Hugh Allen to Open Yiaga: A New Chapter Beneath the Trees
For the past five years, Hugh Allen has been known as the quiet force behind Vue de Monde—refining, modernising, and leading one of Australia’s most celebrated kitchens from the 55th floor of the Rialto. At just 23, he took the reins of a restaurant synonymous with luxury and precision, after time spent sharpening his craft at Noma and its satellite pop-ups in Sydney and Tulum. But after half a decade of altitude, Allen is heading back to ground level—literally.
In spring 2025, Allen will open Yiaga, his first independent venture, set within Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens. It’s been years in the making, both physically and emotionally—less a career move than a personal one. Where Vue looks out across a skyline, Yiaga will look inward, into the landscape.
The site itself has history. Originally built in 1908 as tearooms and extended in the 1920s, the building has hosted generations of diners before falling into disuse nearly a decade ago. Allen first came across it during a lockdown walk in 2019. “It reminded me of my childhood,” he says. “There was something about the stillness of it—the feeling that it was waiting for something.” That something, it turns out, was this.
Yiaga will be a restaurant grounded in place. Not just in its ingredients—local seafood, wild game, native plants and rare berries—but in its design and philosophy. Allen has enlisted architect John Wardle to lead the build, with a focus on using Victorian materials and collaborating with local makers. The bricks are inspired by the texture of surrounding tree bark. The tiles come from burnt-earth clay. Even the ceramics are shaped from the same clay used on the MCG pitch. It’s a meticulous approach, but not one for show—it’s about creating harmony with the environment, not spectacle.
What Allen is building isn’t just a restaurant—it’s something looser, more open-ended. Alongside the tasting menu, the space will host regular talks, workshops and collaborations. “We want people to feel connected to Yiaga,” he says. “Not just through dinner, but through learning and community. We’re thinking long-term—something that grows over time.”
The name Yiaga doesn’t come with a neat translation, and that’s part of the point. It’s a new word for a new space. One that exists between past and future, memory and intention. Between rustling leaves and considered design. Between the high-wire theatre of fine dining and the quiet rhythm of the land.
This isn’t Hugh Allen’s next gig—it’s the restaurant he’s been imagining for years. And now, finally, it’s coming to life.
Yiaga opens spring 2025 in Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne.
For the past five years, Hugh Allen has been known as the quiet force behind Vue de Monde—refining, modernising, and leading one of Australia’s most celebrated kitchens from the 55th floor of the Rialto. At just 23, he took the reins of a restaurant synonymous with luxury and precision, after time spent sharpening his craft at Noma and its satellite pop-ups in Sydney and Tulum. But after half a decade of altitude, Allen is heading back to ground level—literally.
