The Good Food team worked their palates off assembling the 100 Essential Melbourne Cafes and Bakeries of 2026 but, since we launched that list in July, the city’s cafes, bakeries and dessert shops have worked even harder.
Among a fresh batch of newcomers, there’s a sandwich shop from the team behind Filipino diner Serai , QV welcomed the arrival of a specialist soft-servery, and new spots are importing tea leaves and retro cafe fare from Japan.
Owner-chefs Bamboo Tan and Ryan Lin bring their love for Japanese kissaten – nostalgic cafes that flourished during the mid 20th century – to this kitschy Carlton cafe. Tan, a former Kudo barista and #1000 Bread pastry chef, brings an experimental energy to the sweets cabinet. So far, there’s been chewy sourdough nama doughnuts, chiffon cakes and rum-and-raisin cookies. Meanwhile, Lin whips up comforting unagi (grilled eel) rice bowls and Japanese curries layered with honey, dark chocolate and apple puree. A colourful cream soda is central to the kissaten experience, but you’ll also find that beloved, cream-topped Viennese coffee, the Einspanner, served in four unique ways, including a choc-mint option.
Must-try: Melon cream sodas with floating vanilla bean ice-cream and a cherry on top.
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237 Faraday Street, Carlton, instagram.com/dorasta b le.melb
At Golden Collins Place , Earl co-founder Jackie Middleton collaborates with Ripe cheesemonger Hakim Halim on all-Aussie cheese toasties. But this new QV outpost heroes the duo’s most recent dairy hyperfixation: Jersey milk soft serve. The ice-cream comes in playful forms like sundaes and floats, and is even loaded into a croissant cone and dipped in fudgy butter.
Must-try: Covered in a heap of Milo, a Milo dinosaur mocha float nods to Halim’s Singaporean roots.
40 QV Urban Market, Melbourne, goldencoffeebar.com
Serai has been an innovating presence in Melbourne Filipino cuisine since 2022, and in August, the team went sandwich-mode at Panaderia. Pinoy breads pandesal and pan de kalinga – sourdough made from fermented black rice – are the backbone of a five-sanga menu. Fillings include Serai’s sisig (a spicy-sour pork dish), adobo-style organic chicken and a take on the oxtail stew kare-kare starring kangaroo tail.
Sides get the same fusion treatment – coconut hash browns with banana ketchup, for example – while traditional bakes like jackfruit bread and bibingka cheesecake round out the offering.
Must-try: The sisig sandwich: roasted pork jowl between pandesal buns slathered with egg butter, onion jam and chilli salsa.
29 Hardware Lane, Melbourne, panaderiaserai.com
After eight years baking at Melbourne faves like Agathe and Falco , Lalita Punpanawan began working in her own kitchen this July.
Beneath a hanging bonsai tree, you’ll find the daily selection of sweet and savoury pastries on cheerful ceramic plates. Everything looks plucked straight out of a cosy anime, and the chunky brown-butter cookie studded with glossy chocolate buttons is especially cute.
Must-try: A salted caramel latte tricked out with a vanilla pudding topper – a hit on a hot day.
28 Corrs Lane, Melbourne, instagram.com/maisonbake_melbourne
The team behind Templestowe’s Down The Rabbit Hole has opened a second bunny-themed local, rocking a menu that includes a hefty eggs Benny stacked with scotch fillet steak and a duck-fat rösti called the Northcote Steakout.
Standout “bronuts” (brioche doughnuts) come in different seasonal flavours, and even show up in a latte topped with cinnamon, bronut-infused cold foam and a crunchy bronut crouton – grab one via the laneway kiosk.
Must-try: Shokupan stuffed with Italo-American muffaletta sandwich fillings like mortadella, stracciatella, green olives and pistachio salsa.
4 Separation Street, Northcote, roguerabbit.com.au
Bubble tea is often the domain of Taiwanese and Chinese chains, but this Kyoto shop is subbing in Japanese tea leaves. A 15-drink menu spotlights black tea, hojicha, sencha and genmaicha from Kyoto and Shizuoka farms, plus coveted Uji matcha, all brewed in milk for maximum fragrance.
Warabi mochi cubes replace the usual tapioca pearls and jelly toppings – they’re dusted in kinako (roasted soy bean) and green tea powder and can also be bought separately. Come summer, the pint-sized teahouse will launch desserts made from tea-making cast-offs. Royal milk tea caneles, green tea pound cake and green tea pudding are in the works.
Must-try: Deep-steamed green tea lattes are expertly balanced with honey and sacred salt.
4a/31 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/toyoukestand.au
A former Yarraville mortgage broker’s office is now a funky cafe celebrating West Javanese flavours. Co-owner Burton Affandi gets creative with specialty coffees. His muses include South-East Asian sweet treats such as klepon – glutinous dessert balls bursting with molten palm sugar – and a honey-and-lime soda called Nipis Madu.
Rustica pastries line the steel counter top, but Kamarana’s signatures are toasties that remix Indonesian dishes you’d typically have with rice, for example, a riff on gado-gado made with sambal pecel: Javanese spiced peanut sauce.
Must-try: Meloncholy: a double ristretto starring a minty melon foam.
5/11d Murray Street, Yarraville, instagram.com/kamarana.melb
Known for making everything from scratch, Mentone’s favourite sandwich shop will now officially welcome you to the south-east suburb. Its new outpost at the local train station joins the six-year-old La Trobe Street original , and serves zhushed-up classics like bacon and French omelette rolls, perfect grab-and-go-fare for commuters. Co-owner Liz Garginian says the menu is a sampler of her and her partner Denis Arbatrov’s upbringing. Try the slow-cooked beef, sumac and pomegranate molasses sanga inspired by khashlama, an Armenian stew. Tap beer and other railway refreshments from the folks behind Mates Bar in nearby Mordialloc bring a weekend buzz to the heritage station building.
Must-try: A bestselling salami and egg sandwich stars artisanal cured meat from Laverton’s Puopolo.
1A Como Parade West, Mentone, applehead.com.au
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