May 21, 2026
This year we celebrated Michael's birthday early, with dinner at Manzé. This Mauritian restaurant is best known for its seafood, but it's actually got a seasonal vegan set menu ($105 per person) on offer too. (Another bonus - they have a bar called Boire across the street, where we met up first and I had a stunning plum daiquiri.) Contrary to the end-of-evening photo above, Manzé was crowded with furniture, people and music, with most dining couples seated at a central communal table.
The first wave of our set menu was served across three plates: vegetable fritters were served with hot sauce, cabbage was pickled vindaye-style (a technique usually applied to fish), and pickled fruits were teamed with a blob of salted feijoa chutney - the bright and hot pickley flavours lifted any heaviness from the fried batter.
The second wave was my favourite. It centred around cari gros pois, a rich and savoury butter bean curry encircled with sorrel chutney and topped with fioretto (cauli blossom). There was a gorgeous, soft dal puri (lentil flatbread) to scoop it up, interspersed with side dishes of bredes songes (sour winter greens and ginger) and achard piment (green apple and chilli pickle).
The staff accidentally had us waiting a while for our main, having mistakenly served it to another couple at the table. We weren't fazed, and Michael was comped a lovely dessert wine later by way of apology. We worked through the meaty, well-marinated oyster mushrooms slowly, and I especially enjoyed the accompanying roasted persimmon chutney. Rice and a modest green salad rounded this out to a full meal of its own.
The vegan set menu had us anticipating salted coconut sorbet and plum but, since we self-reported as vegetarians, I think they lined us up with the standard dessert. This was more of a panna cotta - though it's not my favourite kind of dessert this one was special, and beautifully set off with the scaled arrangement of plum slices on top.
We were unsure whether a seafood-free meal at Manzé would measure up but it really did! This menu was unlike anything we've been served before, and it's designed to cycle with the seasons, so Manzé will be well worth a revisit.
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Manzé has also received a positive review from Kulture Kween.
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Manzé
Shop 2/1/5 Errol St, North Melbourne
Shop 2/1/5 Errol St, North Melbourne
0401 749 051
Accessibility: Manzé has a step up on entry. The interior is crowded and loud, mostly densely packed regular height tables and backed chairs, plus one high table with backless stools. We ordered and paid at our table. We didn't visit the toilets.
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