29 April 2024
22 mins Read
Where do I get the best coffee in Melbourne? The most common question any visitor to Australia’s largest city would ask, and one with dozens of different answers. The truth is, there’s no particular spot doing the best coffee Melbourne has to offer; there are many. Good coffee is peppered all across this eternally charming urban sprawl.
Close your eyes and pick a suburb in Melbourne. You’re guaranteed to find at least two or three spots serving excellent coffee for your morning (or afternoon) pick-me-up. There are a few reasons for this, including an uncompromising quest to source the world’s finest coffee beans with a crop-to-cup mentality and complete transparency.
When Melbourne’s coffee roasters started to focus on provenance, the city’s coffee culture took off. To the point where Melbourne is now considered one of the best cities in the world for coffee lovers.
From Ona Coffee in Brunswick to Migrant Coffee in Footscray, we’ve listed our 27 favourite coffee shops in Melbourne, so you’ve got a handy guide no matter where you find yourself in this great city.
The name Seven Seeds is inseparable from Melbourne’s cultural identity. What co-founders Mark Dundon and Bridget Amor started in 2007 has gone on to define Melbourne’s new-age coffee scene, putting a larger focus on traceability and provenance and raising the bar more than just a few notches.
Seven Seeds redefined Melbourne’s coffee scene when it opened in 2007.
Unsurprisingly, the Carlton coffee shop is an essential stop on any coffee tour of Melbourne. Precision is painted on the faces of the baristas who stand behind Seven Seeds’ busy coffee bar, extracting plenty of character out of every bean and then cupping roasts daily. That superior taste, smooth quality, and expressive profile of your coffee is the result of pure dedication.
Seven Seeds Coffee Roasters serves seriously good coffee.
Address: 114 Berkeley St, Carlton VIC 3053
Many locals would swear Patricia is doing the best coffee in Melbourne CBD. and while that’s never going to be a clear-cut argument amongst Melburnians, it’s hard to deny what Seven Seeds alumni Bowen Holden and Pip Heath have done with Patricia Coffee Roasters.
Join the queue for a caffeine fix at Patricia’s.
The standing-room-only coffee bar is stylish and exacting, signposted by the snaking queue of corporate types punching down the laneway off Little Bourke Street. Contrasted with the dark grey building that hosts Patricia, the space is bright, buzzy and slick with a beautiful marble bar known for some of the smoothest coffee around.
Guest coffees and polished pastries from some of Melbourne’s best bakeries are listed alongside the to-the-point menu that offers black, white or filter coffee. Since 2016, the team has been roasting its own seasonal espresso blends off-site, but you can also pick from other great roasters.
Make your choice and get a move on; excellence breeds impatience in a city as accomplished in coffee culture as Melbourne.
Patricia Coffee Roasters makes seasonal espresso blends off-site.
Address: 493-495 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Known for their fine, structured blends, Industry Beans is another name that cannot be left out of the conversation when talking about Melbourne coffee. With cafes in the CBD, Fitzroy and Chadstone, the team’s top-quality blends and single origin are widely accessible and some of the most popular specialty coffee beans in Melbourne.
Find Industry Beans cafes located in the CBD, Fitzroy and Chadstone. (Image: Visit Victoria)
Backed by a thriving wholesale business and several interstate outposts, it’s impressive just how much consistency co-founders Trevor and Steven Simmons have managed to maintain despite the tremendous growth.
Savour a morning pick-me-up at Industry Beans. (Image: Visit Victoria)
The Fitzroy original is often the first suggestion you’d get when looking for the best espresso in Melbourne. The large cafe, which also offers an excellent all-day food menu, offers just about every style of coffee you could think of given the wide range of beans roasted and cupped each day.
Get creative with your coffee order – there’s just about every style you could want on offer. (Image: Visit Victoria)
Address: 345 Little Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Monk Bodhi Dharma is a micro coffee roastery and teahouse in Balaclava, dedicated to delicious vegetarian food and excellent coffee.
While Melbourne’s top coffee shops tend to go heavy on the technical side of things, the baristas at this eccentric health-centric cafe are proof that sometimes all you need is a quality product and a simple process.
The cafe’s own Disciple Roasters keeps the bar stocked with several single-origin beans at any one time, often favouring those lighter, fruitier profiles that match well with the healthy food on offer. A daily batch brew is very popular here, but the most typical order would be the bar’s special biodynamic and organic almond milk coffee.
Address: 202 Carlisle St, Balaclava VIC 3183
You won’t find many coffee shops in Footscray, which is why most locals head straight to Migrant Coffee each morning. Co-owners Melodee Malazarte and Stacey Earsman have put together a very distinctive cafe that serves good coffee alongside Filipino, Thai and Māori food to reflect their respective backgrounds.
Migrant Coffee has the market cornered in Footscray. (Image: Leah Traecey)
The reliable Coffee Supreme supplies the beans, best enjoyed out in the courtyard during the day when an espresso and a bagel are just what the doctor ordered.
Find a fusion of Filipino, Thai and Māori food on the menu. (Image: Maysie Lecciones)
Backed by great, personable service, Migrant Coffee is an integral part of the Footscray community and a fine example of how a good quality coffee shop will always be the focal point of any suburb in Melbourne.
Address: 3/576 Barkly St, West Footscray VIC 3012
Proud Mary, a Collingwood institution, is a legend of Melbourne’s very modern coffee scene. Although it opened in 2009, the queue this cafe attracts still bursts outside the door and around the block in the mornings and early afternoons.
Key to this constant flow of demand is, of course, great specialty coffee served from a huge brew bar and a small army of grinders handling Proud Mary’s various blends and single-origin espressos. But it’s also the variety, with the bar just as adept when it comes to cold drip, AeroPress and V60 coffee.
Owner Nolan Hirte found a way to take back control over flavour by welding together two Synesso machines so that each single-origin blend has its own extractor. This ensures unmatched consistency, best paired with the excellent cafe food at lunchtime. Think potato hash with poached eggs and Adelaide Hills bacon, a house made truffle sausage hotdog, and avocado on toast with kimchi, pear, daikon and tofu cream.
Yes, Proud Mary is not just one of Melbourne’s best coffee shops, but also one of Melbourne’s best cafes in general.
Address: 172 Oxford St, Collingwood VIC 3066
Aunty Peg’s comes from the same team behind Proud Mary. But while Proud Mary is very much a city cafe, Aunty Peg’s is dedicated entirely to the art of coffee, with one-on-one barista sessions, masterclasses, retail and tours of a working roastery all on the cards.
Think of it as an incubator for Melbourne’s coffee culture and a barista training centre; not just one of the best coffee shops in town.
From masterclasses to tours, Aunty Peg’s is for serious coffee connoisseurs.
You’ll find that the busiest time is Saturday morning, where at 10:30am each week Aunty Peg’s offers free cuppings of seasonal blends and staff favourites. Plenty of coffee enthusiasts would pop by here throughout the week to stock up on equipment. The shop has all kinds of coffee goodies, like Clever Dripper, AeroPress, French Press and V60 devices.
Take a seat at the cement bar and order some cold brew on tap or watch as one of three roasting machines produces the perfect shot.
Address: 200 Wellington St, Collingwood VIC 3066
Melbourne locals tend to shy away from chains. The formula for most of the popular coffee shops in Melbourne is to have one big roastery and maybe one or two cafes as an extension (and a kind of cellar door). Market Lane is an exception. Founder Fleur Studd and roaster Jason Scheltus have multiple venues across Melbourne, including ones on Queen, Collins and Victoria streets in the city, and a stall in Queen Victoria Market.
Market Lane Coffee is well-versed in the art of coffee roasting and drinking. (Image: Visit Victoria)
The most popular outpost, however, is Market Lane Coffee Prahran Market, benefitting from the buzzy atmosphere with great quality coffee and bags of beans shoppers can take home, showcasing Melbourne’s best roasters with notes on both tasting and provenance.
Address: Prahran Market, Shop 13/163 Commercial Rd, South Yarra VIC 3141
Originating in Canberra, ONA Coffee has gone on to spread across the East Coast, propping up numerous stores including this beauty in Brunswick. Unlike its other stores, ONA’s Melbourne flagship is large, bright and centred around an interactive coffee bar with over 20 styles to choose from.
ONA’s specialty coffees are meticulously prepared with love.
Everything from batch brews and pour-over coffee to iced coffee, cold brews and single-origin espresso can be ordered from the bar. But it’s often the experimental brews that get the most love from locals (this is Melbourne after all), and the list changes quite regularly so you’re always guaranteed something new and interesting.
The cafe also serves a select menu with standout items such as a pistachio cranberry bircher.
Address: 22 Ovens St, Brunswick VIC 3056
Mark Dundon founded St ALi in 2005, spurring a movement towards higher quality product and leading the push for a more refined coffee culture in Melbourne. Three years later, he sold the coffee company to current owner Salvatore Malatesta before going on to sprout Seven Seeds – another of Melbourne’s most recognised coffee empires.
St ALi’s ambience is laid-back and casual. (Image: Visit Victoria)
The white brick facade of this Yarra Place fixture maintains its cult-like status amongst locals with a dynamic kitchen that’s every bit as valuable as those hard-working coffee machines. You’ll typically find locals packing the place out in the early afternoon for a classic Melbourne brunch and what is easily the best coffee in South Melbourne.
The outdoor setting provides the perfect space to catch up over coffee during the warmer months. (Image: Visit Victoria)
Address: 12-18 Yarra Pl, South Melbourne VIC 3205
Plug Nickel is another strong reason why Collingwood is often seen as the best Melbourne suburb for coffee lovers. The sparkling cold brew on tap is all you’d need to become a convert, delivered as a full-bodied, velvety coffee that’s been slow-brewed for superior purity.
Don’t miss out on a cup of the sparkling cold brew on tap.
If you’re here for more than just coffee, grab a falafel roti wrap or roast chicken toastie from the lunch menu before ordering your brew. The team here typically use Black Ethiopia Sunglow or White Raspberry Candy blends from ONA Coffee for their espresso, so your palate is in very good hands.
Address: 7 Peel St, Collingwood VIC 3066
Along with Traveller Coffee, Brother Baba Budan is one of Melbourne’s favourite coffee shops and part of the pioneering coffee company, Seven Seeds. It’s slightly larger than its nearby sister venue, taking its name from a legendary merchant famed for smuggling seven coffee seeds outside of Yemen, hence the name of the overarching business.
Try the coffee of the day at the Brother Baba Budan coffee bar.
The self-described “humble latte slingers,” serve up toasted sandwiches, cakes and pastries, best paired with whatever coffee of the day is being showcased behind the bar. With all types of coffee equipment for retail, including drip coffee bags and cold filter casks, lining the walls, this is the city’s most essential hub for Melbourne’s fussiest coffee drinkers.
Find toasted sandwiches, cakes and pastries on the menu at Brother Baba Budan.
Address: 359 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Traveller Coffee is one of several cafes that have sprung up from the ever-growing Seven Seeds empire. Here, Seven Seeds coffee powers a diminutive grab-and-go spot off Crossley Street, brewed behind a European-style bar that’s lined with cakes and pastries from modern French bakery, Brioche by Phillip.
The offering here is almost identical to what you’ll find at Brother Baba Budan on Little Bourke Street, which is also on this list of Melbourne’s top-rated coffee shops. That means a coffee-of-the-day championing what’s new and exciting at Seven Seeds’ Carlton cafe and roastery, listed alongside all your typical styles of coffee.
Traveller Coffee is one of the city’s premier coffee shops.
Address: 2/14 Crossley St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Wide Open Road Coffee Roasters opened in 2009 as an extension of A Minor Place from founders Jono Hill and Hootan Heydari. The latter has since departed the business, and A Minor Place has since been sold, but Hill still carries this legacy well with an expansive, industrial space serving top-quality coffee and breakfast until 3pm every day.
The popular Brunswick cafe is best known for its Bathysphere blend, which uses beans from coffee-growing meccas like Ethiopia, Kenya, Colombia and Brazil, taking pride of place on the menu along with filter roasts that are best expressed as pour-over coffees.
Like most other coffee shops in Melbourne, Wide Open Road is very precise about technique, which guarantees you’ll be tasting the best version of the many different blends on offer.
Address: 274 Barkly St, Brunswick VIC 3056
Serving Proud Mary coffee beans, this popular Fitzroy cafe is very specific in the way it goes about its business each day. There are no blends at Stagger Lee’s, so all coffee lovers will find single-origin espresso and filter coffee, both masterfully delivered by a Mahlkonig EK 43 grinder for clean, precise extractions.
Linger over brunch at Stagger Lee’s with a copy of Proud Mary’s coffee.
The Proud Mary crew works closely with Brazilian farms to source superior single-origin beans that have been engineered to work beautifully with milk. Those who prefer black coffee will usually find two rotating options behind the bar, which also has a big enough kitchen to work in a sizable cafe menu where bacon sandwiches and Spanish baked eggs go down well for the mid-afternoon crowd.
Address: 276 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065
With its larger roastery in Collingwood and a smaller cafe in Melbourne CBD, Everyday Coffee is another strong presence in Melbourne’s advanced specialty coffee scene. Food-wise, don’t expect much but refined classics using top-shelf Victorian produce.
When it comes to coffee, Everyday proudly displays a selection from Melbourne’s most creative roasteries alongside the team’s own roasts which are mainly used for espresso and filter coffee.
The hard-working La Marzocco Linea takes good care of the city crowd that snakes around the block come lunchtime. Everyday’s beans lean towards those bigger, bolder tastes so most locals would go straight for black for purity of expression. Yet milky coffees are just as good here, speaking highly for the range of roasts that the Everyday team processes through Bureaux Collective.
Find a selection of Melbourne’s most creative roasteries at Everyday Coffee.
Address: 36-38 Sackville St, Collingwood VIC 3066
With the coffee roaster in Brunswick East and a small outpost in South Melbourne Market, Padre Coffee is another big name for Melbourne’s coffee snobs. And to think it was all started by a software engineer, Marinus Jansen, in 2008.
The corner cafe in Brunswick East is an excellent spot to start your day.
While Jansen’s background isn’t in coffee, the co-founder put together a talented team that sources green coffee beans from around 30 estates to create house blends alongside several single origins. Their light and slightly fruity Daddy’s Girl blend works beautifully for espresso, and it is often cited as one of the most adaptable signature blends coming out of Melbourne.
The Daddy’s Girl blend at Padre’s has garnered plenty of attention.
If grab-and-go is your vibe, stick to the city store. But you’ll want to make your way to the East Brunswick original for the regular schedule of barista, roasting and cupping courses, with Padre doing its part in fostering the inescapable growth of Melbourne’s position as one of the best cities in the world for coffee lovers.
Address: 438 Lygon St, Brunswick East VIC 3057
An icon of Flinders Lane, Dukes Coffee Roasters is carved into the heritage Ross House while also operating an appointment-only roastery and training centre out in Richmond. It’s another well-oiled engine holding up Melbourne’s undying love of coffee, offering its own blends and single-origin beans sourced primarily from South America and Africa.
This Flinders Lane icon is a must-visit on your coffee-tasting itinerary in Melbourne. (Image: Visit Victoria)
Most people looking for organic coffee in Melbourne CBD would head straight here, so if you’ve got a machine at home, this Flinders Lane spot should be your first stop.
Expect to queue for this top-notch brew. (Image: Visit Victoria)
The team’s openness to experimental roasting techniques has given Dukes a wide range of flavours so many locals make it a point to check back in every so often to see what’s new. As such, there’ll be a queue on any day of the week, so bring your patience as much as your love of coffee.
Address: 247 Flinders Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000
Once the world’s sole exporter of coffee, the country of Yemen is integral to the culture. You’ll find that several of Melbourne’s best coffee shops pay homage to Yemeni legends, which is where Omar and the Marvellous Coffee Bird gets its odd name.
Omar and the Marvellous Coffee Bird pay homage to Yemeni legends. (Image: Out Run CC)
Shaped after a sheik named Omar who, according to legend, discovered coffee, this cafe does much more than just make great coffee. The educational approach to coffee culture means anyone can drop in for either a brew class or simply to chat with the highly educated baristas for some tips.
Come for coffee or brunch at Omar and the Marvellous Coffee Bird. (Image: Georgia Gouvalari)
Unsurprisingly, the espresso bar takes an exacting approach to making coffee any way you like it. Omar’s blends are refined and sophisticated, designed to work well in either black or white coffee.
an educational approach to coffee culture here.
Address: 124 Gardenvale Rd, Gardenvale VIC 3185
Bench Coffee Co. can be found in The Walking Arcade off Little Collins Street in Melbourne CBD. The boutique coffee roaster is one of the busiest in the area, powering the cups of plenty of nearby cafes including the Japanese-styled Saint Dreux and Bench outposts 580 and Slater Street.
Find Bench Coffee Co. in The Walking Arcade off Little Collins Street.
The Little Collins Street flagship brings it all together, stocking Bench’s best beans and offering all the standard coffee orders including iced filter, cold brew and even an espresso tonic.
Delight in Bench Coffee’s dacquoise display.
Given the team’s obvious love of Japan, best expressed through Saint Dreux, it’s pretty much mandatory that first-timers also order the uji matcha and black sesame buttercream biscuit sandwich to go with your coffee order.
For a more focused experience, head to Bench’s roastery and production space at 38 Breese Street in Brunswick.
Address: 321 Little Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Polished and bright, Acoffee moves away from the requisite grunge of Collingwood and towards something that better aligns with the team’s core values of transparency and simplicity.
Acoffee is a certified Collingwood favourite.
With a very pleasant minimal design, this masterful coffee lab is powered mostly by lighter, more subtle roasts. Black or white? Doesn’t matter. These blends have been designed to work perfectly no matter your coffee order, although the filter coffee is generally the best way to play in this bright spot.
Take a seat in the minimalistic cafe.
Acoffee began life as a wholesale roaster working out of South Melbourne, but the impact it has had on Melbourne’s coffee machine wasn’t apparent until this Collingwood favourite opened with its calming interior. The few pops of colour come from the glass cabinet displaying all kinds of sweet and savoury pastries to pair with your morning coffee.
Address: 30 Sackville St, Collingwood VIC 3066
After years spent supplying Melbourne’s best cafes with its roasts, Rumble Coffee Roasters opened its own espresso bar in 2021 on a quiet street in Kensington. The bar, which is the face of Rumble’s larger roasting business, acts like a cellar door for the operation where guests can also keep a close eye on the roasting area.
This sense of theatre helps set Rumble apart from the many coffee shops scattered around Melbourne. There’s a rich stock of blends, single origins and a rotating filter coffee of the week selection, served up alongside sweet and savoury pastries.
Rumble’s very transparent approach to provenance even reveals how much each grower is paid for their crops. Considering this, take some time to ask your barista whatever you want to know about Melbourne’s coffee culture; you’re in the company of experts.
Address: 8 Thompson St, Kensington VIC 3031
Blume Coffee owner Angus Gibb operates this humble community roaster out in Abbotsford, pumping out great quality, honest coffee on the daily. Unlike a lot of Melbourne’s top coffee shops, Blume is less about growing an empire and more about providing a cosy, welcoming space where locals can start their morning or break up their day.
Gibb works with ethical suppliers to source green beans for his product, which usually rotates through several single-origin coffees as well as two seasonal blends. But it’s the vibe that keeps regulars coming back, presenting a tiny, converted garage that is now very much one of the coolest places to hang in Abbotsford.
Try the signature roast at Blume’s.
Address: 2 Yarra St, Abbotsford VIC 3067
Owners Alex Anderson and Kate Holloway have worked across Melbourne’s leading coffee roasters, including St ALi, Seven Seeds and Brother Buda Budan. Clearly, the pedigree is strong behind the bar at The Premises with their small team of baristas maximising the best of Seven Seeds coffee beans.
The Premises brews up Seven Seeds coffee.
Holloway has put together a menu of light cafe favourites to play around with the different flavour profiles of each brew. Think of dishes like slow-roasted pulled pork and homemade chutney, going down extra smooth with light-bodied, excellent coffee that would appeal to both enthusiasts and casual sippers.
The menu is curated to complement the different flavour profiles of each brew.
Address: 202 Bellair St, Kensington VIC 3031
When the sun falls, Chiaki turns into an izakaya with traditional Japanese food and a long list of sake. By day, however, this Collingwood favourite is a humble cafe coming from co-founders Mo Zhou and Kantaro Okada, along with Alicia Feng who also runs another one of Melbourne’s favourite coffee shops, Calere on Gertrude Street.
Dine on authentic Japanese offerings at Chiaki.
Ochazuke, a full-flavoured Japanese broth dish poured over rice and toppings, is refined with local produce and makes up most of the food offered here. Coffee, however, comes from Five Senses and several guest roasters that Feng has connections to in China and Japan. This offers some vastly different flavour profiles than what you’d find at most of the coffee cafes in Melbourne.
Don’t miss out on their specialty coffee.
Address: 49 Peel St, Collingwood VIC 3066
Calere is one of the smallest coffee shops in Melbourne, attached to Mo Zhou’s underrated fine diner Gaea on Gertrude Street. Zhou’s partner, Alicia Feng, runs the show with a range of roasts sourced from Ona Coffee.
Calere’s cafe interior is full of sophisticated charm.
Having one of Australia’s best coffee roasters on the shelf certainly helps Calere pump out those consistently excellent coffees, offered as either filter or espresso. Beans from regular guest roasters are also available and Feng keeps a small batch of fresh pastries for the grab-and-go crowd.
Address: shop 1/166 Gertrude St, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Aaron Wood’s small backyard operation began in 2015, providing small batch roasted coffee around Melbourne. Wood & Co. grew into a wholesaler before firming up a physical presence in 2019 with this handsome, uncomplicated cafe.
Wood & Co. serve up cans of cold brew as well as the usual suspects.
You can pop in to grab a quick can of cold brew or hang around for the most delicious, blended espresso in the area. The menu covers all the usual styles of coffee, enhanced by Wood’s acclaimed blends like Twin Peaks and Sunshine.
While most regulars would pop by for a quick takeaway coffee, there are a few scattered seats for anyone who wants to dine in. Those who hang around are usually rewarded with a show, being that the open-plan space is designed so anyone can watch the roasting process.
Opt for an iced coffee when the weather heats up.
Address: 369 Albert St, Brunswick VIC 3056
Carlton is one of Melbourne’s most polished and charismatic inner-city suburbs, with a strong cultural heart. Carlton made a name for itself as Mel...
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No thanks, I like to travel solo
Hi can you please visit Bodgo’s in Blackburn for a great coffee and feed. Oh and it’s on me☕️️