From the source.

Melbourne is one of the world’s great food cities with a broad and deep dining culture from fast and cheap street food to fine dining establishments. It is also a city that, more and more, is celebrating the rich and diverse resource of fresh seafood that is caught in the waters off our coast and raised in inland aquaculture facilities. Our top chefs understand the huge difference in quality that fresh, local seafood offers and make a point of using it to star on their menus. They often buy directly from Victorian fishers but also use retail outlets located around the metro area and peninsulas. Here’s a quick list of go to Vic seafood dishes and Vic seafood retailers.

The West Coast of Victoria boasts some of the best fishing in the country with three commercial fisheries based along the shores. Fresh seafood from southern rock lobsters to abalone to gummy shark and calamari is caught off the coast of the fishing ports of Apollo Bay, Warrnambool, Port Fairy and Portland. With the opportunity to dine on delicious local seafood and buy Victorian seafood direct from the boat, from fishermen’s co-ops and from fish processors a seafood trip along the Great Ocean Road is one to put on the list.

The busy fishing port of Lakes Entrance is home to a fleet of small to medium fishing boats that work the waters just off the coast and further offshore around Bass Strait. A colourful array of boats anchor in the sheltered harbour in the heart of this East Gippsland seaside village and bring in a large selection of seafood harvested from the cool, clean waters. While a lot of the catch is sent to markets in Melbourne and Sydney, a good portion stays in the region supplying local restaurants making this one of the best places in Victoria to dine on fresh, straight-from-the-boat, local seafood.