A man has been charged over a siege at a Melbourne restaurant where a woman was held hostage with a knife.

Abijath Desikan, 35, has been charged with false imprisonment, armed robbery and assault with a weapon.

Desikan, of no fixed address, faced an out-of-sessions hearing on Monday and was remanded in custody to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday

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The disgruntled former employee of Ludlow Bar and Dining allegedly held a 27-year-old female staffer hostage in the Southbank restaurant for almost eight hours while armed with a knife.

Negotiators convinced him to let her go at 5.30am on Monday and he was then tasered and arrested.

Desikan was wheeled out of the restaurant on a stretcher and taken to St Vincent’s Hospital, before being released from hospital and charged by police.

Victoria Police Acting Inspector Travis McCarthy said he believed he had been working at the restaurant until recently.

“At this stage it’s really the subject of an ongoing investigation but he’s disgruntled about some employment issues with the restaurant,” Insp McCarthy said.

He said it appeared the female staff member just happened to be rostered on at the time.

“There is nothing to indicate that any direct threats were made to her,” he said.

The woman, from Port Melbourne, was assessed by paramedics at the scene and was not physically injured.

But Insp McCarthy said it would have been traumatic for her to be held hostage for such a long time.

Staff and customers fled and called police when Desikan entered the restaurant carrying the weapon at 10pm on Sunday.

He made his way to a back store room where the staff member was and barricaded himself inside with her.

Police cleared the area and negotiated throughout the night to try to get him to surrender.

A former Ludlow restaurant manager named Storm, also a close friend of the hostage, said she was in “utter shock” after hearing what had happened.

Sunday nights were usually pretty quiet at the restaurant, she said.

“She’s a very strong woman, so hopefully she’ll be coping alright,” Storm told Fairfax radio.

“Nobody could imagine what it’s like to be in a situation like that.”

– with AAP