Best Bars in Melbourne

In the basement of Pomodoro Sardo on Lonsdale Street, Bar Margaux is a late-night bar and brasserie in the CBD. The 80-seater restaurant takes inspiration from the Big Apple with an NYC-inspired fit out however the brasserie menu will showcase a French flair. From the team behind Melbourne's The Everleigh and Heartbreaker, Bar Margaux will be open until 3 am during the week and 5 am on the weekend, with a supper menu available all night.

Photography: Courtesy of Bar Margaux

This cocktail bar with a whisky focus is hidden, fittingly, in a lane called Malthouse. Eau De Vie's penchant for cocktails is balanced by its masculine decor; think jazz tunes, leather and polished mahogany. Bring your friends for a cocktail degustation dinner, a brave new territory where a five course food extravaganza meets and greets the very best of booze.

All aboard the Afloat, this sundrenched floating bar on the Yarra River is best enjoyed with a spritz in hand and a margarita pizza on the way. With such a location, you could forgive the Afloat team if food played second fiddle, but Executive Chef Nick Bennett has managed to keep it centre stage. Influenced from Cinque Terre’s rugged coastline and its romantic fishing villages, the menu delivers small and large plates, perfect for sharing amongst groups. Seafood is a focus with special attention given to oyster sourcing.

Cocktail powerhouse The Black Pearl is the place to visit if you're looking for a classy bar where you can drink posh without having to maintain a ramrod-straight spine. Downstairs, drink beer or whisky from vintage ‘70s tankards. Upstairs, in The Attic, maroon-shirted waiters serve exciting cocktails in crystal cut Royal Doulton glassware. Table service makes The Black Pearl personalised and civilised, but on the weekends, the bar is swamped three-persons deep with patrons determined to have a knees-up good time, whatever their poison.

Any bar that describes itself as a "disco eating house and beer hall" is bound to make its patrons happy. Cookie somehow manages to fuse beer hall, cocktail bar and modern Thai restaurant with flair. The bar stocks a plethora of micro-brews and 350 different wines, plus, a hidden corner bar pours an endless stream of innovative cocktails. Cookie is smack-bang in the middle of the city, but transports you to a cooler plane, with its pastiche of French doors, Juliet balconies and manga inspired murals.

Lily Blacks is a high end gin joint and cocktail connoisseur's dream that's open till 3 am, every night of the week. The decor gives a little nod to the 1920s speakeasy, with its potted palms, a wooden bar and doilies under the ashtrays. Lily Blacks takes a sophisticated approach to booze – the classics are served with a twist and assembled using the freshest ingredients and a flair for drama. There is a generous list of wines by the glass and for drinkers who prefer a simpler brew, there are numerous beers and ciders on tap. We recommend lining your stomach with Lily's bar snacks, like charcuteries and cheese platters, olives and brandy-soaked prunes.

The Everleigh's location, hidden so that only those looking for it will notice it, says a lot about its character. It's a proper American-style cocktail bar of old, when drinks were bespoke and each glass was treated with courtesy. Candlelight glints off vintage chandeliers, well heeled patrons slide into mahogany booths and the air is filled with smooth jazz tunes that make you feel like you're drinking in a golden age.

Rooftop Bar? It's a bar on the roof, above Curtin House. This Swanston Street hangout finds its groove in summer, when it's an open-air cinema and bar, with dude food offerings. Between December and March, entry is restricted to ticket holders only. You can also visit in winter, it's just a different experience as you stand beneath the heaters and munch on Vietnamese fare from MissChu.

It's rare that a night out on the town will also provide you with an intoxicating education in cocktail history, but that's the charm of 1806. Quite appropriately, the name of this bar is in fact the year that the first ever cocktail was created and the admirable cocktail list accurately follows a timeline of the last 200 years of drinking, providing an interesting insight into a bar culture that hasn't altered a great deal.

Notoriously difficult to find, descending into Izakaya Den can fill the uninitiated with nervous excitement , but never fear, what you'll find here are friendly faces and a space devoted in equal parts to the art of Japanese eating and drinking. Note the performance art that goes on behind the open kitchen and bar, with the chefs and mixologists dancing around each other. Obviously, all drinks have a Japanese bent, from sake to imported beers, but the range is wide and there is something for all tastes.