A great cocktail bar in Melbourne is rarely just the drinks. It is the room, the late-night kitchen and the crowd, and this month the inner-city order rewards the rooms doing all three. We ranked them by Curateria Score and by what diners keep saying across their most recent reviews, with chains and far suburbs left out. Here is the order this month.
Top of the list is Lucy Liu Kitchen and Bar in the city, a buzzy kitchen and bar with more than two and a half thousand reviews where the kingfish sashimi, the fried chicken ribs and the wagyu bulgogi gyoza land alongside the drinks, and reviewers keep calling it the trifecta of food, service and atmosphere. The George on Collins on Collins Street carries the deepest review count on the list, more than four and a half thousand, a room people name their favourite in the city for the crispy barramundi curry, the lamb ribs and the dumplings as much as the bar.
Hochi Mama in the city is the modern Vietnamese room, its roast-duck wonton crisps, duck curry and mama's fried rice paired with cocktails diners single out as yummy and a team they call warm. 30ML Bar and Eatery in Docklands scores the list's highest at 4.92, a bar and eatery where the Smokey Passion cocktail, the barramundi and the truffle fries pull a "everything was perfect" verdict. Cargo Bar & Eatery in Docklands is the waterside all-rounder, lamb souvlaki and pizzas behind cocktails reviewers happily come just for, warm inside with a view.
Horn Please in Fitzroy North is the Indian room with a serious bar, its charcoal lamb chops, gol gappa and feed-me set menu winning warm, attentive service reviews. Benjys Karaoke Bar in Brunswick East is the karaoke bar at 4.89, cold pints, nine-dollar shots and cocktails in a room reviewers call a ten out of ten night out. Antique Bar in Elsternwick is the cosy local on a 4.91, Guinness on tap, espresso martinis and a three-cheese toastie in a welcoming happy-hour room.
The list closes across the inner city. Trinket Bar in the city has a standing reputation as a dark, moody cocktail room reviewers rate for serious drinks and an espresso martini, though its recent review trail has gone quiet, so check it is trading before you make the trip. Mr West Bar & Bottle Shop in Footscray is the bottle-shop bar, craft beer rotations and natural wines upstairs that regulars simply love, Mr. Miyagi in Windsor is the high-volume room on salmon nori tacos and wagyu tataki with service reviewers name by waiter, and Ballers Clubhouse Carlton in Carlton rounds it out, a clubhouse of burgers, loaded fries, cocktails and games that reviewers call the best venue ever for a big night.
Every bar here carries a Curateria Score taken from its whole review history and then re-weighted toward the most recent hundred reviews, so the order tracks how the kitchen cooks now rather than how it cooked two years ago. We keep the cohort inside a tight inner-Melbourne radius, roughly 15km of the city, and we exclude the chains and franchises, so what is left reads as the real local order and not a list of the loudest brands. That quality score is then blended with how often and how recently diners are still talking about a place. The corpus is Victorian and scored by us. No AI writer ever reads it. The ranking is arithmetic. The words are ours.
Explore more Cocktail Bar across Melbourne on Discover ->
Every venue here is ranked by its Curateria Score, a recent-review-weighted quality signal that leans on what diners are saying now, not years ago. Keep browsing Melbourne, sorted by Curateria Score, on Discover.
More from the Lowdown
Support our work
Reader-supported, ad-light. Three ways to back the work.
A great cocktail bar in Melbourne is rarely just the drinks. It is the room, the late-night kitchen and the crowd, and this month the inner-city order rewards the rooms doing all three. We ranked them by Curateria Score and by what diners keep saying across their most recent reviews, with chains and far suburbs left out. Here is the order this month.
Top of the list is Lucy Liu Kitchen and Bar in the city, a buzzy kitchen and bar with more than two and a half thousand reviews where the kingfish sashimi, the fried chicken ribs and the wagyu bulgogi gyoza land alongside the drinks, and reviewers keep calling it the trifecta of food, service and atmosphere. The George on Collins on Collins Street carries the deepest review count on the list, more than four and a half thousand, a room people name their favourite in the city for the crispy barramundi curry, the lamb ribs and the dumplings as much as the bar.
Hochi Mama in the city is the modern Vietnamese room, its roast-duck wonton crisps, duck curry and mama's fried rice paired with cocktails diners single out as yummy and a team they call warm. 30ML Bar and Eatery in Docklands scores the list's highest at 4.92, a bar and eatery where the Smokey Passion cocktail, the barramundi and the truffle fries pull a "everything was perfect" verdict. Cargo Bar & Eatery in Docklands is the waterside all-rounder, lamb souvlaki and pizzas behind cocktails reviewers happily come just for, warm inside with a view.
Horn Please in Fitzroy North is the Indian room with a serious bar, its charcoal lamb chops, gol gappa and feed-me set menu winning warm, attentive service reviews. Benjys Karaoke Bar in Brunswick East is the karaoke bar at 4.89, cold pints, nine-dollar shots and cocktails in a room reviewers call a ten out of ten night out. Antique Bar in Elsternwick is the cosy local on a 4.91, Guinness on tap, espresso martinis and a three-cheese toastie in a welcoming happy-hour room.
The list closes across the inner city. Trinket Bar in the city has a standing reputation as a dark, moody cocktail room reviewers rate for serious drinks and an espresso martini, though its recent review trail has gone quiet, so check it is trading before you make the trip. Mr West Bar & Bottle Shop in Footscray is the bottle-shop bar, craft beer rotations and natural wines upstairs that regulars simply love, Mr. Miyagi in Windsor is the high-volume room on salmon nori tacos and wagyu tataki with service reviewers name by waiter, and Ballers Clubhouse Carlton in Carlton rounds it out, a clubhouse of burgers, loaded fries, cocktails and games that reviewers call the best venue ever for a big night.
Every bar here carries a Curateria Score taken from its whole review history and then re-weighted toward the most recent hundred reviews, so the order tracks how the kitchen cooks now rather than how it cooked two years ago. We keep the cohort inside a tight inner-Melbourne radius, roughly 15km of the city, and we exclude the chains and franchises, so what is left reads as the real local order and not a list of the loudest brands. That quality score is then blended with how often and how recently diners are still talking about a place. The corpus is Victorian and scored by us. No AI writer ever reads it. The ranking is arithmetic. The words are ours.
Explore more Cocktail Bar across Melbourne on Discover ->
Every venue here is ranked by its Curateria Score, a recent-review-weighted quality signal that leans on what diners are saying now, not years ago. Keep browsing Melbourne, sorted by Curateria Score, on Discover.
More from the Lowdown
Our read on where Melbourne is eating, drawn from every review we track. Free, no algorithm, unsubscribe in two clicks.