There’s a freewheeling feel to this year’s crop of best bars. Fancy restaurants have birthed fancy-free bar spin-offs while bold new venues bring league-of-their-own style and lesser-seen booze to the fore. Martinis and dark ales (read: Guinness) are having a moment, and some spots are even distilling their own spirits in-house. Raise a glass.

Apollo Inn

COCKTAIL BAR

Andrew McConnell’s debut bar is proof his talents extend beyond innovative dining. More than a year in, Apollo has become a modern classic. What it lacks in space it makes up for with an indelibly intimate vibe. It has mastered the art of the martini but other drinks defy expectations, especially the El Guapo, a foam-capped cousin to the spicy marg.

165 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, apolloinn.bar

Bianchetto

COCKTAIL BAR

Glide past a gold curtain in chef Joe Vargetto’s restaurant Mister Bianco to find Bianchetto, where lighting is scandalously dim, tablecloths are crisp white and one wall is illuminated by projections of golden-age Italian films. Aperitivo hour is sorted with Americanos mixed tableside on a dedicated trolley, and salty Sicilian snacks by the bowlful.

26-28 Cotham Road, Kew, misterbianco.com.au

Caretaker’s Cottage

COCKTAIL BAR

The chaos is controlled at this compact city bar. As punters fill the resurrected bluestone cottage and overflow into the courtyard, the team take it in their stride. The ride-or-die freezer-door martini is batched with lightning precision and served with speed, while elegantly garnished seasonal cocktails throw delicious curveballs. One glance at the sheer number of perfectly poured pints shows the Guinness renaissance is real.

139-141 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, caretakerscottage.bar

Dutch Rules Distilling Co

GIN BAR

This new gin label is listed at some of Melbourne’s most talked-about restaurants but there’s nothing like drinking it at the source: a cavernous, cosied-up warehouse on a busy thoroughfare. As with his beer brand Two Rupees, founder Danny Perera has infused his Sri Lankan heritage into Dutch Rules, making spiced gins that come as tasting flights or in punchy cocktails such as a passionfruit sorbet-spiked Bellini.

Unit 1/586 Whitehorse Road, Mitcham, dutchrulesdistilling.com.au

Goodwater

WHISKEY BAR

Immerse yourself in the wonderful world of American whiskey at this new Northcote hangout. Hundreds of bottles – from rudimentary to rare – sit on the curvy back bar, and the collection keeps growing. Cocktails are whiskey-forward, naturally, but can be customised to suit your style. Choose from short and sharp, long and refreshing and even non-alcoholic. Then sail down the Mississippi River via framed prints in the exposed-brick front bar.

300 High Street, Northcote, goodwater.melbourne

La Sirene Brewing

BEER BAR

After losing its long-time home in Alphington, La Sirene has a new address on an industrial strip in Melbourne’s north and a new lease on life. Sit among walls of oak barrels where wild-fermented beers age as a friendly bartender helps you decide which of the 14 beers on tap has the right funk factor for you. A safe starting point? The best-known Citray Sour farmhouse ale, which also comes in a gin Spritz.

277 Edwardes Street, Reservoir, lasirene.com.au

Lui Bar

COCKTAIL BAR

There’s no competing with the priceless view but after a $3 million refurb across Lui Bar and sibling fine diner Vue de Monde, drinking 55 floors up has never looked slicker. A commanding circular granite bar dispenses high-flying cocktails such as a drinkable riff on mango sticky rice, and you can snack without the degustation price tag. Fancy a fancy sausage roll?

Level 55, Rialto Towers, 525 Collins Street, Melbourne, luibar.com

Lulie Tavern

DIVE BAR

About to clock a decade, Lulie has staying power. Rarely is a dive bar this delightful: the rock’n’roll energy is strong, the burgers are better on local’s night, and the pool is still free. The charm was dialled up with the opening of Full Moon Fever, an extension of Lulie’s Americana attitude to an airy rooftop bar, where the margs are free-flowing and the cacti create a desertscape.

225 Johnston Street, Abbotsford, lulietavern.com

Mill Place Merchants

COCKTAIL BAR

​Paawan Engineer’s new city speakeasy has a glimmer of gimmick: you enter through a giant mirrored door in what’s meant to emulate a 19th-century dressing room. But what lies beyond is a cocktail bar serious about what’s in your glass. Once your eyes adjust to the flickering candlelight, survey the collection of old-timey knick-knacks then sink into a chesterfield with an Old Fashioned, or something similarly classy and classic.

2 Mill Place, Melbourne, millplacemerchants.bar

Misfits

PARTY BAR

“Dance to the beat of a different drum” reads a vibrant orange lightbox in the stairwell at this always-jumping bar, formerly Baby Snakes. Fittingly, Misfits has a live music program that makes it entirely possible to walk into a fully packed dance floor at 8pm on a weekday. Cocktails are a cut above: the team makes its own vermouth for a sake martini, and grape cordial for a playful Hubba Bubba-esque number.

30 Chambers Street, Footscray, misfits.space

Moon Dog Wild West

BEER BAR

If your idea of a good time is donning a cowboy hat and mounting a mechanical bucking bull – or at the very least, spectating – this Western-themed wonderland is for you. Melbourne brewery Moon Dog flipped Footscray’s iconic Franco Cozzo furniture store into a three-level venue with a rooftop bar. The fun is fuelled by 100-plus taps of crowd-pleasing beers and seltzers, plus boozy slushies and cocktail jugs. Weekends are, well, wild.

54 Hopkins Street, Footscray, moondog.com.au

Mrs Muttons

WINE BAR

The only sheepish thing about this west-side bar and bottle-o? Its namesake, a cartoon sheep in need of a shear that’s emblazoned on your wine glass. Otherwise, Mrs Muttons is confident in her vino selection, which might range from urban winemaking darling Jamsheed to saline-tinged Sicilian drops. Park up in the sun-drenched courtyard, or with a board game in the candlelit back room, or get a bottle to-go.

65 Victoria Street, Footscray, mrsmuttons.com

One or Two

COCKTAIL BAR

Distilling a bar snack as quintessentially Melbourne as anchovy toast into cocktail form seems fraught. Fear not. Owner Andy Chu’s bartending prowess results in a salty, spicy, scotch-powered umami bomb crowned with an actual anchovy toast. It’s a glimpse of the considered creativity on show at this Chinatown bar, though the offering changes seasonally. You can also try recreated recipes from top global spots, such as Singapore’s Night Hawk.

18 Celestial Avenue, Melbourne, oneortwo.com.au

Olympia

ROOFTOP BAR

Oakleigh basks in the glory of all things Greek, but Olympia takes it a step further. An old car park above Oakleigh Market is now a double-decker ode to the Greek Islands, its rooftop bar whitewashed, with ocean blue shutters and a stone-look floor. The menu is just as on-theme: espresso martinis are shaken with Greek coffee liqueur, and there are crisp saganaki croquettes and soutzoukakia, the Greek meatballs, to snack on.

Level 1, 12-18 Chester Street, Oakleigh, olympia.wine

Pirate Life

BEER BAR

“You’re in for a treat,” says the bartender as he pulls a pint of nitro chocolate stout. He’s right – it’s a velvety winter winner – but it’s just one of many things to love at South Australian brewer Pirate Life’s first Victorian venue. It may be situated in a former mechanic’s garage, but it’s slicker than your average beer hall. There’s also a meaty, fire-powered menu and an area devoted to takeaway tinnies and merch.

139-145 Market Street, South Melbourne, piratelife.com.au

Pour Diane

WINE BAR

It’s a ’70s fever dream at this northside newcomer, co-owned by wine importer and maker Andy Buchan. The house party vibes are bona fide and service is appropriately easy-breezy. Pick a lo-fi bottle from the wine wall and nuzzle in wherever there’s space: perhaps on the round tiger-print sofa bed, or at a cherry-red table for a game of Connect 4. You might even catch an episode of Baywatch, beamed onto the wall.

472 Victoria Street, North Melbourne, instagram.com/pourdiane

Purple Pit

COCKTAIL BAR

Beneath the grandeur of Reine & La Rue is a late-night drinking den dialling up the glam. Is it any wonder, with powerhouse pair Maurice Terzini (Sydney’s Icebergs) and Joe Jones (ex-Romeo Lane) behind it? In a room shrouded in dramatic grey curtains, a one-sip martini will get you into the swing of things before you move on to clever spins on archetypical cocktails, often zhuzhed up with spirits distilled in-house.

380 Collins Street, Melbourne, purplepit.com.au

Railway Wine

NEIGHBOURHOOD BAR

“Sunday session” is written all over this watering hole, located across the road from Highett Station. Locals of both human and canine variety catch rays in the beer garden out back, or fight for pole fireplace position in the burgundy-walled front bar. Wines are mostly Aussie bottles less than $100, and there’s a handful of canned cocktails. Hungry? Wood-fired pizza from sibling venue Teo’s can be delivered from next door.

8 Railway Parade, Highett, railwaywine.com.au

The Rocket Society

NEIGHBOURHOOD BAR

The move of chef Joseph Abboud’s Middle Eastern restaurant Rumi from Lygon Street to a nearby apartment development brought with it a second venue: all-day wine bar Rocket Society. At lunch, get sauced-up Lebanese wraps; later on, share mezze from the charcoal barbecue. Lamb-heart shawarma on house-made bread pairs nicely with something from the natural-leaning wine list or a glass of the anise-flavoured Levantine spirit arak.

2 Village Avenue, Brunswick East, therocketsociety.com.au

The Walrus

WINE BAR

As the afternoon sun streams into this warm neighbourhood spot, so too do the St Kilda regulars. They’re lured by that unparalleled combo of oysters and wine. The former are plucked from a dedicated ice-filled bar and freshly shucked. The latter flips the script, with a focus not on bottles most popularly paired with oysters (chablis) but on more wallet-friendly alternatives (hello, Loire Valley muscadet).

9 Inkerman Street, St Kilda, thewalrusoysterbar.com

Editors’ note: After publication, Pearl Chablis & Oyster Bar switched to a degustation-only offering and so has been removed from the current version of this article.

The winners of The Age Good Food Guide 2025 Awards will be announced on November 18, presented by Vittoria Coffee and Oceania Cruises. The Age Good Food Guide 2025 will be on sale from November 19.