This section is the hub for Jamuan Melbourne's food guides, covering Southeast Asian cuisine, Richmond's dining precincts, and the dining formats that come up most often around Melbourne, from bottomless brunch to set lunches and group banquets. This page sets out how we approach the subject and points to the pages that are up now.
A note on "what's on"
We are not running a live events calendar. Restaurant openings, closures and promotional events move too quickly for a small independent guide to track reliably, and we would rather not publish stale event listings that mislead anyone planning a visit. Instead, this section focuses on guides with a longer shelf life: how dining formats work, what dishes mean, and where to find particular cuisines in Richmond and across the city. If a page here references a price, date or specific detail, we have tried to date it clearly rather than presenting it as permanently current.
Where the food came from
Separately from this site's own name, jamu is also the name of a traditional Indonesian herbal drink, and the two are easy to confuse: one is a herbal tonic with a long history in Java, the other was a Richmond restaurant that borrowed the word. Keeping that distinction clear matters on a site named after the Malay word for a feast, so we say it plainly rather than letting the two blur together.
Richmond dining
Richmond's eating is split across three strips that behave quite differently: Victoria Street, Swan Street and Bridge Road. Our location guide stays close to Palmer Street and the immediate surroundings, which is the practical starting point if you are heading to the area rather than reading about it.
Dining formats: brunch, dinner and long lunches
Bottomless formats come up often enough in Melbourne that we cover them from two angles. Our explainer on how bottomless brunch and dinner work is the place to start if you are unfamiliar with the format, while our guide to choosing a bottomless brunch package goes further into comparing specific venues and packages. Between them those two pages cover what the format includes, how long a sitting usually runs, and the questions worth asking a venue before you book for a group.
How this section is organised
We keep the short, practical pages separate from the longer reading, and link back to them wherever a topic overlaps. Our guide to ordering Southeast Asian dishes and our guide to booking a restaurant are the two most people actually need. If you are new to the site, the ordering guide and the location guide are reasonable places to start, depending on whether you are more interested in the food or the neighbourhood.