The Where To > Melbourne Guide
WHERE TO DRINK >Stay up-to-date
DRINK > Old Palm Liquor, Brunswick East (15/20)
The northern end of East Brunswick's Lygon Street is now a busy bar and dining district. It is an area where you can stumble left or right into a smart bar that serves good food. Old Palm Liquor is one of these places that is full from the front…
The Melbourne Guide >
Melbourne is regularly voted one of the world’s most liveable cities. Home to world class art galleries, excellent restaurants, hip cocktail bars and smart designer shopping.
It is also a sports mad city with major events such as the Australian Open Tennis, Formula One Grand Prix and Boxing Day Cricket Test all vying for top billing against AFL football, Rugby League and Rugby Union. There is a reason why people say that Melbournians will turn up to the opening of a letter.
The world class NGV Art Gallery has two main locations each with excellent permanent collections and tours, with a major extension also underway.
The city has a labyrinth of laneways many of which are covered in street art and are home to designer shops, cafes, bars and restaurants.
Speaking of coffee, Melbourne’s residents are obsessive about great coffee which accounts for the number of smart cafes everywhere. Melbournians believe they invented the ‘Flat White’.
WHERE TO HAVE COFFEEIts more than just a caffinated beverage you know
CAFE > Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar, Melbourne
Perhaps Melbournes most famous cafe is Pellegrini's in Bourke Street where it has been serving old school Italian food and espresso since 1954. When you enter the long room and sit at the bar or facing the mirrored wall you might think that the decor has not…
CAFE > Hardware Société
Hardware Société redefined the concept of breakfast in Melbourne in 2009, ditching the eggs and smashed avocado on toast that was de rigour for most cafe's and instead constructing layers of flavour more akin to gourmet fine dining than usually expected at breakfast.
Where once there was just a 35…
CAFE > Wall Two 80, Balaclava
Known to most as simply ‘The Wall’ the cafe opened in 1998 as a simple hole in the wall. A place where people largely consumed a latte or flat white sitting on the pavement and eating turkish toast with the always delicious ‘jam lady jams’ and fought over…
CAFE > Bench Coffee Co, Melbourne
Bench coffee has been roasting coffee and building a brand of smart coffee houses around Melbourne including Slater Street, 580, and Saint Dreux. Now on Little Collins Street they have launched a beautiful flagship store, that you would be forgiven for thinking was in Tokyo.
Bench talk about…
WHERE TO EAT >
Tucked inside the historic Fitzroy Gardens, in a pavilion that has served refreshments to Melburnians since 1908, Yiaga is the long-awaited solo debut of Hugh Allen — the chef who ran Vue de Monde's kitchen and became the first Australian to lead two three-hatted restaurants at once before turning 30.…
Translating the perfect European wine bar experience to Australia rarely works. Predominately because we have all had so many amazing experiences at perfect little local venues in Italy, Greece, Spain or France. But Woods Yard have nailed it with all the bits you love and retaining a little Australian…
On the corner of Lygon and Faraday streets, in the ground-floor space that housed the beloved King & Godfree deli for more than a century, Delmonte has arrived: a glamorous Italian wine room built by hospitality entrepreneur Jamie Valmorbida on the bones of his own family's history.
There's a particular…
Behind a modest terrace facade on Coventry Street, in the space that once housed the experimental fine-diner Lume, Aegli has quietly become one of the most convincing Greek tables in Melbourne, a chef’s love letter to the villages and islands of home, plated with genuine restraint. Modern Hellenic cooking, done…
Beneath the heritage bones of Invicta House on Flinders Lane, Restaurant 226 (styled II.II.VI) has turned a basement into a subterranean altar to fire, and in doing so has given Melbourne a theatrical new steakhouse.
There’s a particular thrill in restaurants that commit fully to a single idea…
Twenty-five years On and 55 floors above the CBD, Vue de Monde remains the benchmark by which Melbourne fine dining measures itself: theatrical, meticulous, unapologetically expensive, and still capable of genuine surprise.
In our opinion Vue de Monde is the most complete fine-dining experience in Melbourne, and arguably in…
Marmelo is a suave, wood‑fired love letter to Portugal that feels purpose‑built for Melbourne: ambitious but relaxed, visually dramatic yet quietly comforting, and already one of the CBD’s most compelling hotel dining rooms.
In our opinion Marmelo is the best Portuguese restaurant (in Australia)
There is something about Portugal…
Blackbird Melbourne is a three-level, moodily newcomer on Flinders Lane that feels built for long, steak lunches built around fire, flesh and a little theatre. It’s the Brisbane icon reimagined for Melbourne, with an open kitchen anchored by a Josper grill, a serious cellar and a cocktail bar that leans…
Melbourne Restaurants >
With incredible fine dining options with cuisine from all over the world.
For a long time Melbourne was the city with the second largest greek population in the world, which has led to numerous Greek Restaurants on Lonsdale Street.
Lygon Street in Carlton on the city Fringe is home to numerous Italian restaurants. Victoria Street in Richmond (again on the city Fringe) is the home to the cities Vietnamese restaurants.
Melbournes Chinatown runs down Little Bourke Street and explodes out on side streets. There is also a Korean food district.
When it comes to fine dining there are restaurants with amazing views like Atria and Vue de Monde which both sit at the top of towers with spectacular views over the city.
But check our reviews for the latest in delicious.
WHERE TO STAY >
STAY > Le Méridian, Melbourne
The Le Méridien hotel sits at the top of the city in what was once a theatre, cinema, live music venue and a legendary nightclub. The former Metro sat empty for years waiting for a major redevelopment and that came in a totally different direction with the French hotel brand opening a smart new venue.
Designed by Melbourne architects Peddle Thorp, the hotel has kept the original art deco facade of the building but behind the facade it is an entirely new 12 storey building that now fills the site. There are 235 rooms which range…
STAY > The Prince, Melbourne
Fitzroy Street, St Kilda is a street that oscillates between grunge, derelict, hip, smart and fashionable and then back again. Once famed for its seedier side of life today the bayside suburb of St Kilda is a lot more gentrified though its darker edges still remain.
The Prince was once old Prince of Wales, famed for its rough front bar which had pool tables for patrons and a live rock and roll venue upstairs. But a major renovation and now it is just 'The Prince' which is a smart boutique hotel with just 39 rooms.
Designed…
STAY > Adelphi Hotel, Melbourne
The Adelphi was the first boutique designer hotel in Melbourne build into a narrow warehouse that dated back to 1938 by renowned Melbourne architects Denton Corker Marshall for a couple of decades it held that top spot for those looking for style and individuality for a hotel in the centre of the city.
In 2013 the hotel was given a revamp by Hachem who freshened the property up and gave it a new quirky style. Many of the original elements that stood out remain but it is a lot busier than previous iteration and given that renovation is now more…
STAY > Hotel No, Melbourne
The thing about Hotel No is that it is not really a hotel at all, rather it is truely unique glamping in the centre of the city. It starts with a secret 'speak easy' entrance which takes you to the rooftop and there you will find your shiny chrome Airstream.
I know you have always dreamed about having an Airstream, but you had nowhere to go, well why not go to Melbourne and stay in the very centre of the city, on a rooftop in your own Airstream. Sound good well that is the proposition for Hotel…
EAT > Alberto Lounge (Sydney)
Editors Note (25/8/24): We are saddened to hear the recent media reports and claims about Swillhouse venues. The accusations are extremely disturbing. As a result we are removing the review rating we gave for the venue.
Finding Alberto's takes a little confidence, down a back alley, a lane off another lane,…
RIDE > Its No Angell
Smart bikes are on the rise as the e-bike revolution transforms the way people get around. From the army of people delivering food to smart mountain bikes designed to make it easier on the uphill, there is now something for everyone.
The Angell Bike is brain child of Jules Trecco and Marc Simoncini who together…
EAT > Amazing Bounty (closed)
Sadly since this article Bounty in BONNIE DOON has closed its doors, the chefs and staff have all moved on to new opportunities.
Bounty Restaurant in Bonnie Doon is a very smart place both serene and delicious worth a visit for fine degustation dining.
Bonnie Doon is a small town on the edge of Lake…