A hidden VICE for those seeking temptations of the flesh

Posted on 13 September, 2025

OK we may have gotten a little dramatic with our headline but if you crave copious amounts of Stone Axe wagyu rib eye raised in Australia’s pristine high country which is reverse-seared, rested to perfect medium-rare, and served on the bone, then we’ve got a place.

VICE is the latest project from the crew behind Molly, Highball, Amici and 88mph, and it’s all about one cut of beef, cooked one way. You choose your weight and they bring it to you, served the way it tastes best.

There will be no quibbling about parts of the beast to savour, or discussion of medium-to-well (sacrilege!) Instead, the only thing you need focus your mind on is which sauce to pour: Diane, Pepper, Mushroom or Brandy Jus. Leave the rest to the experts.

Heavenly Father, for what we are about to receive…

VICE is tucked away in Odgers Lane, right next to Molly, and built for those who like their dining a little hidden, and a little cheeky. This memorable fit-out is heaven and earth away from this space’s previous incarnation as Bleachers Sports Bar.

Gone are the booths and TV screens, instead you enter a serene and dark designer’s lair. Lots of inky blue walls and curtains, low lights and large portraits of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (we don’t know who these nuns actually are but suggest this would be a fitting order).

The sin of gluttony doesn’t count at VICE

A long bar takes one side of the expansive dining room, while a beautiful and luxe private dining room at the other end can be shrouded in curtains for some quiet reflection and perhaps a Holy Communion with a bold Barossa Shiraz.

The seats are perfect for long meals – leather bound with padded backs and arm rests which make you wonder why all the other restaurant chairs you’ve sat on in recent months aren’t more comfortable…

Mostly, VICE should be enjoyed for its minimalist approach, which really puts the focus on fine dishes done well. Starters consist of focaccia with a quail tallow candle which slowly releases an unctuous oil over the bread. There’s a potato galette with beef tenderloin tartare, warm olives with preserved lemon, and a toasted bone marrow with agrodolce.

Let us pray…

For mains you have a choice of rib eye.

Actually, that’s not true, they also serve a slightly more relaxed main of a cheeseburger with dry aged beef, Egmont cheese, Gentlemen’s Relish (think lots of anchovy), butter lettuce and onion.

Then it’s a matter of choosing your sides. While vegetarians may be self-flagellating at this stage of the story, keep the faith. There are a number of great sides which can constitute a good meal alongside your carnivorous mates. Cauliflower with Raclette, roasted pumpkin with pepita seeds and stracciatella (it comes with nduja but can be served without and is delicious), broccolini with lemon and pecorino and two salads – rocket with pear, pine nuts and parmesan and gem lettuce with candied walnuts pecorino and agrodolce – are all excellent. And then, of course, there are potatoes.

VICE understands that well-done spuds are often religious experiences – so take your pick of duck fat roasted chats with rosemary, creamy potato puree with chives, or hand cut fries with oregano and lemon.

Vegans, it must be said, do not seem welcome in this church of wagyu.

Desserts are a cheese platter or a slab of the most ridiculously rich vanilla bean flan which is theatrically cut off a giant slab at the table before being sprinkled with smoked salt and spritzed with Irish whiskey. Positively evil and worth going back for the very next night.

The vanilla flan is wickedly good.

VICE opened for the first time last night and will undoubtedly draw a new crowd to this corner of the Melbourne Building to enjoy a polished meal before diners loosen their ties and let their hair down at Molly upstairs.