As a Sydneysider who inevitably loses her bearings every time she visits, there’s something comforting about watching the city’s grid unfold beneath you. The CBD sparkles with glass towers, highways glow red with streams of brake lights, and the suburbs stretch so far towards every horizon they seem almost endless. It’s part geography lesson, part jaw-dropping spectacle.

It’s a view that’s long been the headline act at Atria, perched atop The Ritz-Carlton Melbourne. But the plates that arrive to the table are giving the panorama a serious run for its money.

The hotel’s signature restaurant has welcomed acclaimed chef David Green into the kitchen, ushering in a new era centred on Victoria’s producers and an immersive dining experience called Table Nineteen.

If you’ve ever wished you could pull up a chair inside the kitchen without sacrificing white tablecloths and impeccable service, this is about as close as it gets.

Each Friday and Saturday night, just 10 diners are seated along Atria’s 19-metre chef’s table, carved from a single windfallen Victorian Ash sourced from the Yarra Ranges. From here, every finishing touch, flourish and final garnish happens within arm’s reach, transforming dinner into quiet theatre.

Green is well qualified to stage the performance. Raised in Mount Macedon, he trained in some of Britain’s most celebrated Michelin-starred kitchens before returning home to spend more than a decade leading the kitchen at Lake House Daylesford, where he helped cement its reputation as one of Australia’s great regional dining destinations.

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The menu reads like a road trip through Victoria. Port Phillip Bay scallops, Tuki freshwater rainbow trout and Western Port Bay red mullet celebrate the state’s waterways, while mushrooms foraged from the Macedon Ranges – where Green grew up – bring a deeply personal note to the menu.

His Farmhouse Egg is already shaping up to become a signature, pairing chestnut mushrooms, quail egg and Kipfler potato in a dish that channels the pastured farms surrounding Melbourne.

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Later comes Moorabool Valley duck with orange-braised endive and foie gras crème brûlée, alongside wood-fired Terramirra venison finished with trompette mushroom ash and an unexpectedly comforting bread-and-butter pudding, and dessert continues the regional story with dishes such as a fresh take on pavlova bursting with finger lime, or chestnut montée and Davidson plum sorbet.

The city skyline still commands plenty of attention. But somewhere between the first course and dessert, you’ll realise the view has quietly slipped into second place.

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