Askal

This venue is included in Good Food’s 100 Essential Restaurants list.

Askal knows Filipino food already has all the drama it needs. The brilliance is in watching it peak under fine-dining lights. Oxtail kare-kare, the peanut-rich stew, is folded into a fried bao with black garlic and fermented shrimp butterscotch.

Tempura-battered lumpia rolls hold Moreton Bay bug seasoned with five-spice; Thousand Island sauce (patriotically renamed “7000-island”) is there for the dunk. Sweet, sour, salty, fatty instincts are given room to roar. Take the showstopping dry-aged duck: skin so lacquered you can almost see your reflection, it holds a seam of longganisa sausage stuffing that gives way to juicy breast.

Fried rice, fragrant with both soft and crisped-up garlic, completes the saucy feast. Artful cocktails made with calamansi, coconut sap and ube keep pace. By the time leche flan is doused with rum and flambeed tableside, Askal has made its point: polish is no enemy of pleasure.

Good to know: Build in rooftop cocktails and snacks at upstairs sibling Inuman.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.

Last visited: July 2026

More:

• Melbourne
• Askal
• Filipino
• Accepts bookings
• Licensed
• Separate bar
• Prix fixe
• Date night
• Vegetarian-friendly
• Gluten-free options
• Wheelchair access
• Good for groups
• BYO
• Private dining room
• Good for a first date
• Long lunch
• Pre- or post-theatre
• Restaurant
• Reviews
• Good Food Guide
• 100 Essential Restaurants
• Critics’ Pick