The trick to eating in Footscray is to pick a street, not a restaurant. Nicholson Street is where the Vietnamese kitchens cluster, Barkly and Irving Streets belong to East Africa, and the old industrial blocks in between now hide some of the west’s better bars.
Locals do not agonise over a single booking here. They pick a strip, walk it, and let the queue out the front make the final call. This guide works the same way, moving street by street, a few train stops west of Melbourne’s CBD.
Nicholson Street: the noodle spine
Start at Bun Cha Co Dao at 83 Nicholson Street, which built its name on fresh, high-quality ingredients and plates that look as good as they taste. The kitchen’s commitment to quality produce shows up in flavours that taste authentic rather than adjusted, and it is the strip’s case study in doing one cuisine properly.
Across the road at 76 Nicholson Street, Ha Long Restaurant is the long-hours workhorse, open 9am to 10pm with a big room that swallows large groups. The menu ranges across pho, rice noodles, stir-fried noodles and rice dishes, with vegetarian options, and the cooking is known for being exactly right rather than showy. The room itself is casual, the decor simple, and there is tea and coffee if the meal turns into a sit.
A practical note on the strip: with Ha Long running from 9am to 10pm, Nicholson Street works for a late breakfast bowl as happily as a proper dinner. Nobody has ever regretted a 3pm pho.
Hopkins Street: order the bun bo hue
One street over, Dong Ba at 133 Hopkins Street is the specialist. Its signature is bun bo hue, the sweet, sour and mildly spicy beef noodle soup from central Vietnam, and that specialty is the reason people cross town for it. Where pho is clean and gentle, bun bo hue swaggers, and Dong Ba’s version is the one this suburb measures the rest against. When a kitchen is famous for one bowl, order the bowl.
Barkly and Irving: the injera blocks
Footscray’s East African tables are the suburb’s other great strength, and they cluster a short walk south. Abesha Restaurant at 327 Barkly Street serves affordable Ethiopian cooking under exposed-beam ceilings: stewed meats with a strong reputation for the beef in particular, a few Ethiopian beers, and Ethiopian and Australian wine, all keenly priced. If the couch wins, there is online ordering with live tracking through DoorDash.
On Irving Street, Chercher is the vegan-friendly pick, with naturally vegan dishes and a clearly labelled vegan mixed plate on an Ethiopian menu, served in a colourful room hung with traditional artwork. Konjo Ethiopian Restaurant & Craft pairs its doro wat chicken stew with Ethiopian organic coffee it roasts and brews fresh, in a modern room decorated with Ethiopian crafts. And Awash African Restaurant & Bar covers the traditional canon in full, injera through to kitfo, with African-inspired decor, indoor and outdoor seating, and staff with a reputation for looking after first-timers.
If the menus are new territory, this pocket dictionary covers the essentials:
- Injera: the spongy flatbread that doubles as your plate and cutlery, on the menu at Awash.
- Doro wat: slow-stewed chicken, the dish to measure a kitchen by, at Konjo and Awash.
- Kitfo and shiro: minced beef and chickpea stew respectively, both on the list at Awash.
- The vegan mixed plate: the easiest introduction of all, clearly labelled at Chercher.
Finish any of these meals the proper way, with Ethiopian coffee. Konjo makes it the house speciality.
The warehouse bars in between
When the noodles and injera are done, the drinking happens in converted industrial spaces. Back Alley Sally’s is a multi-level warehouse tucked down an alley in an old industrial estate, doing casual pizza and pasta alongside cocktails and craft beer, with high tables, booths and plenty of standing room. It is built for after-work drinks that quietly become dinner, and the relaxed, laid-back mood means nobody is checking the time.
Mr West Bar & Bottle Shop runs 24 taps of global beer and seasonal cocktails against exposed brick, with cheese and charcuterie boards, pickles and olives to graze on. Seating runs from bar stools and high tables to proper lounge chairs, so it suits a quick tasting paddle as much as a long session. The attached shop sells specialty spirits and hard-to-find bottles, so the night can follow you home in bottle form.
The morning after
Counterweight Vinyl & Espresso is the recovery plan: a small cafe with a disco ball spinning outside the door, breakbeats on the speakers and murals on the walls. Order a flat white, or tea or a hot chocolate if you are done with caffeine, browse the vinyl racks, and take a record home with your coffee. There is a small food menu if the morning needs more substance. Later in the day it pours beer, wine and cocktails too, because this is Footscray and the line between cafe and bar is negotiable.
Walk it yourself
This is a suburb that rewards wandering with an appetite, and the shortlist above barely scratches it. One visit will not settle the pho-versus-injera question either, which is as good an excuse as any to come back. The rest lives in the full Footscray food and drink list, and the wider Footscray guide covers what to do between meals.
