The Melburnian urge to mythologise Melbourne coffee is compulsive, but we do have a point. The city’s coffee is world-leading, whether you’re after a quick ristretto, oat-milk latte or single-origin pour-over with tasting notes.

This category is the cornerstone of Good Food’s Essential Melbourne Cafes and Bakeries of 2025. Presented by T2, this guide celebrates the people and places that shape our cafe and bakery scenes and includes more than 100 venues reviewed anonymously across 11 categories, including icons, those best for food, tea, coffee and matcha, and where to get the city’s best sweets, sandwiches and baked goods. (These reviews also live on theGood Food app, and are discoverable on the map.) See you at one of these venues tomorrow.

Disciple & Kohi No Deshi

The contrast between these conjoined coffee shops is as plain as black and white. Tiny Disciple is a calm den of dark wood and minimalist design dedicated to black coffee. Espresso and V60 pour-overs are priced from $5 to north of $100 for those who really want to nerd out over premium Panama Geisha. If it’s a flat white you’re after, head next door for milk-friendly blends and single-origins in a lighter, brighter setting.

Best for: Exceptional coffee with a side of chat.

16 Black Street, Brunswick, instagram.com/discipleroasters

Tone Coffee

The signature drink at this coffee-dedicated shrine is the “tiger bomb”: a sweetened iced coffee topped with salty foam and orange zest. Founder Caleb Cha (a former World Latte Art champion) uses beans from his roastery Humble Tigers, including six filter roasts. Try an espresso alongside a milk coffee made with the same beans to contrast flavour notes – just like doing a wine-tasting.

Best for: A religious coffee experience you’ll rave about for months.

7/121 High Street, Prahran, instagram.com/tonecoffee_melb

Manta Ray

This industrial but sleek cafe and roastery tucked in a back street feels like a showroom for coffee in all its forms. Serious caffeine fiends hunt it down for filter brews with notes of peach iced tea, made with beans grown in China’s Yunnan province. Silky nitrogen filter coffee is combined with rosewater, but it’s also possible to experience one of the most perfect flat whites of your life.

Good to know: Sit at the bar and watch the siphons bubble and pour-overs drip.

12 Beech Street, Nunawading, mantaraycoffee.com.au

Craftwork Coffee Roasters

This converted warehouse hums with remote workers sipping cold brews, and locals ducking in for takeaway lattes. Coffee is roasted on-site with around nine blends and single-origins on rotation. House-baked pastries are just as serious – potato-caper Danishes, lemon escargots swirled with almond and poppyseed, and sourdough focaccia topped with salami and fennel. Peek through the production window to see the magic happen.

Best for: Loading up on Saturday morning provisions.

1/27 Peel Street, Eltham, craftworkroasting.com.au

Gojo

Slowing down to fully appreciate coffee is part of the bargain at this unassuming Ethiopian cafe. But first, you eat. From the all-day breakfast and lunch menus, our pick is mahberawi, a lunch dish. A colourful mix of spice-strewn stews are artfully arranged with pickles and salad on injera, a fermented flatbread built to soak up flavours like earthy doro wat (chicken and egg stew).

Must order: The coffee ceremony, complete with pan-roasted beans, incense and sweet popcorn.

10 Clarke Street, Sunshine, instagram.com/gojo_cafe_restaurant

Secondipity Roasters

Office block cafes rarely impress. But the crew at this industrial Korean-style coffee shop are doing the most: from roasting their own coffee (including anaerobic, 96-hour fermented beans) to baking bread and pastries. Watch them roll their signature sogeum-ppang (salt bread) while you pair one with a fancy filter or the crowd-favourite Mont Blanc with salted cream foam.

Must order: Sogeum-ppang filled with vanilla cream is crisp, buttery and slightly chewy.

88 Langridge Street, Collingwood, instagram.com/secondipity_roasters

Calere

Calm, composed, consistent: Calere ticks every box a specialty coffee shop should. Single-origin beans come from China (imported by the team themselves), Japan, Panama and beyond. Staff chirp tasting notes with ease and pour drinks into porcelain or ceramic cups to suit the flavour profile. Find a sunny nook in one of two small rooms and count your blessings.

Good to know: Small space equals small menu. Pastrami-kimchi toasties, Black Forest Swiss rolls or both?

1/166 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, calerecoffee.com.au

Everyday Coffee

The simplicity of the name speaks volumes: team Everyday wants you to enjoy the best cup possible, without any complicated coffee snobbery. Caffeinating Melbourne since 2013, Everyday’s Collingwood HQ doubles as its roastery (a smaller city shop is perfect for takeaway). Spacious and dog-friendly, it’s also powered by bagels and epic cinnamon scrolls.

Good to know: The merch, including chunky diner-style mugs, is some of the best in town.

36-38 Sackville Street, Collingwood, everyday-coffee.com

Path

More like a meditation room than a cafe, Path runs to a soothing rhythm. Cheerful yet unimpeachable coffee chat is aided by a menu helpfully colour-coded by flavour. Coffee buffs perch on stools, sipping one of a dozen or so varieties from Burundi to Nicaragua.

Good to know: The white coffee is made with (a specific ratio of) oat milk.

362 Victoria Street, North Melbourne, pathmelbourne.com

Market Lane

It’s comforting to know that when you’re on Hoddle Grid, you’re never more than a tram ride away from one of Market Lane’s 10 locations (11 if you include the bean vending machine). Serious about good coffee and responsible supply chains, these folks also create super-inviting spaces to sip espresso drinks, filter, decaf and cascara. Consistent? Yes. Cookie-cutter? No.

Good to know: Oat milk is the only dairy alternative, and some locations have minimal seating.

Various locations, marketlane.com.au

279

Perched on a sun-drenched corner, this cafe (a sibling of Le Bajo, Hareruya Pantry and Chiaki) is a classic example of Japanese specialisation. Onigiri rice balls and top-notch coffee are the main reason you’re here, and both are made with the best ingredients possible. Pour-overs might use beans from Sumatra or Rwanda, rice and nori are selected from Japan, and staff show pride and care at every turn.

Must order: Onigiri, but also signature mochinuts (textural doughnuts made with glutinous rice flour).

279 Victoria Street, West Melbourne, 279victoriast.co

Foremost Coffee

This bunker-like coffee bar specialising in Indonesian beans has some the warmest service going around. Pour-overs from provinces including West Java and South Sulawesi are served in a unique cup with a lip that goes from thick to thin, designed to highlight different tasting notes. Many rush in for takeaways between meetings, but linger and you’ll be rewarded with genuine attention and knowledge.

Good to know: It’s not just coffee. Pulled-beef rendang toastie, anyone?

312 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, instagram.com/foremostmelbourne

Rosso Coffee Experience

Why just order your coffee when you can learn how to brew it yourself? Specialty roaster Rosso’s experiential North Melbourne location has a make-your-own-coffee bar, where professional baristas show you how it’s done. Or, of course, you can leave it to them, as at Rosso’s not-quite-as-educational CBD locations.

Good to know: The food menu is top stuff too, featuring brunch classics given a little twist.

117 Dryburgh Street, North Melbourne, rossoroastingco.com.au

Saazaa Coffee

You can get coffee anywhere. But did you know one of Melbourne’s most interesting places for ethically sourced, house-roasted beans and sublime specialty beverages is wedged between the Maroondah Highway and the railway line in outer-suburban Ringwood? Saazaa is owned by David Juma, a Kenyan-born entrepreneur who sources most of his beans from his dad’s farm in Africa and roasts them in a large factory space.

Best for: Coffee-tasting flights, to get a sense of several beans, blends and roasts.

8 Olive Grove, Ringwood, saazaa.coffee

Rumble Espresso Bar

There’s a lot of Rumble in Kensington’s rapidly expanding urban jungle. This sleek showcase, in the base of a new apartment building, is a mere left hook away from the roastery. Complex, fruit-forward single-origins are on the pour(over), and the staple Shadow Boxer blend lands a knockout punch in a flat white made with St David Dairy milk.

Good to know: Pastries come from close-by cousin Double Dutch Bakery.

348 Macaulay Road, Kensington, rumblecoffee.com.au

Good Food’s Essential Melbourne Cafes and Bakeries of 2025, presented by T2, celebrates the people and places that shape our excellent cafe and bakery scenes and includes more than 100 venues reviewed anonymously across 10 categories, including icons, those best for food, tea, coffee and matcha, and where to get the city’s best sweets, sandwiches and baked goods. Download the Good Food app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store to discover what’s near you.