JAMU was a restaurant on Palmer Street in Richmond, Melbourne, trading through the late 2010s and into the early 2020s before it closed. This page is an independent historical account, drawn from the restaurant's own former web content and press coverage at the time. Jamuan Melbourne is not JAMU restaurant and has no connection to its former owners or operators. We maintain this record because the restaurant's story is part of the history of dining in Richmond, and because the site you are reading now sits on the domain JAMU once used.
Concept and ownership
According to Broadsheet's coverage at the time, JAMU was opened by former Hawthorn AFL players James Frawley and Isaac Smith, alongside Evelyn Lau, who also ran the nearby restaurant A Thousand Blessings. The restaurant's own branding leaned on the Malay word "jamu," which the site described as carrying a meaning tied to feasting and gathering, and the concept was pitched as a modern Asian-Australian kitchen with a strong Malaysian thread running through the menu.
The space
JAMU occupied a ground-floor space within an apartment building on Palmer Street, seating around 70 guests across indoor and outdoor areas. The fit-out was designed by One Design Office (ODO), who built the room around a circular motif meant to evoke a gathering place, using copper and mesh screens inspired by partition techniques from traditional Chinese architecture, paired with custom solid timber tables. Copper was a deliberate material choice, referencing its role in early Southeast Asian metallurgy. The overall mood was kept dark and moody by design, a departure from the brighter, pared-back look of many contemporary Melbourne dining rooms at the time.
The menu
JAMU's food was consistently described in press coverage as a fusion of Malaysian flavour and modern Australian technique. Dishes reported on by Concrete Playground and other outlets included kingfish ceviche, pork belly bao, baked roti, a tamarind caramel pork hock, and a 1.2kg wagyu tomahawk steak for sharing, alongside a $58 "Feed Me" set menu for guests who preferred not to choose individually. The cheeseburger spring rolls, a dish that folded a distinctly Australian reference into a Malaysian format, came up repeatedly in reviews as a standout and something of a signature item. Breakfast service, reported by Time Out, included sambal scrambled eggs and housemade crumpets, and the restaurant also ran a bottomless brunch format on weekends that drew a loyal following, a format we cover more generally on our bottomless brunch and dinner explainer.
Coverage in design and food media
JAMU received attention from both food and design press during its time trading. Broadsheet and Time Out both profiled it as a Melbourne restaurant listing, covering the menu and the concept behind it. Concrete Playground covered the venue's bottomless brunch and happy hour offerings in its Melbourne restaurant guide. On the design side, the fit-out by One Design Office was featured in architecture and design-focused outlets covering the project, reflecting the attention the space's interior drew independently of the food. We have not been able to confirm a specific feature in every major design title sometimes associated with venues like this, and we would rather say that plainly than attribute a quote we cannot verify. For a more detailed, source-by-source breakdown of what was written about JAMU and where, see our JAMU press coverage guide.
Closure
JAMU's listing on Concrete Playground was later updated to mark the restaurant as closed, with that update dated to October 2023, though we have not been able to confirm an exact closure date beyond that. Independent restaurants in inner Melbourne close for all sorts of reasons, and we have not found a public statement from JAMU's operators explaining the decision, so we are not going to speculate on one here. What we can say with confidence is that the restaurant operated for several years on Palmer Street, built a genuine following for its bottomless brunch and its Malaysian-Australian menu, and left behind a body of press coverage worth reading if you are interested in Richmond's dining history.
What this site is instead
Jamuan Melbourne picked up this domain after JAMU closed and now uses it for an independent guide to Southeast Asian food and dining in Richmond and Melbourne more broadly, including the kind of dishes JAMU itself served. If you want the wider context on the area JAMU operated in, our guide to Richmond's dining precincts covers Palmer Street and the surrounding strips, and our home page is the best starting point for the rest of the guide.