The 19 Best Rooftop Bars in Melbourne With City Views

Located on the edge of the Yarra River, Transit is a hotspot for both locals and travellers alike, drawn by its impressive outlook across the twinkling cityscape. The vantage point is so spectacular it was featured in Qantas’s Australia in the Sky campaign. Enjoy the glistening lights with some live music and a pick from the bar’s lengthy gin martini list. The only question is: shaken or stirred?

There’s only one destination in Melbourne that offers a near bird’s eye view of the city and that’s The Ritz-Carlton Melbourne. Cameo, the hotel’s refined bar on the 80th floor astride the lobby and restaurant, Atria, pairs a singular panorama of Melbourne and beyond with rare and antique spirits. This is a special occasion spot – with a price tag to match.

Natural wines, fiery Thai and lemon sorbet-hued awnings capture a relaxed mood at HER Rooftop, the jewel in the crown of the Pacific House building. It’s at the top of an experiential layer cake: one level down is BKK, one of the city’s most vibrant Thai restaurants, with Music Room — a listening bar that’s a little like being immersed inside an architecturally-designed speaker — underneath that. Exploration is encouraged.

QT Melbourne’s 11th-storey bar, Rooftop at QT, offers views of Melbourne’s high-rise dotted skyline, situated as it is in the heart of the CBD. There’s an extensive wine and beer list, and the cocktail menu features tipples with popular Victorian distillery Four Pillars variations– try the Bloody Shiraz Spritz with Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz, rose vermouth and sour plum for a zesty thirst quencher.

The greenery-filled rooftop bar is the perfect spot to set up a perch for a long summer night but it’s the innovative cocktail menu that will keep you there for longer than you planned – the award-winning bartenders make many of their own syrups, liqueurs and oils to use in the concoctions. The Soothing Broma is dessert in a cup, with chocolate gin, mezcal, vanilla syrup and coconut milk.

Soak up summer rays with a direct view of Melbourne’s Neoclassical Parliament House from the mammoth rooftop of The Imperial Hotel. For sustenance, devour parmies and burgers and one of the  20+ on-tap beers, ciders and seltzers.

Grilled octopus with davidson plum barbecue sauce? A roll brimming with fresh lobster and fresh chives? Bottles of Ruinart and Bollinger? The focus at Melbourne restaurant and bar Pinchy's is sustainably sourced, thoughtfully curated food and drink and boy, does it pack a punch.

Tiki-inspired cocktails, Australian botanicals and a portrait of Bill Murray hanging in pride of place over the bar – Union Electric’s eclectic influences make it stand out in Melbourne’s rooftop scene. Ordering from the funky cocktail menu is a must, especially as old school hip hop blasts from the speakers.

The three-level establishment, opposite South Melbourne Market, features a function space, club and a rooftop with perfectly framed views of Southbank’s skyline. Cocktails have been given a fresh spin: try a Spicy Amigo, with Olmeca Reposado, mango puree and green tabasco.

Cosy velvet banquette seats line the edges of Fable Melbourne, a sky high bar and eatery that’s one of the highest of its kind in the city. Both sit down spreads and nibble-friendly bites are on offer here — no matter the occasion, there’s a refined seafood-focused choice to match. (May we suggest the seared scallops with taramasalata butter and caviar?)

At this Spanish-style worker’s bar, good things come in small packages, such as smoked trout pâté or Manchego-laced croquettes. Throw in a wine list with local drops from McLaren Vale and the Mornington Peninsula, rounded out by Navarra and Rioja and a smart retractable roof, and you’ve got the perfect all-weather spot for something small and stunning.

This jungle-themed rooftop is perfect for sunny afternoons. There’s a cocktail menu that plays with vibrant flavour, from the tart Lemon Curd Martini to the fresh lim and smoked paprika-tinged Chipotle and Mezcal Sour. For the traditionalists, there’s also a steady list of craft beer and a snacky bar menu.

Step onto the rooftop of the Carlton Hotel and be whisked away to the tropics, complete with full-size palm trees, bougainvillea, neon cocktails and a tiki-style bar. The only reminder that you’re still in Melbourne is the skyline.

This cosy, produce-driven establishment has quite the secret above its entry level deli. At street level, it’s a casual, warm eatery. One level up, it’s a farm-to-table extravaganza and, one level above that, there’s a rooftop, open to the skyscraper-strewn skies. The menus of all three places are seasonally switched, so don’t expect the same cocktail list every time you enter.

A casual, wood-fired pizza-slinging space atop Pullman Melbourne on Swanson, Blossoms Rooftop Bar offers a stunning 270-degree view of the city, with live music giving the view a soundtrack on Friday and Saturday nights.

Dressed in colours of faded gold and orange, South Cali-inspired Beverly in South Yarra has a distinct summer feel, no matter the season. The menu also speaks to warmer climes, with tabasco and lime-spiked oysters and duck sliders matched with jalapeno sauce, as does the varied wine list, with bottles from both near and far.

Bringing ‘80s Americana (think Palm Springs in its heyday) to inner Melbourne, Good Heavens slings fun cocktails, hearty dishes and, when the weather permits, beams of sunshine from its open perch on Bourke Street. (Don’t worry, the huge space has all-year cover, too).

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