Cook the trends of 2026: Three retro dishes Melbourne restaurants are loving right now

Nostalgia has a vice-like grip of restaurant menus, with the dishes of our childhood getting a delightful second act. This year’s Good Food Guide is rich with restaurants embracing retro trends from the 70s and 80s, with vol-au-vents, hash browns and the humble ice-cream sundae getting a fresh glow-up for the modern diner. It’s a return to food that feels familiar and comforting, with a few twists to feel like a very modern interpretation.

“Maybe it’s the economic headwinds, maybe it’s the news cycle, but chefs have embraced comfort on their menus this year. I’ve especially loved the new gloss they’ve put on crisp-fried hash browns – like chip’n’dip but better,” says The Age Good Food Guide co-editor Emma Breheny.

We’re leaning into this nostalgia, giving three of these old-school favourites a modern makeover. Because let’s be honest, sometimes the best thing is often what granny was rolling out in 1987.

Spiced hash browns with chicken salt whipped feta, dill and salmon roe

The hash brown has had a glow-up. Once the breakfast answer to the morning after the night before, it is now being stacked, topped and glamourised within an inch of its life. Here, crisp spiced potato gets a swoop of whipped feta sharpened with chicken salt, plenty of dill and a completely unnecessary but deeply excellent spoonful of salmon roe. It’s crunchy, salty, creamy and proof that the hash brown was never the problem. We just weren’t trying hard enough.

INGREDIENTS

• 4-6 frozen hash browns

Spicy mix

• 1 tbsp paprika
• ½ tbsp Turkish chilli flakes
• 2 tbsp chicken salt

Whipped feta

• 180g Greek feta
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon, plus 1 tbsp juice
• 50ml buttermilk
• 70g sour cream
• 1 tbsp chicken salt, plus extra to serve
• 3-4 tbsp salmon roe
• 2 tbsp finely chopped dill

METHOD

1. Heat the hash browns according to packet instructions.
2. To make the spicy mix, add all ingredients to a small bowl and stir to combine.
3. To make the whipped feta, place feta and lemon zest in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Whisk buttermilk, sour cream and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth then fold in the feta mixture to combine. Add the chicken salt and stir to incorporate. Set aside until ready to serve.
4. To serve, add the hash browns to a serving plate and sprinkle over the spicy mix. Transfer the whipped feta to a small serving bowl and top with salmon roe, chopped dill and another sprinkling of chicken salt.

Serves 4-6 as a snack

Cold poached prawn vol-au-vents with salted caper, tomato and curry leaf mayo

Few things used to signal mum is having people over quite like a vol-au-vent. And if restaurant menus have anything to say, everything old is new again, which is excellent news for vol-au-vents and deeply concerning for those of us still recovering from wearing low-rise jeans the first time around.

When you lean into the trend, and take a bite, you’ll wonder why you ever left these tiny vessels of retro joy. This version, filled with cold poached prawns that have taken a light bath in a mayo popping with salty capers, grated tomato and curry leaf, is a grown-up nod to the old vollie and a superb reminder to bring them back to the mainstay.

INGREDIENTS

• 500g prawns, peeled and deveined
• 12 vol-au-vents (about 5cm)

Caper tomato and curry mayo

• ½-¾ cup mayonnaise
• pinch curry powder (or to taste)
• 1 tbsp salted capers, roughly chopped
• 6 cherry tomatoes, grated

To serve

• olive oil
• fresh curry leaves

METHOD

1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Season it very generously with salt. (It should be akin to seawater, so I add about 1½ tbsp of fine salt per litre of water.) Drop in the prawns, cover and immediately turn off the heat. Allow to gently poach for 7-8 minutes, then plunge in iced water to stop the cooking. Drain and chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
2. Transfer the prawns to a chopping board, chop into bite-sized pieces and transfer to a bowl.
3. To a small bowl, add the chopped capers and mayo, and stir to combine. Using a Microplane, grate the tomatoes into the mayo mixture. Add the pinch of curry powder and stir again to combine.
4. Add the dressing, a spoonful at a time, to the prawn mixture. You don’t want to drown the prawns; the key is to give them a light coating of the mayonnaise mixture. This allows the seafood to shine through and also maximises the crispness of your pastry.
5. Warm the vol-au-vents in the oven according to packet instructions.
6. Meanwhile, place a small frying pan over low-medium heat. Add a little olive oil and once hot, add the curry leaves. These will cook extremely quickly, so be ready to grab with tongs almost as soon as they hit the pan. They will darken in colour and crisp rapidly. Remove and pop on a plate lined with paper towel − do not dispose of the oil which will have taken on some of that lovely curry fragrance.
7. Gently scoop the prawn filling into the vol-au-vents. Top each with a crispy curry leaf and a small drizzle of the oil you cooked the leaves in. Best served immediately.

Makes 12

Slow-roasted strawberry, vanilla and chocolate fudge sundae with chocolate waffle crisp

Once upon a time, dessert was all impact and glamour. It came in an oversized glass, involved numerous scoops of ice-cream and required a spoon long enough to retrieve a small child from a deep well. No foams, no fuss, just hot fudge overspilling, whipped cream resting precariously, and the cherries no one wanted but will fight to the death for all the same.

This is the old-school sundae in all its unapologetic glory. A dessert that understands more is more, and there is no such thing as too much fudge sauce.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 scoops vanilla bean ice-cream per serve
• whipped cream
• maraschino, amarena or glacé cherries
• pinch salt

Chocolate fudge sauce

• 75ml milk
• 250ml pouring cream
• 50ml malt extract
• 150g dark chocolate, chopped

Chocolate waffle crisp

• 1 cup best quality milk chocolate
• 6 waffle cones

Strawberry layer

• 1kg strawberries, hulled
• ¾ cup caster sugar
• ½ cup water

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 150C fan-forced (170C conventional).
2. Add the strawberries, sugar and water to a glass roasting dish and pop in the oven for 90 minutes for the best strawberries of your life. This slow, low roast intensifies the strawberry flavour while the fruit still holds its shape. Let cool to room temperature. (This can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days.)
3. To make the chocolate fudge sauce, add the cream, malt and milk to a saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook until a gently rolling boil is achieved. Add the chocolate to a bowl. Pour the mixture over the chocolate and whisk until smooth and lump free. You can make this ahead as it will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for two weeks.
4. To make the chocolate waffle crisp, pop the waffle cones in a snap lock bag, and using a rolling pin, give them a gentle smash, you don’t want crumbs but lots of lovely tiny shards. Set aside.
5. Gently heat chocolate over a bowl of barely simmering water, ensuring the bowl doesn’t touch the surface of the water. Stir continuously, then remove from heat when chocolate has melted. Spread the melted chocolate over a sheet of baking paper. Sprinkle over some of the crushed waffle cone and then pop in the fridge to harden. Break into large pieces.
6. Skewer a few cherries onto a toothpick per serve.
7. To build the sundaes, place a few spoonfuls of the strawberry mixture into a dessert coupe. Top with the two scoops of ice-cream. Gently push a chocolate waffle crisp into the ice-cream. Drizzle over a generous amount of chocolate fudge sauce then add whipped cream to taste. Push in a cherry-laden toothpick and serve. Repeat with remaining elements.

Serves about 6