Review: Cafes of South Melbourne Walking Tour
Please note: Walk Melbourne no longer operates this tour, but they run a similar tour in the CBD. Alternatively, you may like to visit the venues listed in this review yourself.
It’s a chilly 13-degree morning in Melbourne, as I make my way to the south side of town.
I’m a little bleary eyed, having stayed up slightly later than I should have the night before. Two of our group have just flown in on the red-eye from Perth and even our tour guide Monique has that look in her eye. We all need a coffee — and we’ve come to the right place.
Monique heads up Walk Melbourne — a tour company that’s all about helping visitors discover the city’s hidden treasures on foot — and we’re about to set off on their Cafes of South Melbourne Walking Tour. Monique is also a published food writer and former barista, and she secretly admits to me that this is her favourite tour. That comes as no surprise, given every Melburnian’s obsession with the liquid gold — second only, perhaps, to basic black.
<Watch our video of ten top things to do in Melbourne:
Top 10 Things to Do in MELBOURNE, Australia, 2026 | Ultimate Melbourne Travel Guide for First Timers
👉👉👉 Support our channel and save on travel by joining our new Top Traveller Club: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIWPeSl1aL72F1NCuS4ePTQ/join 👈👈👈 Member benefits include early access to videos, a branded travel water bottle, and 10% off day and multi-day tour bookings worldwide! Browse day tours: https://topoztours.partner.viator.com Browse multi-day tours: https://topoztours.trips.tourradar.com Join today!
It wasn’t always this way. Up until the wave of Italian and Greek migration to Melbourne in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, we’d survived largely on a diet of ground coffee shipped in from England. The first espresso machine arrived in Melbourne in the mid 50s, but for years they were regarded somewhat with suspicion by most of us as we quietly drank our morning cups of instant.
Today of course the city is awash with purveyors of espresso coffee, all vying for the affections of the voracious caffeine-consuming public. One cafe can be packed with a queue down the street, while the one next door sits virtually empty. Why? A complex equation of barista credentials, great beans, an aspirational décor and a healthy dash of street cred. Put simply, some have it, some don’t.
South Melbourne has plenty of ‘it’, and this tour visits four of the suburb’s most popular cafes. We begin at the South Melbourne Market on Cecil Street and a visit to Clement Coffee Roasters — a wood-paneled hole in the wall that’s renowned for its lightly roasted beans, allowing the flavours to come through more intensely.
Monique encourages us to drink our coffees black on this tour as milk dulls the taste. To get the ball rolling I try a heart-starting short black of Clement’s Pony blend, with its zesty apple and lemon undertones. Special mention to the donuts on offer from one of the city’s finest artisanal bakers — Cobb Lane. Sweet bliss indeed.
From there we make our way into the heart of the market to Padre Coffee. This place is pumping, with wall-to-wall customers and a team of baristas calmly riding the wave of adoring popularity.
Over another short black — this time an Indian blend with distinct berry undertones — Monique tells us more about the pros of drinking filtered coffee. And before you turn your nose up at this, remember that filtering is the way it’s done on the international coffee bean competition circuit, as this process produces a smoother, more rounded drinking experience.
Leaving the maelstrom of the market behind, we head across Clarendon Street and on to one of Melbourne’s biggest and best-known specialty coffee roasters — St Ali in Yarra Place.
The place is remodeling — I think. There are wires and naked light globes festooned around the cavernous interior packed with patrons, but that could well be the look. Here Monique convinces everyone to try a couple of filtered options, with varying degrees of success. For me, the pre-bottled cold-filtered option is the preferred style. It even comes in six-packs and slabs.
The final destination on this Cafes of South Melbourne Walking Tour is one of the city’s original breed of innovative cafes that’s managed to keep up the pace for several years now. Dead Man Espresso takes its name from the macabre history of this neck of the woods. The area was once the site of ‘Canvas Town’ — a notorious and dangerous slum for migrant workers established during the gold rush of 1851.
I throw in the coffee-soaked towel and order a hot chocolate by Mork — a blend of 70% cocoa and 30% sugar. It’s a product of Melbourne and absolutely delicious.
To say we walk away from this tour and continue our respective weekends with a caffeine-induced spring in our step would be an understatement. This Cafes of South Melbourne Walking Tour is a great way for any visitor to get a broad taste of the city’s vibrant coffee culture.
The writer travelled as a guest of Walk Melbourne.
Browse our full range of Melbourne tours and experiences here. We offer a Best Price Guarantee.
Additional images: Bigstock
About the writer
Adam Ford is editor of Top Oz Tours & Travel Ideas, and a travel TV presenter, writer, blogger, and photographer. He has travelled extensively through Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, and the Middle East. Adam worked as a travel consultant for a number of years with Flight Centre before taking up the opportunity to travel the world himself as host of the TV series Tour the World on Network Ten. He loves to experience everything a new destination has to offer and is equally at home in a five-star Palazzo in Pisa or a home-stay in Hanoi.
Travel essentials
You can book many aspects of your holiday on the Top Oz Tours & Travel Ideas website, including flights, hotels, car hire, travel insurance, and more. When you purchase a product or service using the following links from our partners, we receive a small commission. It does not affect the price you pay, and it enables us to continue to provide readers with amazing travel inspiration.
Flights
Compare airlines, flights, and fares in one place with Booking.com. They don’t charge any credit card fees and you can always see exactly what you’re paying for in the price breakdown. Search for flights with Booking.com
Hotels
If you’re looking for a great deal on your next hotel or homestay, look no further than Booking.com. Their mission is to make travel affordable and accessible to more people, and to deliver seamless accommodation experiences that complement your holiday. Search for hotels and homestays with Booking.com
Car hire
Discover Cars is an award-winning (World Travel Awards) car rental comparison website, which helps customers find, compare, and hire cars at the most competitive prices globally. Search for hire cars with Discover Cars
Campervans & motorhomes
Make Jucy your first choice for campervan and motorhome hire. Since 2001, this progressive company has had a vision to be world-famous for enabling experience seekers to discover happiness on the road. Search for campervans and motorhomes with Jucy
Day tours & experiences
Search and book day tours, guided experiences, and attraction tickets and passes worldwide with Top Oz Tours and Viator. There are no booking or credit card fees when you book through us, and you’ll have access to the widest choice of activities and most competitive prices. Browse day tours and experiences
Multi-day tours & trips
Top Oz Tours has joined forced with Tour Radar to bring you a fabulous range of multi-day tours and trips from the world’s leading operators. Travel with like minded people and get the best possible price on the holiday of your dreams. Browse multi-day tours and trips
Travel insurance
World Nomads aims to be a part of every traveller’s journey by providing a reassuring range of travel insurance services. Benefits include coverage for emergency medical and evacuation or repatriation, lost baggage, trip cancellation, and more than 150 adventure activities. Get an insurance costing
