The best bars in Melbourne

Melbourne is designed on a grid, which makes it a great walking city – and a great drinking city. Between the historic corner pubs, stellar wine bars, world-class cocktail venues and specialty spirits dens, you won’t have to stumble far to find your next great drink. Expect warm service, a friendly chat and the night to get out of hand when you settle in – Melbourne hospitality has its own unique charm that can either lead you to your next drink or have you closing down the bar with the owners. Before getting started, make sure to check out some of the best restaurants the city has to offer. If you don’t know where to start, the CBD has a bar to suit every need, whether you’re searching for wine, whisky or the perfect cocktail.

CBD

Caretaker’s Cottage

Best for: Excellent cocktails and unrivalled chat in the smallest pub in Melbourne
Location: 139-141 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, 3000
Price: All cocktails 25 AUD each

Caretaker’s Cottage calls itself a pub, but it serves some of the best cocktails in Melbourne. In a bluestone building behind a church in the middle of the CBD, owners Rob Libecans, Ryan Noreiks and Matt Stirling bring their collective knowledge gained from working in some of the best bars in the world to their well crafted menu. Cocktails change monthly with a mainstay of a few classics, including one of the best martinis you can order in town – each priced at 25 AUD. Music is played from an ever-growing vinyl collection and Guinness is poured with precision. If you can only make it to one bar in Melbourne, make it this one.

One or Two

Best for: As the name suggests, one or two drinks
Location: 18 Celestial Avenue, Melbourne, 3000
Price: Drinks from 12 AUD

In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it laneway next to an HK-style cafe is a narrow, 26-seater cocktail bar inspired by the small bars of Japan. The idea of One or Two is for you to stop by for one or two drinks with one or two people (the largest group it can accommodate is four). The drinks on offer are limited, organised as ‘all-time’ (classics), ‘original’ (the bar’s creations), ‘reimagined’ (twists on classics), guest bar (drinks from a famous bar in Asia), highballs, wine and beer. Due to the size of the venue, no deviations can be made from the menu: in the words of owner Andy Chu, “It’s like dining at grandma’s house: you get what you’re given.” Good thing is, the drinks are so expertly made, you’re guaranteed to like it.

Bijou Bottle Store

Best for: A break in between exploring the city
Location: 194 Little Collins Street, Melbourne 3000
Price: Drinks from 12 AUD

It’s hard to find a wine bar that’s just a wine bar in this city; Melbourne loves to tack on a full restaurant menu to wine bar concepts, which is great, but sometimes, you just want a glass of wine and a snack to go with it – no pressure, no strings, just wine. Thankfully, Bijou offers just that. Pick a bottle off the wall, ask the staff to crack it (drink-in is 25 AUD corkage on top of the retail price) and enjoy it with a snack like chicken liver parfait or a toastie. Cocktails are kept simple and the only ones on offer are those made stirred down. Prefer your drinks stiffer? You can wander down the laneway to Gin Palace, Bar Ampere or Black Kite Commune, which is also owned by the Bijou team.

Whisky and Alement

Best for: Browsing and drinking a library of whisky
Location: 270 Russell Street, Melbourne 3000
Price: Nips from 11 AUD

Do you like your whisky sweet, smoky, spicy or fruity? Whisky and Alement has it all. With more than 500 whiskies on offer from all over the world, encompassing classics to independent bottlings, not only is Whisky and Alement home to some of the rarest whiskies, they also house the largest collection in Australia of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (a private single cask whisky club). Feel a little overwhelmed? Don’t worry, the team are friendly enough to talk you through the most basic of drams, or nerd it up with you if you’re a hardcore devotee to the ‘water of life’, without making you feel out of place. Love something you’ve tried so much you want to take it home with you? The bar sells whiskies by the bottle due to its handy retail license.

Apollo Inn

Best for: Luxe cocktails in a discrete lounge
Location: 165 Flinders Lane, Melbourne 3000
Price: Drinks from 24 AUD

Where do you go when you can’t get into the world-recognised, CBD fine-diner Gimlet? The answer is its dedicated cocktail bar next door: Apollo Inn. You won’t spot the entrance unless you’re looking for it; leather-wrapped doors are set back from the street and found through a foyer, but when you do, you’ll be greeted by a host and led to one of the 30 seats. The atmosphere is dark and opulent: low lighting, stone surfaces, velvet curtains, and crystal glassware. The drinks are equally lavish, with a wine selection from Gimlet’s beverage director Leanne Altmann, and old-world cocktails mixed with a new world touch from Cameron Parish. With four types of martini on offer, it would be rude not to. The snacks are merely snacks, though, so come before or after dinner unless you plan on eating an entire menu of conservative, but delicious, bites.

Union Electric

Best for: A rowdy time, rooftop optional
Location: 13 Heffernan Lane, Melbourne, 3000
Price: Drinks from 12 AUD

Melbourne is synonymous with laneways, and Union Electric has captured that vibe in its open-air, exposed-brick bar. If you’re a sun chaser, the bar’s got you sorted with a rooftop slice in the sky that becomes hot property in the warmer months. The bar team is full of energy and always encourages guests to get loose – not a difficult feat when aperitivo ‘hour’ runs for two (5-7pm on weekdays) and drinks range from 6 to 10 AUD. The focus here is on freshly pressed fruit juices, gin and rum; think of the drinks as modern tiki without the cultural appropriation. Cocktails change seasonally, but if you’re a stickler for the tried and true, Union Electric makes the best pina colada in Melbourne. As for food, the bar encourages you to bring take out from neighbouring venues (it’s in the middle of Chinatown, bordering the Greek precinct), but your food choice must abide by one rule: no kebabs.

Collingwood

Above Board

Best for: Refined cocktails in a hidden bar
Location: 1/306 Smith Street, Collingwood, 3066
Price: All cocktails 25 AUD each 

To find Above Board, you enter via craft beer bar Beer Mash, and go all the way to the back and up the stairs. Or you can walk through Chopper Lane, past a bunch of skip bins, into the back of Beer Mash, past the toilets and up the stairs. Very, very Melbourne. What makes it even more Melbourne is that there’s only 16 seats, no reservations, no standing and large groups are not recommended. Thankfully, wait times are short as people generally only stay for a few drinks. Everything about this speakeasy is sleek and minimal, including the approach to drinks. Don’t be fooled, there is depth, elegance and complexity in what appears to be a deceptively simple-looking drink. These include the HSL Special – a signature cocktail that combines absinthe, creme de mure, Montenegro and lime – and is why Above Board consistently ends up on the World’s 50 Best lists.

Paradise Alley

Best for: When you want to feel like you’re at a party without going to a party
Location: 25 Easy Street, Collingwood, 3066
Price: Drinks from 7 AUD

In the backstreets of Collingwood, you’ll find a warehouse where the drinks are cheap, the staff are friendly, the pool is free (on Thursdays), the music is pumping and it feels like a party. There is a strong sense of community in this bar, because owner Laura Twomey has fostered it. If you come here for one drink, you’ll end up staying for ten. You’ll make friends just standing in line to order and you’ll do it all again on Sunday because the recovery sessions are legendary. Drinks flow freely and are of a high standard. Wines are from interesting small producers, beers are reliable (Melbourne Bitter longnecks) and sometimes quirky (think lamington dark ale) and there are decent non-alcoholic offerings. Head to Paradise when you’re up to get down.

Fitzroy

The Elysian Whisky Bar

Best for: Rare and unique whisky bottlings
Location: 113 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Price: Drinks from 12 AUD

The best place to sit at The Elysian is at the long redwood bar. Come here to admire the 350-bottle collection of rare and unique whiskies and chat to the owners, Kelvin Low and Yao Wong. Each bottle has been hand selected, sometimes even brought back in a suitcase from their travels, and probably impossible to taste anywhere else in the city. The stories that come along with each recommendation are as distinctive as the drams themselves. And while whisky is often viewed as an expensive drinking habit, Low and Wong keep the prices as low and accessible as they can. There are always refreshing seasonal highballs on the menu, as well as a beer and cocktail list that is not to be ignored. The Elysian also makes one of the most interesting, delicious espresso martinis around, utilising Milo and condensed milk. Don’t sleep on it.

Carlton

Bar Bellamy

Best for: Old-time hospitality in a neighbourhood setting
Location: 164 Rathdowne Street, Carlton, 3053
Price: Drinks from 6 AUD

It may be in a suburban neighbourhood, but Bar Bellamy punches like a city venue. Couple and owners Dani and Oska Whitehart are life-long hospitality workers who have long dreamed of Bellamy. Both the food and drinks menu rotate often, which means that no two visits are the same. The cocktails are made with a deft hand due to Oska’s cocktail background, and the food is European in influence, with no specific anchor. You may be eating chicken parfait in a cannoli or accompanying your choucroute garni with a pretzel. Drinking at Bellamy feels like walking into an episode of Cheers, but it’s the Break-Even Mondays that make you feel like family – a night the crew run where a glass and dish of something special is sold at cost price. So far, it’s been anything from lobster and champagne to spring lamb and Ar.Pe.Pe Nebbiolo. The only way to keep across it is to check Instagram. Cheers to that.

Bar Olo

Best for: Feeling like you’re in a stylish, Italian club
Location: 165 Nicholson Street, Carlton, 3053
Price: Drinks from 16 AUD

Bar Olo is an Italian bar that draws inspiration from Piedmont, where the Barolo grape is from, and is owned by the team who run long-standing favourite Scopri, just a stone’s throw away. The entrance is curtained, the wood is stained, the tables are clothed. Combined with the parquet floor, it feels like you’re in an exclusive club, an appropriate setting to down any of the barolos by the glass (yes, there is more than one), tuck into an aperitivo and cushion it with an obligatory serving of vitello tonnato – thin slices of veal dressed with a creamy, tuna sauce, accented with fried capers. If you don’t want to leave, it’s possible to make a meal out of the food on offer. If that’s your plan, don’t skip the agnolotti del plin – it’s been brought over from the Scopri menu and has a cult following in Melbourne.

Carlton North

Gerald’s Bar

Best for: More drinks than you bargained for with a side of mischief
Location: 386 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North, 3054
Price: Drinks from 8 AUD

Gerald’s might be a neighbourhood bar, but it has international appeal as the preferred party place for all visiting chefs. Could it be the wide variety of local and international wines on offer, the menu that changes daily according to what produce looks good, or the rollicking tunes played from vinyl behind the bar? It might possibly be all these things. But most of all, it could be that when Gerald Diffey – owner, proprietor and hospitality legend – is in the building, you’re guaranteed a wild story or ten, a fortifying drink, and the essence of cool. People tend to get carried away here, so don’t be embarrassed if you make a fool of yourself at Gerald’s. Everyone has. After all, what happens at Gerald’s stays at Gerald’s.

Brunswick East

Bahama Gold

Best for: A laid-back time with serious drinks
Location: 135 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, 3057
Price: Drinks from 11 AUD

When a venue boasts a Klipsch Soundsystem, you know it takes its music very seriously. Bahama Gold selects its tunes from a notable vinyl collection, which keeps this unassuming bar jumping. Stop in for a bottle (it also functions as a bottle shop), a cocktail and a snack. Beers on tap are local and change often. The wine selection is abundant and low intervention. To shop by the bottle, walk through the bar to the fridges and shelves in the back and pluck something straight off the wall. Once paid for, you’re given appropriately formatted wine glasses, which is one of the considered touches that makes Bahama Gold a local favourite.

Footscray

Mr West

Best for: A boozy time with friends
Location: 106 Nicholson Street Mall, Footscray, 3011
Price: Drinks from 6 AUD

When Mr West first opened in 2017, it was accused of gentrifying the suburb. Years later, it’s been embraced by the second-generation community who have grown up in Footscray. Mr West has become a local watering hole. It helps that its own food offering is limited, so guests are encouraged to support local businesses by using delivery apps, or by scanning the QR code on the table to have whole NY-style pizzas delivered to their table from Slice Shop Pizza across the street. The bar is split into two levels. Upstairs, Mr West will impress with its large selection of craft beers, natural wines and awesome cocktails. Downstairs, you’ll find a bottle shop selling small-producer wines and artisanal spirits. It’s a great spot for large groups and catch ups as the bar is sizable, there is something for everyone and it’s open seven days a week.