Neighbourhood · Melbourne
Coffee in the Melbourne CBD
The CBD is Melbourne's standing-bar district. Patricia, Brother Baba Budan and Maker cluster around Little Bourke Street, Dukes and Project Zero sit near Flinders Street, and Vacation holds the corner of Flinders and Exhibition. Walk them west to east and finish at Traveller on Crossley Street. Most open early on weekdays, and Traveller closes on Sundays.
The shops
18
No. 1
Patricia Coffee Brewers
CBD+1 locationMust-try
Patricia has served coffee from a standing-room-only corner of Little Bourke and Little William streets since 2011. The menu is three words long: white, black or filter. All the coffee now comes from its own roastery in Coburg North, and the house espresso and filter change with the season. There are no tables, only a marble bar, brass hooks and a queue out the door most mornings. A second Patricia bar works on Lonsdale Street.
Rear of, 493-495 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 2
Brother Baba Budan
CBDMust-try
Brother Baba Budan was the Seven Seeds team's first city café, named after the Sufi who, legend says, smuggled seven coffee seeds out of Yemen. It pours the Seven Seeds house blend and a coffee of the day, usually a single origin, as espresso, filter or nitro. The room has a single communal table, a tiny bar and about 15 seats, with more chairs hanging from the ceiling. Food stops at small cakes and pastries. Expect a wait at peak times.
359 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 3
ACOFFEE
Collingwood+1 locationMust-try
Acoffee roasts in a converted Collingwood garage painted so white it looks more like a tech store than a café. Co-owner and coffee director Byoung-Woo Kang, Australia's 2014 cup tasting champion and a former Market Lane roaster, roasts lighter than is usual to keep each coffee bright and clear. The espresso machine sits on a long island bench, and filter roasts and drip bags are on the shelf to take home. A second Acoffee works on Russell Street in the CBD.
30 Sackville St, Collingwood VIC 3066, Australia
No. 4
Everyday Coffee
Collingwood+1 locationMust-try
Everyday opened in 2013 pouring beans from other Melbourne roasters, and since 2019 it has roasted its own at the back of this vast red-brick warehouse in Collingwood. Espresso and filter both come from the house roasts, and every coffee arrives with a glass of sparkling water. The menu is mostly bagels, with cinnamon scrolls in the cabinet, and local DJs play on the sound system. As the name says, it trades every day of the year. Its smaller CBD sibling, Everyday Midtown, is on Little Collins Street.
36-38 Sackville St, Collingwood VIC 3066, Australia
No. 5
Vacation Coffee CBD
CBD+2 locationsMust-try
Vacation is a ten-seat café on the corner of Flinders and Exhibition streets, where the Sahely brothers uncovered the windows and restored an eight-metre ceiling. The fit-out is mid-century and eighties pastel: mint-green teak seats and pale-pink steel benches. The team roasts its own coffee and sells it by the cup and by the bag, with single origins on filter and batch brew. It ranked 71st on the World's 100 Best Coffee Shops list in 2025 and 100th in 2026. There are also Vacation cafés in Richmond and Cremorne.
1 Exhibition St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 6
Dukes Coffee Roasters
CBDMust-try
Dukes roasts mostly organic coffees bought from small farms and cooperatives across Africa, Asia and the Americas, with each lot traceable to where it was grown. This small café in Ross House, a community-owned building on Flinders Lane, is the best place to try the latest single origins, brewed as espresso, filter or French press. The fit-out by Chris Connell uses reclaimed timber, recycled tiles and green trim, and there are only a few seats. Order a pour-over with a pastry and perch at the counter.
247 Flinders Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 7
MAKER Richmond
Richmond+1 locationMust-try
Stephanie and John Vroom, both coffee industry veterans, do not believe in blends. Their roastery, Maker, serves only single origins, up to five at a time, to show they can be as versatile as any blend. The Richmond café is the roastery's home, with the widest choice of espresso and filter, pastries and cakes, and roasters you can ask about what they are working on. Smaller Maker bars pour the same coffees in the CBD, South Yarra and Prahran.
47 North St, Richmond VIC 3121, Australia
No. 8
BENCH COFFEE CO. Lt Collins
CBD+3 locationsMust-try
Bench is a boutique roaster with its own flagship on Little Collins Street, an angular black-and-white corner bar designed by Arkhe Tekhne. Half the room is the statement bench, built on glass blocks. The coffee menu is short: the basics plus hot and iced filter, cold brew and an espresso tonic, with beans to take home. The only food is dacquoise in flavours such as Uji matcha and black sesame. Bench roasts in Brunswick, where the roastery shares space with a bakery kitchen, and runs two more bars on St Kilda Road.
321 Little Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 9
Project Zero Coffee Meriton Suites
CBD+1 locationMust-try
Kirk Pearson opened Project Zero in the CBD in 2023, below the Meriton Suites on King Street, and added a second shop on Flinders Street. It roasts its own coffee: fruit-forward house blends such as Strawberry Cheesecake, plus single origins for filter and espresso. In 2026 Pearson moved the milk drinks, most of the business, to espresso pulled ahead of service, a change Broadsheet covered at length; black coffees are still brewed to order from rare releases. Pearson also hosts the Coffee Show podcast.
Store 1/140 King St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 10
Traveller Coffee
CBDGood
Traveller is the Seven Seeds team's second city café, a narrow, lightly toned room meant to recall an old Airstream caravan, with a neon boot hanging over Crossley Street. It is standing room only, with a European-style bar for reading the paper, and the takeaway window is set up to pour filter coffee quickly. The coffee is Seven Seeds, as at Brother Baba Budan, with sandwiches, cakes and pastries on the counter. It closes on Sundays.
2/14 Crossley St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 11
Palace Coffee
CBDGood
Palace Coffee is a standing-room espresso bar in a laneway beneath Monaco House, and it won Best Café Design at the 2025 Eat Drink Design Awards. Kerry Kounnapis Architecture Practice gave it a sculptural oxide-red steel entry, a recessed threshold and a service window that opens the bar to the street. The jury praised a small room that feels purposeful in every detail, a modern take on the old standing-only cafés. Come for a quick espresso at the window.
22 Ridgway Pl, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 12
Little Rogue.
CBDGood
Little Rogue is a laneway café on Drewery Lane, behind a bright blue door, with white walls, birch floors and a lightwell next to the coffee machine, rare this deep in the CBD. It was the first venture of former Plantation baristas Leo Lee and Calvin Ko, and the house blend is Small Batch's Candyman. Sweets come from local bakers, and the walls have hosted work by artists without a space of their own.
12 Drewery Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 13
Rosso Coffee Experience
North Melbourne+1 locationGood
Rosso roasts its coffee on site in North Melbourne and built this café as a place to taste, sit and learn. House blends and single origins come from beans sourced around the world, the kitchen is run by chefs, and free hands-on tasting sessions are part of the programme. Rosso also runs an espresso bar on Collins Street in the CBD for a quicker cup.
117 Dryburgh St, North Melbourne VIC 3051, Australia
No. 14
Four Kilo Fish Coffee & Tea
Hawthorn+1 locationGood
Four Kilo Fish builds its coffee around Yunnan, the coffee-growing province in south-west China, and sells single-origin Yunnan lots alongside its espresso blends and teas. The Hawthorn café on Glenferrie Road is the place to try coffee from Yunnan, as espresso or with milk. A second Four Kilo Fish bar works on Collins Street in the CBD.
834 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn VIC 3122, Australia
No. 15
Crimson Coffee
Camberwell+1 locationGood
Crimson sources seasonal coffees that score above 80 points and roasts them in small batches on a Diedrich, testing each roast before it goes out. The lots come with their details: a recent filter coffee was a washed Ayla Bombe from Sidama, Ethiopia, grown by 725 smallholders at about 2,000 metres. The Camberwell café is on Burke Road, and a second Crimson café works on Elizabeth Street in the CBD.
716 Burke Rd, Camberwell VIC 3124, Australia
No. 16
Otherside Coffee
CBD+1 locationGood
Otherside roasts its own coffee, led by the Little Temperance blend, a bold, complex espresso with bright acidity. The Little Collins Street café in the CBD opens every day from early morning, and the team publishes brew guides for AeroPress, V60 and Moccamaster if you take beans home. A second Otherside café is in North Melbourne.
Shop 3/188 Little Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 17
Quists Coffee
CBDGood
Quists calls itself Melbourne's original coffee roaster, a family-owned, Australian-run business that imports beans from around the world and roasts them locally. The range runs from blends to a specialty line and single origins, and the Little Collins Street café is the place to drink them in the city. It is a slice of Melbourne coffee history a few steps from the newer specialty bars.
166 Little Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
No. 18
Bearded Brothers Espresso
CBDGood
Bearded Brothers Espresso is a Little Collins Street coffee bar whose brand offers specialty blends and single-origin coffees for cafés and home brewers. The team describes its approach as thoughtful and deliberate, and it sells beans, goods and a subscription online. Stop in for an espresso between the CBD's bigger names.
Bearded Brothers Espresso - Coffee, 342 Little Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
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