The Best Places in Melbourne & around

1. The 50 #19 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · International Bartender of the Year · Rob Libecans
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Cocktail Bar

Andrew McConnell's fine dining room inside the grand Cavendish House on Russell Street turns on an open fire grill and dry-aged Victorian and South Australian beef, which landed Gimlet a spot on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list. The room manages to feel glamorous without feeling stiff, and the wine list reads like someone actually thought about what goes with the food rather than just buying everything.

1. World's 101 Best #62 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Perched at the top of Collins Street overlooking St. Patrick's Cathedral, this luxury hotel is the kind of Melbourne landmark that many locals somehow can't place, which keeps the grand split-level lobby pleasantly uncrowded. Rooms run oversized, mixing Art Deco bones with Japanese-style sliding panels and Italian marble bathrooms. A 25-meter edgeless pool hides on an upper floor, and the suites come with fireplaces or terraces that feel almost satirically generous.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Rooms start on floor 65, which means the Dandenong Ranges and Port Phillip Bay are your default wallpaper at this luxury hotel in the Melbourne CBD. The interiors, designed by Melbourne firm Bar Studio, mix airy elegance with First Nations and local art so it doesn't feel like every other Ritz-Carlton on earth. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Tucked into a Melbourne shopping complex in a way that makes passersby do a double-take, Byrdi is a cocktail bar built around seasonality and local ingredients handled with the kind of precision that blurs the line between bar and kitchen lab. The team behind Singapore's Operation Dagger runs the show, and the drinks follow an almost culinary logic. It landed on the World's 50 Best Bars list, which tells you the curious head-twist is worth acting on.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The 50 #91 · The World's 50 Best Bars
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Cocktail Bar – APAC

Two circular windows stare out from the red-brick facade like the building is watching you back. Hyde Melbourne Place is a 16-story hotel above Flinders Lane where the rooms are individually styled, suites open onto city-facing patios, and the lobby runs video installations the way other lobbies run cable news. Burnt orange, deep green, and velvet blue throughout. The rooftop draws the after-work crowd, and a penthouse that looks borrowed from a film set tops it all off. It holds a Michelin Key.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A pink London taxi idles outside the entrance, which tells you most of what you need to know about The Langham Melbourne's approach to subtlety. This luxury hotel sits along the Yarra in Southbank, close enough to the Arts District and the famous laneways to feel central. Chandeliers and floor-to-ceiling flower arrangements fill the lobby, rooms come with marble soaking tubs, and the Club Lounge serves evening drinks on a schedule precise enough to set your watch by.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Floor 55 of the Rialto Towers, with views stretching from the Docklands to the Dandenongs, and the interior lined in kangaroo leather and local stone. Vue de Monde is a fine dining tasting menu restaurant where the French technique that built its reputation has given way to something more distinctly Australian: macadamia, kelp, marron, Tasmanian mountain pepper. The room is theatrical enough that you'll want to dress for it.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 18/20 · Four Chef Hats
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Australian Good Food Guide 16/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 17/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat
2. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 17/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 17/20 · Three Chef Hats

A red thread of light twists across the ceiling of this moody Japanese fine dining room on Flinders Lane, its glow picked up by red plates below. Black marble, dark granite, and plush banquettes set the tone for a seasonal Kojin menu that moves between small plates and larger composed dishes. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it two chef hats, and the room feels like it was designed with that ambition in mind from the start.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

Fire anchors the kitchen at this hotel fine dining room in Melbourne's CBD, where the menu moves through Australian land and sea with the restraint of a place that doesn't need to shout. The produce comes from named farmers and fishermen around the country, and the cooking lets that lineage do the work. An Australian Good Food Guide Two Hat restaurant, with a wine list that takes provenance as seriously as the food does.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

Flower Drum has been a Melbourne institution long enough that regulars book the same table year after year and the staff already know what they want. It's a formal Cantonese restaurant tucked into a lane off Chinatown, white-tablecloth serious, where the roast duck is carved tableside and the service runs like the dining room has something to prove. The Australian Good Food Guide awards it two Chef Hats, and the room's quiet confidence suggests it has never needed to mention that.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

A Collins Street address tucked between designer boutiques, with laneway bars on either side doing their best to slow you down before check-in. This is old-school Melbourne luxury, and the Grand Hyatt has been around forever, yet the rooms and common areas read as modern rather than museum-piece. The staff retention is the real tell: some team members have been here for decades, which at a hotel this size is less a fact and more a personality trait.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

1. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

Whole-leaf oolong and black teas sourced from Kenya and Taiwan are the anchor here, not a backdrop to something else. Oxi Tea Room is a high tea spot in Carlton where the tea is treated with the seriousness usually reserved for wine, and the housemade desserts lean into native Australian ingredients, lemon myrtle, green ants, and all. It holds two Chef Hats from the Australian Good Food Guide, which tracks for a room that takes the kettle this seriously.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

The art on the walls at Di Stasio Città isn't decoration; it's the whole argument. This upscale Italian restaurant in the CBD is a personal project from the Di Stasio family, who have been a fixture in Melbourne's dining scene for decades, filtering Venetian cooking through something distinctly Australian. The room has a museum quality that makes you sit up straighter, and the food meets it there.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

Bare timber walls and a cellar curated by an Australian winemaker and a French natural wine specialist set the tone at this wine-forward bar and kitchen in Melbourne's CBD. The list wanders freely from Spanish cava to Mornington Peninsula bottles that rarely leave the maker's circle of friends. The kitchen runs on flame and ferment, small plates that earn their keep alongside a glass. Bookings are taken for lunch, which is worth knowing before you show up hoping for a table.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

White linen and polished service set the tone at this long-running Venetian Italian in the heart of the city, where the cooking stays close to the lagoon, pasta and all. The menu leans into the kind of regional specificity that doesn't need to announce itself, and the room runs with quiet assurance. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

Exposed brick and copper fittings across two levels, with furniture shipped over from India, set the tone at this Indian-inspired bar and restaurant on Gertrude Street. The kitchen moves between tradition and improvisation, pairing familiar subcontinental flavors with the kind of lateral thinking Fitzroy restaurants tend to reward. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat. Go when you want spice with your natural wine.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

A high-glam modern Pan-Asian restaurant on Flinders Lane from the team behind Cha Ching, where share plates move through bold Eastern flavours grounded in local ingredients. The room leans into occasion, so the crowd tends to dress accordingly. Clay pot duck and scallops with coconut bisque show the kitchen's range. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

The art deco bones of Equity Chambers on Bourke Street give this contemporary Australian restaurant more grandeur than it probably needs, and it leans in accordingly. The menu runs Italian-inflected, from breakfast through dinner, with the kind of crowd that treats eggs Benedict as a reasonable way to start a Wednesday. Evenings shift toward crudo and house-made pasta with enough anchovy to mean it.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

Vivid wall murals and a glowing open bar set the mood at this Asian small-plates restaurant inside the Mövenpick Hotel, where the menu wanders from Vietnamese to Sri Lankan without apology. The kitchen leans on traditional techniques while nudging dishes in unexpected directions, beef rendang alongside ceviche with desert lime preserve. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat, and the Vietnamese espresso martini is a reasonable way to start.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

A Josper grill anchors the kitchen at this Latin American fire-cooking restaurant near Smith Street, where the smoke and the playlist both run loud. Tasting menus, à la carte, bottomless brunch on weekends, tacos on Tuesdays, Wagyu on Wednesdays: they keep the calendar full enough that regulars barely need to think. The cocktails have attitude to match. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

Dry-aged seafood sits at the center of everything here, a Japanese restaurant on Queen Street where the counter omakase and chirashi bowls draw a quiet, loyal lunch crowd from the surrounding offices. The menu runs from quick sashimi plates to a full omakase sitting, so the room works for both a grabbed weekday meal and something slower. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat, which tracks with the precision on the plate.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

Hand rolls you build yourself, from platters of seafood and Wagyu laid out at your own pace, served on ceramics the kitchen threw in its own pottery studio. Temaki Sushi is an intimate omakase-style hand roll restaurant on Little Collins Street, running a seasonal menu tied to produce from the team's farm in the Dandenong Ranges. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat, which feels about right for a place this quietly sure of itself.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

A shiny silver ball motif threads through the whole property, turning up in the lobby ceiling, the fruit basket, and, if you've booked the right penthouse, an actual in-room pinball machine. This CBD hotel runs on apartment logic: open-plan rooms, full kitchens in the bigger suites, free minibars, and bold local art on the walls. Spa people will need to look elsewhere, but everyone else gets a place that feels genuinely lived-in rather than merely occupied.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The Art Deco façade on Bourke Street is the opening argument, and the hotel mostly follows through. Mid-century modernism carries into the rooms, where the light fixtures alone justify a moment of appreciation. The rooftop pool deck is where everyone ends up at dusk, heated water and cocktails making a persuasive case for staying put. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The elevators crack jokes here, which either sets the tone or warns you off entirely. QT Melbourne is a design hotel inside a 1930s cinema, with neon sculptures, 6,000 books on a single wall, and rooms that go unexpectedly quiet: concrete, slate, timber, leather. Corner rooms put the bathtub against floor-to-ceiling windows above the city. Downstairs, Pascale Bar & Grill does wood-fired Euro bistro cooking; the rooftop pours serious gin over unobstructed Melbourne skyline.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The swooping central staircase makes an argument the moment you walk in. This Collins Street hotel leans into Art Deco grandeur without turning it into a theme park, the bones are historical but the overall feel is pared-down and contemporary. Rooms have Westin's Heavenly Beds and oversized bathtubs, a spa and fitness center are on hand, and City Square fills the windows. Flinders Street Station is close enough that you can actually use the city on foot.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A 28-floor tower on the Southbank with over 600 rooms is the kind of hotel project cities don't attempt much anymore. This is a large, full-service luxury hotel aiming for grand-hotel scale, with generously sized rooms, far-ranging city views, and a complete spa. Gordon Ramsay runs two restaurants on-site, and the rooftop bar on the 28th floor offers something Melbourne, not a city known for skyscraper living, doesn't offer many chances to do.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The hotel occupies part of the old flatiron-shaped Queensbank building in Southbank, a neighborhood that sits just quietly enough across the river to feel like a deliberate exhale from the CBD. Flack Studio fitted out all 188 rooms with warm, retro tones and rich textures, giving the whole place a look that reads as thoughtfully designed rather than accidentally charming. Crown Casino is a short walk away, and the city center is a bridge.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The bar on the 25th floor looks out over Port Phillip Bay, which is a reasonable argument for booking here. This CBD hotel sits between Southbank and Docklands, and the rooms go for warm timber and local references rather than generic business-hotel beige. Coffee and late-night pantry raids are handled downstairs by Allie Lane. The Michelin Guide has it on their selected hotels list.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A converted Salvation Army printing works, the old brick facade and arched windows still legible at street level while a contemporary tower rises above. This apartment-hotel sits opposite Parliament Gardens, and rooms finished in blonde oak and soft gray look out over either the park or the city. More than 450 works by Melbourne artists hang throughout, which beats the usual corridor landscapes. St. Ali runs the lobby coffee, and Chronicle 502 handles modern Australian food and cocktails downstairs.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best New International Cocktail Bar
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · International Bartender of the Year · Rob Libecans

The golden ceiling above the indoor pool sets the tone for W Melbourne, a luxury hotel occupying Collins Arch, a skyscraper above Flinders Lane. Rooms go heavy on bold color and futuristic styling, which either thrills you or has you sleeping with your eye mask on. Five restaurants and bars are on hand, covering all-day Italian, Japanese omakase, and a cocktail bar that runs DJ nights. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Graffiti-style neon signage marks this boutique hotel on Lygon Street, where the family-owned rooms run to dark timber, marble, and brass. Bathrooms come with three-setting mirrors and Cowshed toiletries; complimentary branded socks suggest someone has thought very hard about the details. An in-house café handles all-day brunch, and a wine bar takes over at night. Carlton's Italian delis and the King and Godfree complex are a short walk.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Twenty-four seats tucked inside a heritage building in Chinatown, One or Two is a late-night cocktail bar that borrows its soul from the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi: warm wood, minimal fuss, the feeling that nothing is permanent and you should probably order another drink. The bartender behind it modeled the whole thing on a Tokyo midnight-diner TV series, and the vibe tracks, intimate and a little cinematic.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A back bar stocked with around 350 bottles, ten new ones arriving each week, tells you everything about what The Elysian Whisky Bar is trying to do. This Fitzroy whisky bar leans hard into rare and unusual bottlings, with flights for the curious and a proper cocktail list for anyone dragged along by an enthusiast. A bar food menu rounds things out, so no one has to drink on an empty stomach while debating single malts.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A specialty coffee shop from the Industry Beans roaster, tucked into the CBD on Little Collins. The room is clean and minimal in that way Melbourne cafes do well, with the coffee doing the talking instead. Beans are sourced globally and rotated, so the pour-over today probably isn't the pour-over next month. The kind of place where laptop workers and CBD regulars coexist without anyone making a fuss about it.

1. World Coffee Map Essential Coffee Shops in Melbourne
2. World Coffee Map Your Guide to Coffee in Melbourne
3. World Coffee Map Melbourne Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors

Reclaimed timber and the smell of beans roasted in Abbotsford greet you at this specialty coffee shop tucked into a Flinders Lane building. Dukes runs a high-volume operation without the usual trade-off in care, moving a crowd of laptop workers and lunchtime regulars through espresso blends and single-origin filters at a pace that would make lesser cafes wobble. Ethical sourcing is taken seriously here, which in Melbourne is less a differentiator than a minimum requirement, but they do it well.

1. World Coffee Map 10 Best Specialty Cafes & Coffee Shops in Melbourne
2. World Coffee Map Your Guide to Coffee in Melbourne
3. World Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Melbourne

A custom espresso machine sits at the center of this light-filled, timber-accented specialty coffee shop on Little Lonsdale Street, doing the work a piece of art usually does. It's the CBD flagship for Padre Coffee, which means the beans rotating through are seasonal single origins alongside the house blends, and the baristas know the difference. The kind of place where a flat white on the run and a slow pour-over get the same careful attention.

1. World Coffee Map 10 Best Specialty Cafes & Coffee Shops in Melbourne
2. World Coffee Map Your Guide to Coffee in Melbourne
3. World Coffee Map Melbourne Coffee Guide for Travelers

Pastel pinks and baby blues in the middle of Melbourne's CBD, which is either a very confident design choice or a dare. This coffee shop on Exhibition Street leans hard into retro-resort kitsch while roasting its own beans with complete seriousness, running the range from espresso blends to single-origin pour-overs. The suits filing past the window make the whole setup funnier, which seems intentional.

1. World Coffee Map Melbourne Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors
2. World Coffee Map Essential Coffee Shops in Melbourne
3. World Coffee Map Melbourne Coffee Guide for Travelers

A specialty coffee shop on Little Collins where the house-roasted beans do most of the talking and the room is quiet enough to let them. Clean lines, a short menu, and a pace that suits people who came for the pour-over rather than the scene. Third-wave in spirit but not in attitude, which puts it a notch above the average laptop bunker. Melbourne takes coffee seriously; this is what that looks like when no one is trying to impress you.

1. World Coffee Map Essential Coffee Shops in Melbourne
2. World Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Melbourne
3. World Coffee Map Best cafes for reading in Melbourne

Dozens of wooden chairs hang from the ceiling, which is either art installation or fire hazard depending on your mood. This compact specialty coffee shop in the CBD is an outpost of the Seven Seeds roastery, so the espresso is serious and the pace is brisk. It's the kind of place where nobody lingers too long, yet somehow everyone feels like a regular.

1. World Coffee Map Melbourne Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors
2. World Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Melbourne
3. World Coffee Map Best cafes for reading in Melbourne

There are no seats, and that's the whole point. Patricia is a standing-room espresso bar tucked behind a Little Bourke Street address, checkered floors and neon keeping things just old-world enough while the counter runs on high-energy service. The rotating roster of Melbourne roasters changes, the pastries come from Lune, and nobody lingers longer than their coffee takes. Which, in this city, is a compliment.

1. World Coffee Map Your Guide to Coffee in Melbourne
2. World Coffee Map Melbourne Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors
3. World Coffee Map Essential Coffee Shops in Melbourne

A Neapolitan pizza spot on Little Bourke where the dough is properly leavened and the menu splits cleanly between red and white pies. The room is simple and the staff move fast, which suits the lunch crowd around here. Pasta and cannoli fill out the menu for anyone who needs convincing that pizza is enough. It ranked on the 50 Top Pizza Asia-Pacific list, for what that's worth to the skeptics at the table.

1. 50 Top Pizza #40 · 50 Top Pizza Asia-Pacific

A compact coffee shop on Little Collins Street that runs on the assumption that the people walking in have somewhere to be. This is the CBD outpost of Everyday Coffee, stripped down to a minimalist space built for fast, unfussy service. The batch brew moves quickly, the espresso blends are available to take home, and nobody lingers long enough to name the chairs.

1. World Coffee Map Melbourne Coffee Guide for Travelers
2. World Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Melbourne

A bright blue door on Drewery Lane marks this tiny specialty coffee shop, the kind of Melbourne laneway find that regulars prefer you not know about. The matcha lattes have their own following, the flat whites are carefully poured, and the sister pastry shop Bakemono Bakers sits just across the lane if willpower fails. Small enough that everyone inside seems to know something you don't.

1. World Coffee Map Melbourne Coffee Guide for Travelers
2. World Coffee Map Best cafes for reading in Melbourne

The Little Bourke Street outpost of a Richmond roastery, this is a specialty coffee shop that strips everything back to the cup. The room is clean and minimal, which is less a design choice than a statement of intent: single-origin, seasonal beans get the counter space, not the furniture. Good for a pour-over between meetings, assuming you don't want anything on the menu to distract you from thinking about coffee.

1. World Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Melbourne
2. World Coffee Map Melbourne Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors

There's no menu at The Everleigh, just a bartender who asks what you're drinking and means it. This upstairs cocktail bar on Gertrude Street runs on hand-cracked ice, fresh juice, and the kind of unhurried service that makes you feel like someone's actually paying attention. The team came up through Milk & Honey in New York, and the influence shows, with the rigidity quietly left behind on another continent.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

Marble counters, brass fittings, and a wood-fired grill visible from the dining room set the tone on Flinders Lane. This is an Italian-leaning steakhouse where Australian beef, aged both wet and dry, meets open fire with a lot of restraint and very little fuss. The room manages glamorous without stiff, and the service follows the same instinct. It landed on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, which tells you the kitchen is serious about the meat programme.

1. World's 101 Best #95 · World's Best Steak Restaurants

A basement steakhouse on Little Collins Street, lit by the glow of a custom-built ironbark-fired smoker and a grill that does most of the talking. The kitchen dry- and wet-ages Australian cuts before they meet the fire, so the flavour has been building long before service starts. It ranked 81st on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, which feels about right for a room that's industrial without trying too hard about it.

1. World's 101 Best #81 · World's Best Steak Restaurants

Scarlet velvet curtains frame the main bar like a stage set, which is either a bold choice or a perfectly accurate one, given the theatrics of serious cocktail-making. This is a cocktail bar spread over three floors, with the ground level doing most of the heavy lifting. The name nods to the year the word cocktail was first defined in print, so the whole room is a love letter to the form. Vintage shakers, period details, but no stuffiness.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

A cocktail bar on level three of a Bourke Street building, reached by a creaky elevator that fits seven at a push and opens onto a room dressed in full garden-party drag: wicker, pastel, and waitstaff in tennis whites. The drinks lean fruity and come in jugs, which is either charming or a warning depending on your afternoon. Melbourne's day-drinking set has been making the ascent for a long time.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide