What's happening in Melbourne
The best things to do this week
Get ready to get messy – you're going to get covered in colour at this Holi celebration
Everyone’s favourite chocolate treat is getting its own festival
See works from Victoria's best design students at Melbourne Museum – when they become famous you can say you saw them back when
The Planetarium opens after hours for adults-only film screenings under the big dome
The latest news
Competitions and announcements
Want a go-to list of the best things happening in Melbourne, delivered to your inbox weekly Sign up for our newsletter to get our weekly edit of local goodness – from bars to burgers to art to parties – you'll also gain access to exclusive Time Out offers. Sign up below. Go on, you know you want to.
After a cracker of a Saturday night we all know what it’s like to feel a little bit dusty come Sunday morning. When you realise that you’ve got only a few precious hours of weekend freedom left the panic can really start to set in. Luckily the Newmarket Hotel has the perfect antidote. Take the edge off your Sunday mornings with the Newmarket’s Bottomless Martini Brunch Sundays. Their $35 package gives your two hours of delicious drinks down in sunny St Kilda. And despite the name the package includes more than just Martinis. During your two hours you can treat yourself to Espresso Martinis, Bellinis and Mimosas as well as selected beer and wine. Naturally you’re going to want some food to accompany your drinks so the Newmarket has cut its brunch buddies a deal. When you buy the bottomless Martini drinks package you can get any brunch menu item for an additional $15. Nothing pairs with a Mimosa quite like an eggs benny or if you've a sweet tooth get a stack of fluffy buttermilk pancakes with ice cream and candied bacon. There's a mean smashed avo on offer too, complete with tomato, chilli and poached eggs. Or wait around for the lunch menu and getting yourself one of the Newmarket’s hearty ‘big fella’ chicken parmas. There are three two-hour brunch sessions each Sunday. If you’re the sort of person who’s already jogged the Tan before 9am book in for the 10am session. For those who like to sleep in there are 11am and noon brunch sessions available as well. Come for the bo
What's better than getting your hands on a fresh copy of Time Out Melbourne? Getting your hands of a fresh copy for free. This year, Time Out is going quarterly in Melbourne and Sydney – and we're celebrating by handing out copies of our new-look autumn issue across both cities for two days. What's more, our new magazine is packed with all the winners of our 2018 Bar Awards, making it your ultimate guide to Melbourne's bar scene (cheers!). Read on and you'll also find a swag of fun Melbourne International Comedy Festival interviews, new restaurant reviews, and all the best events happening in Melbourne from March through to May. So where can you get it? Free copies will be distributed on Thursday and Friday, March 1-2 between 7am and 10am at following locations: Flinders Street Station (Princes Bridge exit on Thursday and Swanston Street exit on Friday) Melbourne Central Station (Swanston Street exit and La Trobe Street exit on Thursday and Swanston Street exit and Elizabeth Street exit on Friday) Flagstaff Station (William Street exit on Thursday and La Trobe Street exit on Friday) Richmond Station (Swan Street exit) Look for the friendly Time Out crew in white T-shirts, and remember: you can only get your free copy from 7am to 10am this Thursday and Friday. We think you'll like our new look. Time Out Melbourne magazine subscriptions Following a decision by our magazine distribution service to cease all subscription services in 2018, subscriptions to Time Out Me
The best of Melbourne
This is it: the definitive list of the people, the places and the things that make our city so great
From world-beating cocktail lounges to down-and-divey saloons, here's everywhere worth drinking in Melbourne
For a breath of fresh air, head out of the city this weekend with our guide to Melbourne’s best day hikes.
Wander down a cobbled alley to find what these icons are hiding
Behold, our eat-and-destroy list – a guide to Melbourne's best restaurants, from fine dining to cheap eats
If you know where to look, you can get by in Melbourne for a lot less than you'd think
Melbourne area guides
The heart of the city, home to Chinatown and some of Melbourne's best restaurants and arts institutions.
Exceptional Italian food, gelato and coffee, plus an excellent museum and theatre.
Great vintage stores, and don't miss the famous Art Deco Astor Theatre.
Is Kensington the new North Melbourne? It’s a fair call, seeing as this little pocket of northside suburbia is gaining more restaurants, small-scale breweries and property-hunting 30-somethings by the second. Bordered by North Melbourne and the virtually indistinguishable suburb of Flemington, Kensington has northwest charm in spades: there are wide, tree-lined streets, plenty of public transport (the Craigieburn train line and the 57 tram run right through it) and green spaces aplenty. Whether you’re on the lookout for a cheerful breakfast joint, a new walking track or the best African food outside Footscray, Kenso’s the place. Looking for more fun in the west? Check out our guides to Footscray and Yarraville while you're here.
Inventive bars, geek girl boutiques and envelope-pushing eateries. Plus live music institutions.
Multicultural hub, with dining options from all over the world and a thriving food scene.
The wide streets of a country town and a lovely communal feel. Plenty of good bars.
Sign me up!
You might also like...
Five-star Melbourne cocktail bar Eau De Vie has joined forces with Star of Bombay (luxury small batch, slow-distilled expression of Bombay Sapphire gin) to debut a swanky new Martini service, the Star of Bombay Martini Trolley. The custom-designed liquid nitrogen-fueled cocktail trolley will pay tribute to the ritual of creating an all-time favourite cocktail, the Martini. Inspired by the lush service experience of the classic cocktail trolley, the Star of Bombay Trolley Service menu will pay respects to the great hotels and bars that created some of the most famed Martinis in the world. Cocktails include the Edwardian, which is a riff on the Savoy Hotel's signature Hanky Panky cocktail from 1903; the Captain Ritz, inspired by the Ritz Sidecar (known as the most expensive cocktail in the world); the Simpson Martini, Eau De Vie’s adaptation of the traditional Dirty Martini from the Connaught in London; and the Magda Martini, inspired by the Dukes Hotel in London. For the Martini aficionados, you can also play by your own rules and create your very own personalised Star of Bombay Martini using bitters, brine and garnishes. You can enjoy a single Martini for $24 or enjoy a sample flight of four Martinis for $50. Reservations are essential for the Star of Bombay Martini Trolley experience. Call 03 8393 9367 or head to their website. Find out more about the Star of Bombay Martini trolley experience at Eau De Vie.
Whether you're keen to impress a date on a beautiful terrace, or simply want the most for your hard-earned, Amex Eats has you covered. Keen to collect instant rewards? You can thanks to our Side with Amex program. For more great offerings, return to the American Express casual dining hub.
We all know what it's like to be at an event or conference only to be stuck without any decent coffee. Local roaster Promised Land Coffee has set out to solve this problem by formulating and delivering hot ready-to-drink coffee anywhere in Melbourne. They gathered some of Melbourne's best baristas to brew a series of delicious specialty coffee, which can be delivered straight to your workplace or conference site. Choose from light and fruity single origins or dark roasted espresso blends, and they will deliver your selection from just $2 per cup for offices or $4 per cup for events of any size. Coffee menus change with the seasons, and this autumn they are showcasing coffee from Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala and Ethiopia. They will also kit you out with cups, lids, milk and sugar. If the weather is a little warmer, you can also opt for the coffees to be delivered chilled. We all know Melbourne is a coffee city, so set the standard at your next event and kit it out with Promised Land Coffee. Keen? Mention Time Out and you'll receive 15 per cent off any bookings in April and May 2018. Find out more about Promised Land Coffee.
The populous Mexican capital comes under the microscope in the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art's exhibition exploring the work of the 12 of the city’s leading contemporary artists. Expect boldly personal works and art that speaks to a time and place known as much for its rich cultural output as its position as Latin America's strongest economy. The exhibition is the work of Chris Sharp, an independent writer and curator based in Mexico City. He said: "A city, it could be argued, is the sum of its portrayals. The more it is depicted, the more it enters the symbolic and global imaginary, as both what a city is and what it can be. It has been claimed that if Paris was the capital of the 19th century, and New York the capital of the 20th, then Mexico City is the capital of the 21st." The line-up of artists include people who live in the city, have lived in the city, or have made a big impact on frequent visits: Francis Alÿs, Andrew Birk, Ramiro Chaves, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Chelsea Culprit, Ektor Garcia, Yann Gerstberger, Jaki Irvine, Kate Newby, Isabel Nuño de Buen, Melanie Smith and Martin Soto Climent.
No longer do you need to head into the city to get a fresh crêpe hot off the pan. La Petite Crêperie – the people behind that cute Swanston Street crêpe stand – are taking their sweet, wafer-thin creations out to the suburbs. La Petite Crêperie is heading out east to Knox O-Zone in Wantirna South. Just like on Swanston Street, Le Petite is forgoing traditional bricks-and-mortar premises in favour of something kookier. Its new suburban outlet is slinging crêpes from a handmade, vintage French style wooden caravan they’ve named Juliette. The suburban crêpe caravan will be making crêpes to order with all the sweet fillings you’ve come to love from the CBD outlets. Those without a sweet tooth are catered for too, with new savoury crêpe additions as well as house-made waffles, soft-serve ice cream and cold drinks. Le Petite Crêperie at Knox O-Zone is open daily until late.
Let’s get real: most people these days are stuck in the nine to five, Monday to Friday. Unless they’re game enough to brave the great weekend morning shopping rush, it doesn’t leave a lot of time in the week to sneak in some shopping time. Well, Chadstone has heard your prayers. They know that the fashion fun needn’t stop when the sun sets – and the fun needn’t be restricted to shopping either. Every Saturday evening in April Chadstone will enchant you with their Magic at Twilight event: a celebration of magic, illusion and performance. Whether you decide to fill your night with food, fashion or entertainment (or a bit of each), Chadstone will keep you entranced this April.
Five-star Melbourne cocktail bar Eau De Vie has joined forces with Star of Bombay (luxury small batch, slow-distilled expression of Bombay Sapphire gin) to debut a swanky new Martini service, the Star of Bombay Martini Trolley. The custom-designed liquid nitrogen-fueled cocktail trolley will pay tribute to the ritual of creating an all-time favourite cocktail, the Martini. Inspired by the lush service experience of the classic cocktail trolley, the Star of Bombay Trolley Service menu will pay respects to the great hotels and bars that created some of the most famed Martinis in the world. Cocktails include the Edwardian, which is a riff on the Savoy Hotel's signature Hanky Panky cocktail from 1903; the Captain Ritz, inspired by the Ritz Sidecar (known as the most expensive cocktail in the world); the Simpson Martini, Eau De Vie’s adaptation of the traditional Dirty Martini from the Connaught in London; and the Magda Martini, inspired by the Dukes Hotel in London. For the Martini aficionados, you can also play by your own rules and create your very own personalised Star of Bombay Martini using bitters, brine and garnishes. You can enjoy a single Martini for $24 or enjoy a sample flight of four Martinis for $50. Reservations are essential for the Star of Bombay Martini Trolley experience. Call 03 8393 9367 or head to their website. Find out more about the Star of Bombay Martini trolley experience at Eau De Vie.
Catherine Davies spent most of 2017 touring Australia with Bell Shakespeare’s acclaimed contemporary take on The Merchant of Venice, but in 2018 returns to her first passion: new Australian plays. Michele Lee’s Going Down – which Davies compares in style to the US TV comedy Broad City – follows Natalie Yang, an Asian-Australian writer whose memoir about her sex life has failed to set the bestsellers list ablaze. Natalie is thrown into an existential crisis, seeking to carve out a voice for herself as a writer and break free from the expectations of writers of her cultural background. “I want to think it serendipitously came into my life right at the moment when I was questioning and interrogating everything to do with displacement and identity, but the truth is that could have been any time in my lifetime,” Davies says. This is Davies’ first time playing a character so similar to herself in terms of identity – both she and Natalie are second-generation Asian women living in Australia. The play, a co-production between Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne and Sydney Theatre Company, is full of bold and sexually explicit humour that might seem daunting to deliver on stage. But challenges for Davies is even greater. “An excellent clowning teacher once told me to be a good clown you had to ‘sit in the shit’,” Davies says. “Natalie is that personified. In fact, she’s neck deep in the metaphor. And I’m going to have to be right in there with her. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t alr
