area for the small passengers. The sea is next door.

Try the full breakfast

Brae, Birregurra

Brae is not on the Great Ocean Road, a point its own fans concede, and it is worth the inland detour regardless. Dan Hunter cooks from an organic farm in the Otways and holds three hats in the 2026 Australian Good Food Guide. The menu follows the garden. One dessert has stayed since opening, a cone of fried parsnip skin around apple and parsnip mousse. Some guests come for it alone. Brae is one of the 10 best wine lists in Australia right now. Read about those here

Try the parsnip and apple dessert

Chris's Beacon Point Restaurant, Skenes Creek

Open since 1979 in the Otways above Apollo Bay, Chris's pairs southern European cooking with a spectacular view. Seafood is a speciality. A restaurant needs a fair amount going for it to outlast several decades of road trippers, and this one has.

Try the seafood

Graze, Apollo Bay

Chef Julian Toussaint is a former fine dining cook who now runs a relaxed neighbourhood room and buys wild venison from a local hunter in the hinterland. The menu follows the season and runs to charred octopus, smoked duck breast and a blood orange crème brûlée. Order the laksa.

Try the wild caught tiger prawn laksa

Apollo Bay Bakery, Apollo Bay

Locals swear by it and the pies explain why. Everything is made on site, the doors open at 6am and close at 3pm every day, and the bakery has become known as the home of the scallop pie. Gluten free pies and vegan pasties are available, so nobody in the car has an excuse.

Try the scallop pie

Apollo Bay Fishermen's Co op, Apollo Bay

Picnic tables a few metres from the surf, boats bobbing in the water and a fisherman's basket in front of you. The southern rock lobster from this bay was famous enough to give the town a starring role in a season 13 episode of MasterChef. Eat outside and guard the chips from the gulls.

Try the southern rock lobster

Apollo Bay Hotel, Apollo Bay

Good pubs are rarer than good restaurants, and the Apollo Bay Hotel keeps turning up on lists of Victoria's best regional ones. The menu is not complicated: steak, fish and chips and salt and pepper squid, all done properly.

Try the salt and pepper squid

Apollo Bay Hotel, Apollo Bay

Good pubs are rarer than good restaurants, and the Apollo Bay Hotel keeps turning up on lists of Victoria's best regional ones. The menu is not complicated: steak, fish and chips and salt and pepper squid, all done properly.

Try the salt and pepper squid

The Perch, Lavers Hill

Lavers Hill sits in the hills behind the road, which gives The Perch a rainforest edge, a garden and, with luck, koalas and glow worms. The kitchen buys from Otway suppliers and the Australian Good Food Guide listing leads with the housemade squid ink linguine. Book ahead for dinner.

Try the housemade squid ink linguine with local market seafood

12 Rocks Beach Bar Cafe, Port Campbell

12 Rocks is named after the rock formation drawing the crowds to Port Campbell and sits on Lord Street with a view over the bay. The menu is classic beachside fare, with burgers, wedges and crispy fish and chips alongside seafood such as grilled salmon and calamari salad. Sit outside and keep one eye on the gulls.

Try the grilled salmon

Schulz Organic Creamery & Cafe, Timboon

A grass to glass organic dairy and cheesery on one site, which is the right arrangement for a dairy. Morning tea runs to bagels, a chocolate babka and scones with local jam and homemade cream. Take the babka.

Try the chocolate babka

Timboon Fine Ice Cream, Timboon

A natural ice creamery founded by a third generation dairy farmer, with a Sundae School for people who think they have mastered the sundae. The apple pie ice cream covers the pie and the ice cream in one scoop, a fair compromise when the drive is long.

Try the apple pie ice cream

Timboon Railway Shed Distillery, Timboon

A single malt distillery in an 1800s railway shed, run by a cattle farmer. Head distiller Josh is also the farmer behind the slow cooked, grass fed black Angus beef served alongside the whisky, which is a logical use for a man with cattle. Order a dram and the beef, which feeds on the whisky waste.

Try the slow cooked black Angus beef

Proudfoots by the River, Warrnambool

A heritage boathouse on the Hopkins River and the only restaurant in Warrnambool on the water. The menu covers steak and seafood with native ingredients in the headline roles, among them kangaroo bolognese and crocodile and prawn enchiladas. It is a fitting last stop for the end of the road.

Try the crocodile and prawn enchiladas

Noodledoof Brewing and Distilling Co, Koroit

Noodledoof pours cold drip coffee brewed over twelve hours in the morning and gin distilled with botanicals picked in the crater of a dormant local volcano in the evening. In between come burgers, loaded fries and chicken wings. Koroit has a volcano and uses it.

Try the burger

Merrijig Kitchen, Port Fairy

The Merrijig Inn dates from 1842 and is billed as Victoria's oldest. Tanya Connellan has cooked professionally for more than thirty years and runs a daily menu built on local producers, so Milawa free range duck, Western District lamb or ox tail ragout with globe artichokes may appear. Book a table.

Try the Milawa free range duck

Conlan's Wine Store, Port Fairy

A heritage building holding a restaurant, a wine shop and a pantry of gourmet goods. Choose the four course sharing menu or order a la carte, then take a bottle home. Leave room for dessert, and have the affogato made with Market Lane coffee. Click on the headline for our full review of Conlans

Try the affogato

Blakes, Port Fairy

Blakes occupies the historic Dublin House on Bank Street and works through seafood. The chowder is the signature and the reviews are consistently warm. There is no need to be clever with the menu.

Try the seafood chowder

Bottega Toscana, Port Fairy

A friendly little trattoria on Bank Street making pasta fresh in house daily, which is the right approach for an Italian restaurant in a fishing town. Ingredients are Australian where possible, and the tiramisu, panna cotta and affogato are present in case anyone was worried.

Try the fresh house pasta

Clock by the Bay, Portland

Portland sits beyond Allansford, the official end of the road, which has not stopped the regional tourism body claiming it. The old Portland Post Office now serves modern Australian, with fresh local seafood in summer and a take on the classic French Beef Wellington in the cooler months. Not the Gippsland version.

Try the Beef Wellington

Felix Marrow eats on his own dime. No restaurant reviewed here was contacted in advance.