St Kilda Is Rising: The Old Favourites and New Openings Bringing Melbourne’s Seaside Back to Life

There was a time when Melbourne’s best nights had a habit of ending in St Kilda. A gig at the Prince Bandroom, wine at Dog’s Bar, dancing at Big Mouth or one more drink at the Espy. The Greyhound had its drag queens, Acland Street its late-night crowd, and Fitzroy Street was a parade of musicians, artists, beautiful troublemakers and people who’d long since abandoned the idea of an early night.

In the ’90s, St Kilda was a little gritty, a little glamorous and entirely its own creature. But its bohemian spirit ran much deeper. Decades earlier, Mirka Mora and her husband Georges had turned Fitzroy Street’s Tolarno into a meeting place for Melbourne’s artists and intellectuals, its walls alive with Mirka’s fantastical paintings. It wasn’t trying to be cool. It just was.

Then Melbourne changed around it. Small bars flourished in the CBD and inner north, rising rents put pressure on the creative community, and familiar venues began disappearing. Fitzroy Street, once the centre of it all, found itself with empty shopfronts where the crowds used to be. St Kilda hadn’t lost its history, but somewhere along the way, it had lost a little of its magic.

Now, after years of watching the rest of Melbourne steal the spotlight, there’s movement along the foreshore.

Andrew McConnell and Jo McGann are reimagining one of Melbourne’s most famous beachfront addresses. Ellie Bouhadana is preparing to give the old Claypots site a second life, Grant Smillie has plans for The Prince, and the Saint Hotel is readying its return to Fitzroy Street. The people behind some of Melbourne’s most interesting hospitality ventures are looking south, and they’re looking at St Kilda with fresh eyes.

The old guard, meanwhile, has never entirely surrendered the stage. Donovans, with its sandstone fireplaces, white tablecloths and magnificent bay views, is collecting accolades nearly three decades on. The Palais still knows how to put on a show, the Espy remains an institution, and the rebuilt St Kilda Pier curves out into the bay, its penguin colony welcoming another generation of admirers.

Of course, the St Kilda of the ’90s can’t be recreated. Nor should it be. What excites me is the possibility of something entirely its own, where old music rooms and seaside institutions share the neighbourhood with ambitious newcomers, and there’s still room for the artists, eccentrics and characters who made the suburb famous. Because the best thing about St Kilda was never simply where you went. It was who you might find when you got there.

Maybe I’m a little sentimental about St Kilda. Maybe I just want to see Melbourne fall in love with its seaside again. But if there’s one suburb I’m rooting for this summer, it’s this one.

Fresh Openings + Coming Soon

The Snakepit at The George Hotel

Fitzroy Street is finding its appetite for late nights again, and one of its most exciting new addresses is an old one. Beneath the historic George Hotel, The Snakepit returns on 13 November, reached by a staircase of plush oxblood carpet. Inside, walnut tables, fringed lamps and candlelight lead towards a Yamaha baby grand beneath pale-blue drapes, with a disco ball waiting overhead. Upstairs, the Crystal Ballroom once hosted Nick Cave’s Boys Next Door; downstairs, the basement earned its Flying Jug nickname and a reputation of its own. Ganley Group has given the place another life, with live soul, blues and nu jazz, vinyl spinning between sets and a 50/50 Freezer Martini across the bar. Behind the stairs, an old-fashioned pantry houses pickles, terrines and a hand-cranked Berkel slicing jamón to order. It’s a deliciously grown-up feel for a neighbourhood that has always known how to misbehave. And on Fridays and Saturdays, there’s until 3am to do so.

Opens Friday 13 November

127 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$$
Cuisine: Cocktail bar
Best For: Live music, Date nights, Late-night drinks, Group catch-ups
Need To Know: Opens Friday 13 November 2026. Friday and Saturday, 4pm–3am; Sunday, 3pm–10pm. The larder closes at 9pm.

The Prince

Few St Kilda addresses have lived quite as many lives as The Prince. Punk bands, legendary drag nights, the sweat-soaked dancefloors of Onelove — the old Prince of Wales has witnessed more Melbourne nightlife than most of us could reasonably survive. Grant Smillie knows it intimately. Before his Los Angeles restaurant ventures, he was behind the decks here, and now he’s returning to give the old institution some much-needed attention.

On 19 November, the former rooftop function deck opens to the public as Prince Terrace, its swimming pool replaced by a place for drinks, dining and views stretching across Port Phillip Bay. Downstairs, the pub is getting back to the business of being a proper local, while the beloved Bandroom and 39-room hotel remain.

There’s something sincerely satisfying about the prospect of a beer on the corner, a drink above Acland Street and a band worth staying out for. St Kilda has been missing nights like these.

Opens 19 November

2 Acland Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$ (indicative; new menu pricing to be confirmed)
Cuisine: Pub fare
Best For: Group dining, Wine lovers, Live music, Weekend plans
Need To Know: The Prince Pub and Prince Terrace are scheduled to open Thursday 19 November 2026. Rooftop trading begins at 4pm; the pub opens from 7am.

Bar Adri

Fitzroy Street has a new wine bar, and its name is a love letter. Lasagna Lab founder Mattia Aloisio named Bar Adri after his wife, Adriana, who has also had a hand in its handsome walnut-lined interiors, wine list and front-of-house hospitality. Both are St Kilda locals, and their affection for the neighbourhood is written all over the place.

In the kitchen, Mattia has enlisted former Tipo 00 head chef Tommy Barreault for the launch, with a European menu that makes excellent use of Australian produce. Skull Island prawns arrive charred over hibachi with Tasmanian mountain pepper and smoky urfa chilli; calamari gets mustard greens, capers and anchovy dressing. At $45, the porterhouse is the most expensive thing on the menu. Adriana’s wine list looks to Australia, Italy and France, with 14 rotating options by the glass and, Champagne aside, nothing over $19.

And here’s a detail we love: on Fridays and Saturdays, the kitchen keeps cooking until midnight. Beef brisket cheeseburgers and aglio e olio spaghetti, with bottarga if you fancy it, are available long after most kitchens have called it a night. Fitzroy Street could use more of this.

There’s covered footpath seating, too, and absolutely no insistence on making a three-course occasion of things. A plate of prawns and a good glass of wine will do very nicely.

109 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$
Cuisine: Modern European
Best For: Date nights, Wine lovers, Late-night dining, Spontaneous drinks
Need To Know: Open Wednesday to Sunday. The kitchen serves until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Marea Beach House

Downstairs at the Stokehouse, Andrew McConnell and Jo McGann have opened Marea Beach House & Bar, a Southern European-inspired restaurant with Port Phillip Bay practically at its feet. There’s wood-grilled flatbread to drag through whipped cod roe, fritto misto piled with school prawns, calamari and whitebait, and spaghetti tangled with Coffin Bay vongole. The fish and chips have survived the change of ownership, too. Local flathead, chips cooked three times. Some things are simply worth keeping.

ACME has given the interiors a warm, lived-in beauty, with hand-carved sculptures and artwork by Mallorca-based Magnus Reid. Live music, cold spritzes and carafes of white sangria with lychee and apple complete the picture.

And there’s no obligation to make a grand occasion of lunch. A plate of prawns, something crisp in your glass and the beach waiting just beyond the door. Arrive with sandy feet if you like. Nobody’s making a fuss.

30 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$$
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Best For: Waterfront, Long lunch, Date night, Outdoor dining, Group dining
Need To Know: Open daily from midday until late. Walk-ins welcome, with reservations also available.

Stokehouse

Some Melbourne restaurants are more than places to eat. Stokehouse has hosted decades of birthdays, proposals and long lunches above St Kilda Beach, survived a devastating fire in 2014 and risen from the ashes once already. Now it’s back again. After 36 years in the van Haandel family’s hands, Andrew McConnell and Jo McGann have taken the reins, reopening the upstairs dining room on 3 November with softer interiors, a new seafood-led menu and that extraordinary sweep of Port Phillip Bay.

In the kitchen, Tasmanian white asparagus arrives with picked mud crab, Marcona almonds and brown butter; John Dory joins red mullet, clams and mussels in a rich sauce américaine. Old favourites haven’t been forgotten, including King George whiting, grilled lobster and dry-aged Gippsland rib-eye. The wine list remains formidable, with sommelier Wil Martin looking after a cellar that has long been part of the occasion.

The room may have changed, but there’s still that wonderful moment when the afternoon light catches the water and dinner seems an awfully long way off.

Now open

30 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$$
Cuisine: Seafood
Best For: Special occasion, Waterfront, Long lunch, Date night, Wine lovers
Need To Know: Open daily from midday until late. Reservations are available up to three months in advance.

The Saint Hotel

There’s life in the old Saint yet. Built as a bank in 1914, the Fitzroy Street landmark has since been a pub, nightclub and restaurant, collecting a fair few stories along the way.

This December, Refinery Group is bringing The Saint Hotel back, with chef Justin North overseeing the pub classics and Santos Pizzeria making Detroit-style pies. Downstairs, a public bar and beer garden await; upstairs, a balcony bar and vinyl-fuelled cocktail lounge promise a later finish.

Vintage St Kilda prints, warm walnut and a custom pool table nod to the building’s earlier lives without attempting to recreate them. The intention is a proper neighbourhood pub with somewhere to go when the first round turns into the third.

54 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$ (indicative)
Cuisine: Pub fare, Pizza
Best For: Group dining, Cocktail lovers, Date night, Late night
Need To Know: Reopening in December 2026, with reservations available from Friday 4 December. The official opening date is yet to be separately confirmed.

Dafina Seaside Grill

The old Claypots bar was reportedly fashioned from timber pinched from St Kilda Pier. Happily, it’s staying. So is the bougainvillea-draped courtyard, as chef Ellie Bouhadana and husband Rapha Tamir prepare to open Dafina Seaside Grill in one of Barkly Street’s most beloved old haunts.

Both grew up eating at Claypots, which fed St Kilda for 28 years. Tamir’s grandparents were regulars for Friday spaghetti marinara. Now, following Bouhadana’s acclaimed Hope St Radio years and a summer cooking seafood at Stokehouse’s Ellie’s Kiosk, the couple are making the address their own.

Named after a Sephardi Jewish dish cooked overnight in the embers, Dafina will draw on Bouhadana’s Moroccan heritage, with brochettes, whole fish scented with cumin and garlic, lamb chops and fresh flatbreads for swiping through generous bowls of dips. Live music is planned, along with a bar for oysters and a beer, or somewhere to begin a longer evening with a whole fish and Champagne.

A new chapter for Claypots, with its old St Kilda soul still very much intact.

Expected to open in early 2027

213 Barkly Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: TBC
Cuisine: Seafood
Best For: Date night, Group dining, Outdoor dining, Locals
Need To Know: Opening is planned for early 2027. The official date, final menu, prices and reservations have yet to be announced.

Ultramarinos

There’s a fine argument for following a swim with gelato. An even better one for following it with a cocktail. On 1 December, Andrew McConnell and Jo McGann will open Ultramarinos at the old Stokehouse beachfront kiosk, in a summer-long collaboration with Melbourne’s beloved Pidapipó. Proper Italian gelato, granita, extravagant sundaes and ice-cream sandwiches are planned, alongside cocktails for anyone whose afternoon has progressed beyond a quick dip. With Marea now open downstairs and Stokehouse back in business above, the famous Jacka Boulevard address has three very different ways to spend a summer’s day. Ultramarinos might be the one most likely to leave you with sticky fingers.

Opening Tuesday 1 December 2026

30 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$ (indicative)
Cuisine: Gelato
Best For: Waterfront, Quick bite, Outdoor dining, Weekend plans
Need To Know: A seasonal beachfront kiosk opening 1 December. Trading hours and menu prices are yet to be confirmed.

The New Guard

The old St Kilda could turn a Tuesday into a tale worth telling on Friday. Its current collection of pubs, bars and restaurants has inherited the knack. On Blessington Street, Thai spices drift from a charcoal grill. Along Inkerman, oysters are back on ice, with a neighbourhood pub next door. Fitzroy Street has familiar publicans, fresh faces and several excellent arguments against an early night.

The Fifth Province & The Carriage Bar

The Guinness has been flowing at The Fifth Province for years, but this Fitzroy Street Irish favourite isn’t resting on its laurels. Traditional music sessions gather musicians and regulars around the tables, the whiskey collection runs to more than 100 bottles, and Sunday’s roast comes with Yorkshire puddings and all the trimmings.

Its latest addition, The Carriage Bar, is a private-hire space with a fireplace and heated verandah, designed for gatherings that deserve their own room. An engagement, a milestone birthday, an especially enthusiastic family reunion; the pub has space for all of them.

Sitchu Tip: Monday’s traditional Irish music session starts at 6pm. Musicians are welcome to join in.

5/60 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$
Cuisine: Pub fare
Best For: Group dining, Special occasion, Weekend plans, Locals
Need To Know: The Carriage Bar is available for private functions, with a fireplace and heated verandah. Enquire directly for bookings.

Yang Thai

Your average charcoal chicken shop could never. At Yang Thai, former Earth Angels chef Narit Kimsat and Waxflower co-founder Jimmy Pham give the suburban staple a southern Thai accent. Chicken is brined, marinated in turmeric and black pepper, then cooked over charcoal for smoky skin and juicy meat.

Order sticky rice, freshly pounded green papaya salad and a fierce coriander-chilli sauce alongside it. Even the chips get special treatment, arriving with tamarind ketchup.

Take your haul to St Kilda Botanical Gardens, find a patch of grass and settle in for lunch. It’s an excellent way to spend an afternoon without spending much at all.

49 Blessington Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $
Cuisine: Thai
Best For: Budget-friendly, Quick bite, Locals, Weekend plans
Need To Know: Takeaway available, with St Kilda Botanical Gardens a short walk away.

The Lion and Wombat

On Grey Street, a little piece of Britain has found its Melbourne home, and the weekend crowds suggest the feeling is mutual.

The Lion and Wombat does Scotch eggs, fish-finger sandwiches and Sunday roasts with crisp potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and generous gravy. Cask ale is drawn from a traditional hand pump, dogs are welcome in the beer garden and nobody appears to be in much of a hurry.

There’s something reassuring about a pub where the food is good, the beer is treated with respect and you might know the faces at the next table before you leave.

107 Grey Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$
Cuisine: Pub fare
Best For: Dog-friendly, Group dining, Weekend plans, Locals

Walrus Oyster Bar

St Kilda nearly lost The Walrus. For four months, it did.

After closing abruptly in December 2025, Amy McGouldrick and chef Marty Webster revived their Inkerman Street oyster bar in April, now with bigger culinary ambitions thanks to the kitchen at neighbouring Carpenter’s Ruin.

Thankfully, the favourites survived: freshly shucked oysters, gildas, carbonara-style sea urchin pasta and very dirty martinis.

The mustard-yellow walls are back, the owners’ eclectic record collection is playing and the wine list continues to champion lesser-known producers. For those who mourned its departure, the return of a familiar table and a dozen oysters is cause for celebration.

9 Inkerman Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$
Cuisine: Seafood, Wine bar
Best For: Date night, Wine lovers, Cocktail lovers, Locals

The Carpenter’s Ruin

One door down from The Walrus, the same team has opened a neighbourhood pub with a terrific appetite. At The Carpenter’s Ruin, Wednesday means buttery moules-frites, Thursday brings schnitzels and Friday offers a three-martini lunch with steak and chips.

Chef Ciara Woodside makes Cook Islands-style ika mata, while the famous Walrus oyster pâté gets a second home. Local beers, Australian wines and substantial cocktails give the drinks list plenty of range. It works just as happily for a beer after the footy as it does for dinner, and the weekly specials make a very good case for becoming a regular.

Sitchu Tip: The Friday three-martini lunch runs from noon to 3pm, with steak, chips and three martinis for $75.

15 Inkerman Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$
Cuisine: Gastropub
Best For: Date night, Long lunch, Cocktail lovers, Locals

Chronicles Bar

At Chronicles, Loc Fortune and Justin Lustman, who met working at The Toff, have created a Fitzroy Street bar you can walk into without a plan. Bifold doors open onto the terrace, independent Victorian beers occupy the taps and the wine list favours local producers. There’s no need to leave when hunger strikes, either. Order from a neighbouring restaurant and dinner can arrive at your table, an arrangement we wish more Melbourne bars would consider.

With a good bottle on the table and Fitzroy Street passing by outside, there’s every reason to get comfortable.

91–93 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$
Cuisine: Wine bar
Best For: Date night, Wine lovers, Group dining, Locals

St LuJa

One hundred Guinness pints earns your name on the wall. That’s the level of commitment St LuJa inspires. This small Fitzroy Street cocktail bar has a decidedly Irish accent, with Art Deco details, serious whiskey shelves and bartenders who know their way around a classic cocktail.

Stand-up comedy appears on the calendar, and the crowd doesn’t need much encouragement to talk. Between the pint club and conversations stretching well past the first round, there’s a comforting lack of pretension.

You may arrive knowing nobody. That rarely lasts.

9 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$
Cuisine: Cocktail bar
Best For: Late night, Cocktail lovers, Locals, Date night

Charlong

Charlong’s name tells you plenty: ‘char’ for charcoal, ‘long’ for slow cooking. Chef and co-owner Alex Kaew draws on her grandmother’s Thai recipes, then gives them a distinctly Melbourne spin. King prawn dumplings swim in tom yum coconut lobster bisque, a slow-cooked lamb shank gets the massaman treatment and dry-aged duck meets kumquat.

The dining room is small, colourful and full of conversation, with the kitchen producing food of remarkable depth and complexity.

For anyone who still equates St Kilda dining with pizza and pasta, Charlong should be very high on the dinner list.

Sitchu Tip: For groups of seven or more, there’s a five-course chef’s selection menu that takes the decision-making out of dinner.

Shop 2, 124 Carlisle Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$$
Cuisine: Thai
Best For: Date night, Group dining, Special occasion, Food lovers

Freddie Wimpoles

Before the talk of a St Kilda revival, Freddie Wimpoles was already keeping Fitzroy Street up past bedtime.

Opened in 2016 inside the historic George Hotel, Liam Ganley’s eccentric pub is named for Frederick Wimpole, a former St Kilda mayor who once owned the building.

Antler chandeliers, vintage beer cans and a pool table accompany rotating craft beers, fried chicken and regular live music. It’s an appealingly eccentric collection, beneath the roof of a building that’s hosted so many different chapters of Melbourne nightlife.

With The Snakepit reopening downstairs, the George will soon have several ways to spend an evening again.

Sitchu Tip: Southern Sundays brings country, Americana, folk and blues to Freddie’s on the last Sunday of each month, from 6pm.

125 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$
Cuisine: Pub fare
Best For: Late night, Group dining, Locals, Weekend plans

The Old Saints

Some places are so firmly associated with St Kilda that it’s difficult to imagine the suburb without them. Along Acland Street, Fitzroy Street and the foreshore, generations of Melburnians have celebrated birthdays, fallen in love, danced until closing and eaten the same favourite dishes for decades. These are the institutions still earning their place in the neighbourhood, long after fashion moved on.

Donovans

Donovans has watched St Kilda change from its front-row seat on the bay since 1997. Gail and the late Kevin Donovan opened their beloved ‘house on the beach’ in a former bathing pavilion, where Mirka Mora would write her memoirs over Pernod. She once arrived on Christmas Day with a still-wet painting, hoping to exchange it for a table. Magnificent behaviour, really.

Nearly three decades later, the sandstone fireplaces, famous chicken pie, seasonal seafood and Bombe Alaska remain as irresistible as the views.

Named Victoria and Tasmania’s best seafood restaurant in 2025 and awarded a 2026 Good Food Guide hat, Donovans is enjoying some well-deserved applause. A beautifully laid table by the water still feels like one of Melbourne’s loveliest ways to celebrate something.

40 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$$
Cuisine: Modern Australian, Seafood
Best For: Special occasion, Long lunch, Waterfront, Date night

Cicciolina

Cicciolina has been an Acland Street fixture since 1993, when St Kilda nights were famously unpredictable. Behind its red leather banquettes and art-covered walls, generations of regulars have returned for the blue swimmer crab soufflé, tuna carpaccio and an excellent wine list.

Then there’s the Back Saloon, all low lighting, intimate booths and the pleasure of running into someone you haven’t seen in years.

More than three decades later, the blackboard specials keep changing, the dining room still fills and getting a table remains a very good way to begin an evening in St Kilda.

Sitchu Tip: Head straight for the Back Saloon from 5pm. It’s walk-in only, with the full restaurant menu available, so you can make an evening of it without a dinner reservation.

130 Acland Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$$
Cuisine: Mediterranean, Modern Australian
Best For: Date night, Late night, Cocktail lovers, Locals

Hotel Esplanade (The Espy)

St Kilda quite literally fought to keep the Espy. Open since 1878, the grand old seaside pub survived redevelopment battles, while its stages helped soundtrack Melbourne’s ’90s, hosting up to 25 acts a week and more than 300 live recording sessions in the Gershwin Room.

Following a major 2018 restoration, the legendary room returned in 2025, while the Basement keeps the live music coming.

There’s an entire evening available under one roof, but the old ritual remains hard to improve upon: a drink overlooking the bay, followed by a gig that will absolutely kick on later than planned.

Sitchu Tip: Pub classics in the Main Bar, sunset spritzes in the Sunroom, Cantonese at Mya Tiger, then cocktails in the Green Room or the top-floor Ghost of Alfred Felton. Take your pick. Or don’t.

11 The Esplanade, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$
Cuisine: Pub fare, Chinese
Best For: Group dining, Waterfront, Late night, Weekend plans

Dog’s Bar

Before Melbourne had a small bar on every corner, St Kilda had Dog’s Bar. Opened in 1989 by hospitality pioneer Donlevy Fitzpatrick, this Acland Street original helped change the way Melburnians drank, championing wine by the glass and the pleasure of a drink without dinner.

A favourite of the suburb’s creative crowd throughout the ’90s, it survived changing fashions before a heartbreaking closure in 2020. Thankfully, new owners brought it back, fireplace, pavement tables and all.

Today, free live music Thursday through Sunday, Tuesday karaoke and a wonderfully mixed crowd mean the old address has plenty happening again. It’s the familiarity that makes it special: the fireplace, the regulars, the sense that someone interesting might walk through the door.

54 Acland Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$
Cuisine: Wine bar
Best For: Wine lovers, Late night, Group dining, Locals

Palais Theatre

A night at the Palais still has a certain ceremony to it. Since 1927, St Kilda’s magnificent Art Deco theatre has welcomed everyone from the Rolling Stones and Shirley Bassey to Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave, surviving changing fashions and nearly a century of Melbourne nightlife.

Following extensive restoration, complete with refurbished seating, the old showgirl is looking fabulous. Courtney Barnett and Suzi Quatro are among the names gracing its stage in late 2026.

Get dressed up, book somewhere wonderful for dinner and allow enough time to admire the building before the lights go down. A concert here feels like an occasion before anyone has played a note.

Sitchu Tip: Arrive early and look out for the original foot warmers, illuminated exit signs and carved timber benches. Little pieces of the Palais’ extraordinary history are still hiding in plain sight.

Lower Esplanade, St Kilda

Where: Palais Theatre, St Kilda
Cost: Ticketed; prices depend on the performance
Best For: Cultural, Special occasion, Couples, Weekend plans, Visitors
Need To Know: Book tickets for individual performances through the theatre’s official program.

Monarch Cakes

Long before Acland Street became synonymous with St Kilda’s nightlife, there was Monarch Cakes. Polish-Jewish baker Pearl Levine moved her European cake shop here in 1934, and the address hasn’t changed since. When longtime customer Gideon Markham took over in 1996, the old recipes stayed, too.

Behind the glass: chocolate-swirled kooglhoupf, Polish baked cheesecake made to a century-old recipe and enough nostalgia to fill a second plate.

There are the old photographs, the vintage signage and the reassuring knowledge that some things in Melbourne have resisted the urge to reinvent themselves.

Ninety-two years on, Monarch remains one of the sweetest constants in St Kilda.

103 Acland Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $
Cuisine: Bakery
Best For: Quick bite, Locals, Weekend plans, Solo dining

The Vineyard

Few St Kilda addresses have lived as many lives as The Vineyard. A boatshed in the 1880s, it became Carlo Catani’s Continental Tea Gardens in 1906 before the Iodice brothers took over in 1999. Locals even rallied to save it during a 2003 council dispute.

These days, tables overlooking O’Donnell Gardens give way to live bands, DJs and nights stretching towards 3am.

A little rough around the edges, full of characters and still doing its own thing. Frankly, we’d be disappointed if it were any other way.

71A Acland Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$
Cuisine: Pub fare
Best For: Late night, Group dining, Locals, Weekend plans

Topolino’s

Somewhere along Fitzroy Street, there’s still a table waiting for the people who aren’t ready to call it a night. Topolino’s has been feeding St Kilda since 1972, through the suburb’s grungiest years, its glamorous ones and everything in between.

The menu is unapologetically old-school: generously topped pizzas, creamy pastas, garlic prawns and Italian classics for a table of indecisive friends.

Arrive after a gig, order another bottle of red and see where the conversation goes. Fifty-odd years on, the ovens are still firing, and there’s real comfort in that.

87 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

Suburb: St Kilda
Price Guide: $$
Cuisine: Italian
Best For: Late night, Group dining, Locals, Weekend plans

The Bigger Picture

A neighbourhood comeback needs more than a good dinner reservation. It needs people staying, shopping and showing up on a Tuesday morning. On Fitzroy Street, the St Kilda Collective is betting on exactly that, with developers Fortis, ERDI and Ondas joining the City of Port Phillip in a development push representing more than $196 million in activity.

Novotel St Kilda

The former Rydges on Fitzroy Street reopened as Novotel St Kilda in September 2026, following a major transformation by ERDI. Inside, 80 redesigned rooms and suites join a garden atrium and a rooftop event space overlooking the bay. Downstairs, Urban Kitchen & Bar makes good use of a wood-fired oven imported from Verona, with Victorian wines to match. For visiting friends, interstate concertgoers or anyone planning a weekend by the sea, it’s a welcome addition to St Kilda’s accommodation options.

Location: Novotel St Kilda, St Kilda
Price Guide: From $199 per night
Best For: Couples, Weekend escape, Beach, Families
Need To Know: Check-in from 3pm; check-out by 11am. Secure onsite parking costs $45 per day, with limited spaces available.

Book your stay with Novotel St Kilda
Book your stay with Booking.com

The Gild Fitzroy Street

If St Kilda’s new restaurants are giving Fitzroy Street its evenings back, The Gild has plans for the morning after. Fortis’s $131 million development is bringing 45 residences and 65 metres of new retail frontage to the boulevard, with scalloped façades, cascading greenery and architecture that recalls St Kilda’s Riviera years.

More interesting for the neighbours is what’s happening downstairs. Lamaro’s Hotel publican Paul Dimattina has signed on to open a café pouring his family’s Dimattina Coffee, alongside a neighbourhood deli stocked with fresh produce, pantry staples and prepared meals. Construction is already underway, with completion anticipated in early 2028.

A coffee with the neighbours, milk on the way home, dinner collected on a tired Wednesday. The ordinary little rituals that make a street somewhere people live, rather than simply visit.

61–73 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

Expected completion: Early 2028

Make the dinner reservation, but leave the rest of the night to chance. A bar you haven’t discovered yet, a band worth staying out for, one last drink before the sea air sends you home. St Kilda has new faces, old stories and, thank goodness, absolutely no intention of becoming predictable. For more Melbourne neighbourhoods worth falling in love with, explore our guides to Springvale and Moonee Ponds.