HAPPENINGS
For the first time, we will be opening for Christmas lunch with a distinctively ARU twist.
From an Asian Fruits de Mer platter to start to a crisp pork belly & wood roasted pork scotch as a main (glazed with five spice & hoisin), this Christmas menu – with debut dishes – is something we cannot wait to share with you.
This year, we invite you to celebrate Christmas with a difference.
Thursday 25 December
1st seating – From 11.30am
2nd seating – From 1.45pm
$295
All seatings are two hours each, dietary requirements welcome with advance notice.
Lunch offers a choice from our à la carte selection or celebratory set menu, with dinner exclusively reserved for set menu dining.
Start with spanner crab toast with sea urchin, wagyu with crispy rice, and bluefin tuna with yuzu kosho, with king prawns and an expanded take on our signature duck to follow.
Add the extras — Sydney Rock oysters with calamansi mignonette, caviar with fried potato croissants, or a MB7+ Wagyu striploin with Cambodian black pepper. Our sommeliers will also be there to guide you through our 600+ bottle wine list, whether your choice be one of the special Champagnes we are bringing in for the season, a bottle brought out from our cellars, or a magnum.
Whether you join us in the day or evening, this New Year’s Eve at Aru is a celebration of flavour, fire, and the joy of gathering around the table.
It’s been a pleasure to serve you this year.
Wednesday 31 December
$155
All seatings are two hours each, dietary requirements welcome with advance notice.
We’re thrilled to welcome fine-dining Los Angeles-based chef, H Woo to Aru’s kitchen for a one-night crossover.
Self-taught, H Woo first started cooking and presenting his fine-dining dishes via underground supper club Maru Los Angeles, eventually garnering attention as a content creator. He has since collaborated with world-renowned restaurants across Spain and the United States.
Over dinner at Aru, he will be bringing his inventive approach, drawing on the cuisine that inspires him most: Japan.
Expect dishes including Blue Fin Tuna Tartare with Antonius Caviar and Lacto Tomato Gelee, Matsukasa Tilefish with Smoked Dashi Butter, and more. Aru’s signature dishes have also been re-spun, the Spanner Crab Toast topped with uni, the Dry Aged Duck with a Confit Duck Korroke with Fermented Truffle Jus and Shiso, and the Claypot Broken Rice with Dashi Marinated Salmon Roe and H Woo’s ‘Mum’s XO’.
Presented in partnership with Mise en Place Gourmet Food, supplier of Antonius Caviar for the evening.
Friday 23 January
From 6pm | $195
Food & beverage pairing available | $300
Private Dining
Ensconced away in Aru is our private dining room, Banda, which fully closes up to the rest of the restaurant. The rich, timber-encased space seats 12, with doors that offer seclusion.
Banda opens up onto The Terrace – an impressive landing with a view of our cellar. Here, you’ll find a grand long table set-up, a favourite amongst wedding parties, birthdays and celebrations of all sorts. The Terrace is separated from the dining room by a mesh curtain and seats 30. Both spaces can be booked separately or together.
We are delighted to offer additions for event bookings, including a wood fire grilled signature black rib eye MB4, and a Fire & Grain whisky pairing experience, where a special menu is paired with premium whiskies from The Balvenie. Both of these additions require advance notice.
In The Press
The Age Good Food Guide 2026 – Two Hats
The Age Good Food Guide 2025 – Two Hats
Australia’s Wine List of the Year 2025 – Three Glasses
The Age Good Food Guide 2023 – Two Hats
The Age Good Food Guide 2023 – Victoria’s Restaurant of the Year
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants – 50 Best Discovery
Gourmet Traveller – Review
The Age Good Food – Review
About
Named after the group of islands which ancient seafarers frequented as part of the Sino-Indonesian-Australian route, Aru draws on the cuisine of the three regions. Asian dishes deftly flecked with native Australian ingredients, grilled or finished over the wood-fired hearth.
In this beautiful, moody space of marble, mesh, wood and brick lies some of the city’s most renowned dishes and an impressive cellar list – a destination for a coming together of cuisines and cultures.
Gift Cards
Gift a dining experience at Aru with our digital gift cards, sent immediately to you or a recipient of your choice.
Gift cards are valid for 3 years from the date of purchase.