Great service. Impeccable food. Unimpeachable coffee. Abundant natural light. Architectural appointments. Modest prices. It feels like too much to ask, but if there’s ever been a city where you can reasonably expect to have it all in a single cafe, it’s the one that rhymes with Shellbourne.

These are the all-rounders in Good Food’s Essential Melbourne Cafes and Bakeries of 2025, presented by T2. This guide 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. These reviews also live on the Good Food app, within a collection and discoverable on the map.

Elster

Carefully walking the line between cafe and restaurant is what Elster does best. It’s a cafe insofar as you can have a flat white and a granola or chicken sandwich. But it’s a restaurant in that your cereal comes with bruleed pink grapefruit, and your sandwich layers crumbed buttermilk-brined chook and oozy dill tartare between squishy milk bread.

Good to know: A solid booze menu – from bloody Marys to TarraWarra chardonnay – rounds out the offer.

258 Glen Eira Road, Elsternwick, elster.com.au

Florian

Days that start at Florian carry a glow, much like the spun-gold light that hits the tables outside – rarely empty, even on weekdays. Fat gruyere-filled omelettes and eggs Florian (with bearnaise and cavolo nero) are mainstays. Sandwiches rotate but the chicken-mayo is the MVP. On Friday nights, swing past for crudo, pasta and steak sandwiches, or switch gears with Thai each Thursday.

Good to know: Florian’s farmhouse chic is yours to shop at its next-door homewares store.

617 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North, floriancarlton.com.au

Four Kilo Fish

First things first: this is not a fish shop. It’s something far less ubiquitous: one of the rare places in Melbourne that serves Chinese specialty coffee. Run by two women from Yunnan in south-western China, the Hawthorn hideout pours exclusive single-origin coffees and mind-bending jaffles (one jams together kimchi, cheese and peanut – what a combo).

Best for: A Yunnanese immersion that includes a slightly spicy take on bolognese.

834 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, fourkilofish.com.au

Ima Asa Yoru

It outgrew its snug Carlton home, but this Japanese frontrunner hasn’t forgotten its roots, still wowing brunch crowds with generous teishoku sets that are also creatively low-waste. Trays of nourishing pickles, greens, miso soup and rice are bolstered by the likes of grilled fish collars and agedashi tofu. Drop in after dark for yakitori, pecorino-dusted Japanese potato salad and other snacks.

Best for: Leisurely brunches when you and your BFF have lots to catch up on.

1 Duckett Street, Brunswick, imaproject.co

JollyGood Diner

With retro American vibes and an offering that easily transitions from day to night, this north-side diner really has something for everyone. Whether you’re after buttermilk pancakes (and bottomless filter coffee) for breakfast with the kids, a roll-up-your-sleeves French dip sandwich for lunch, or a night of steak and all-you-can-eat frites with pickle martinis, you’re in for a jolly good time.

Good to know: JollyGood started life as a sandwich shop, so don’t overlook the sanger selection.

27A-29A Johnston Street, Collingwood, jollygoodmelbourne.com

Morning Market

Shopping? Snacking? Save this address. At Andrew McConnell’s cafe-grocer, pick up cheese, tinned fish and a bottle of fizz; buy gorgeous glassware and flowers to gift; or dash in for dinner supplies, both fresh and ready-to-heat. Also find solo treats such as caneles and cookies, cakes for a crowd, and essentials including milk and Baker Bleu bread.

Good to know: Sandwiches are consistently great and weekly specials keep things fresh.

59 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy and 579 High Street, Prahran; morning.market

Napier Quarter

How does one tiny corner so comprehensively capture how Melbourne likes to eat and drink, from the am to the pm? Euro-leaning breakfasts include the modern classic that is anchovy and egg on toast, plus continental plates to share and cardamom buns from Iris The Bakery. As the day rolls on, Napier keeps switching speeds, adding focaccia, charcuterie and pasta, made with beautiful produce.

Best for: Solo or one-on-one breakfasts that are about quality over quantity.

359 Napier Street, Fitzroy, napierquarter.com.au

Ondo Cafe

As the culinary K-boom reverberates along Little Lonsdale Street and its laneways, we’re seeing Korean food in higher resolution than ever before. Happily, that means more Korean breakfasts. If your heart wilts at the mention of chicken and mung bean congee, gentle pork broth, or beef tartare bibimbap, you’ll want to begin your day within the soothing timber walls of Ondo – preferably with a black sesame latte.

Good to know: Turn your meal into a set with a coterie of banchan led by blushing salted squid.

115 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, ondomelbourne.com

Smith + Deli

Squishy cinnamon doughnuts and chunky chocolate cookies cover the counter beneath a bold surrealist-style mural. Staff deliver McMuffin-coded breakfast sandwiches and “pork” banh mi to sun-drenched tables. Meanwhile, rotating salads – available as a twin-set or trio – tick the wholesome box, but why miss out on all the fun that Shannon Martinez and company inject into vegan cooking?

Good to know: On weekends, dishes like okonomiyaki with house-made kimchi are served from mid-morning.

107 Cambridge Street, Collingwood, smithanddeli.com

Sunhands

Rejecting labels of breakfast and lunch, this corner cafe-wine bar runs a simple menu that’s all about what’s freshest and best. Vibrant salads such as kale, roasted Brussels sprouts and sunflower-seed dressing change often. But some items stick around, from dippy eggs with toast soldiers to curried-egg sandwiches of country-kitchen proportions. Later on, oysters, cured fish and martinis are the go.

Must-order dish: The breakfast plate is a fun way to get your veg in.

169 Elgin Street, Carlton, sunhands.com.au

Via Porta Eatery-Deli

No one leaves here hungry, whether they’re sharing house-made croissants with their pup on the pocket-sized front patio, eating crumbed eggplant toasties in the chic vanilla-toned cafe, or holed up on the mezzanine at night with a bowl of spaghetti puttanesca. Brunch is king, and the undeniable favourite is the doorstop-sized French toast. Via Porta also has a Hawthorn bakery.

Good to know: Local parking inspectors ruthlessly enforce time limits. You’ve been warned.

677 Whitehorse Road, Mont Albert, viaporta.com.au

Walrus

A haven of Americana, this Laminex and plywood gem heaves on weekends, with the four generous booths particularly hot property. Groups come for incredibly fluffy pancakes with crisp ribbons of bacon, and big slices of pie and French toast. The truly dusty will know the power of the bacon-egg-cheese roll inspired by New York’s bodega sangers.

Good to know: The difference between this and a standard-issue diner? Quality produce, such as Hagen’s Organics meat.

312 Sydney Road, Brunswick, instagram.com/walrusmelbourne

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.