Melbourne opens 11 new bakery and tea hotspots in 2026

Melbourne’s undying love of bakeries is one of my favourite things about the city. And while we already have many excellent ones, this year we’ve already seen new standouts from Charlie Duffy, Mino Han, Shaun Quade and more. And over in the world of coffee shops – another thing Melbourne does exceptionally well – we’ve seen creative newcomers such as Sabi Sounds and Bobby Stop Stealing Our Camping Chairs push the definition of what a coffee shop can be. Here are the 11 best bakeries,

coffee shops and tea houses of the year so far. Bakeries Daybaker, Abbotsford The most thoughtful hospitality can often present itself as the simplest, and that’s the case at Abbotsford’s Daybaker. At former Small Batch pastry chef Charlie Duffy’s new spot, the idea is not to overwhelm you with loaded pastries and over-the-top bakes, but to do a handful of things exceptionally well. Ingredients are sourced from local producers, so you know you’ll get a consistent pastry every visit, which is why there have been

lines out the door for morning buns, chocolate wattleseed croissants, and pear and Geraldton wax danishes since Daybaker opened. – Scott Renton, Hot List editor Simply Mikes, Brunswick In April, French baker Mike Ying rebranded and relocated his scroll shop – formerly known as Cinnabuns – from Albion to Sydney Road, Brunswick. Simply Mike’s has sourdough loaves, custard-filled laminated pastries and Biscoff banana pudding matcha, but the scrolls still take the cake. They take four days to make; the team employs a Japanese technique called

yudane, which involves mixing the flour with boiling water, leading to an extremely soft scroll. While it would be easy to go over the top with icing and other mix-ins, Ying keeps things relatively restrained with flavours such as classic cinnamon, coffee and carrot cake. With the team making between 500 and 650 scrolls a day on weekends, it seems Melbourne’s scroll craze isn’t slowing down. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food and drink editor Time After Time, CBD Mino Han is an incredibly versatile chef.

He runs the impeccable pasta bar Alt on Niagara Lane, as well as four pizza spots and Melbourne-style cafe Umma in Seoul. And he was a contestant on Netflix cooking competition sensation Culinary Class Wars. At Alt, Han made a name for himself by using Korean culinary techniques to amp up classic pasta dishes. At Time After Time, the laneway bakery he opened at the end of last year, he blends Melbourne bakery and cafe culture with inspiration from Korean cafes such as Nudake. Time

After Time’s signature jet black charcoal croissants are a prime example of how these two influences collide. The pastry is inspired by charcoal viennoiseries found in Seoul, but a bestselling flavour combination of ricotta, berry coulis, fresh figs and honey is inspired by Melbourne brunch. It’s a balancing act that extends to the space itself: a slick bakery cafe that has edge but still feels welcoming and of the city. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food and drink editor Taki’s Delights, Southbank Husband and wife Nawid

and Aisha Fayazi’s Armenian bakery started in 2024 as a wholesale and catering business. The pair signed the lease to a space on Moray Street with the intention of turning it into a commercial kitchen. Armenian baked goods are hard to come by in Melbourne, so lucky for us, the Fayazis decided the shopfront was too good not to open to the public and started welcoming people to Taki’s Delights in February. Family recipes form the base for all the baked goods, including the buttery

gata biscuits and the baked-to-order khachapuri – boat-shaped flatbreads filled with melted cheese and egg yolk. But the bakery’s worth a visit just for the medovik. The 12-layer honey cake – made using Aisha’s grandmother’s recipe – takes 24 hours to make, and significantly less time to devour. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food and drink editor Vandels, Brunswick A good measure of how the local community feels about a place, I think, is the diversity of the clientele. Less than a fortnight into trading, Vandels

seems to have struck just the right note. Groups of sweaty tradies are already lining up for mid-morning pies and sausage rolls with house-made smoked tomato sauce. Oldies are sipping cappuccinos and sharing quince and crème fraîche danishes at the big communal table. And pram-toting mums are stopping in to take home a three-day-fermented sourdough loaf and a good fix of Dukes Coffee. Do any of these people know the founders’ high-flying back story, and that one of them was a fine-dining chef of serious

renown? Doubtful. The vibes are high, the goods are tasty, and that’s all that matters. – Nick Connellan, Australia editor Coffee Shops and Tea Houses Bobby Stop Stealing Our Camping Chairs, Docklands Southern Cross Station was not high on my list of places to catch a vibe. Not until Bobby Stop Stealing Our Camping Chairs opened there in March. When you enter, you could be greeted by a live band, art installation or DJ. Or even co-owners Michael Teng and Young Lee walking around the

counter to dap you up like an old friend. It’s all intentional – we’re often on autopilot during our commutes, and Bobby aims to snap you out of your morning malaise. If Teng and Lee don’t get your attention, the prices will. St Ali coffee is just $4, as is the matcha that you can order by the litre. Walk in and ask for “the Emily”. – Scott Renton, Hot List editor Interlude, CBD As the city becomes increasingly obsessed with matcha, it’s nice to

see broader tea culture also being celebrated. At Interlude, founder Sean Then (Cafe Tomi, Bar Kaeru) turns his attention to Chinese and Japanese teas. On any given day there are more than 20 unique hot and cold-brewed teas: oolong, green, black and red teas from the two countries. But Then’s aptitude for drinks – gained largely at Leonie Upstairs – comes through in the specialty drinks. He treats tea like a good bartender treats liqueurs and adds house-made syrups, caramels, foams and more to create

drinks that are greater than the sum of their parts. Like any good tea house, the brews here are accompanied by stellar pastries. They come from head baker Taylor Kim of Plot – who brings a line-up of house-baked danishes with changing toppings – and head pastry chef Kyoko Miyazaki, a former sous pastry chef at Sepia and Society. Miyazaki is responsible for all of Interlude’s other pastries, including apple financiers and oolong-infused Taiwanese castella cakes. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food and drink editor Matcha

Mate, Collingwood Matcha Mate’s Collingwood outpost feels like a futuristic gallery with stainless steel surfaces, concrete floors and LED light strips illuminating tins of matcha and hojicha. That’s by design. This was never meant to be a cafe, but a showroom for the brand’s tight edit of imported Japanese teas. Now there are regular lunch-hour lines out the door, and this once-quiet stretch of Langridge Street is becoming a matcha destination. Owners Belle Vy and Chian Ting, who launched Matcha Mate as a pop-up in

2023, are at the forefront of the city’s current matcha wave. Their hand-whisked drinks – verdant, velvety and made to order – stand out in an increasingly crowded market. As in a specialty coffee shop, the green stuff comes in seven different varieties. You can keep things simple with a latte, or level up with toppings like matcha cream or even pudding. Once you’ve ordered, you’ll see how seriously the team takes the craft: every element, from powder to syrup and milks, is fastidiously weighed,

whisked and poured in full view. If you’re in the “matcha’s too grassy” camp, try the chocolatey, nutty dark-roasted hojicha – the thing I keep coming back for. – Holly Bodeker-Smith, Newsletter editor Patricia, CBD I’m very much here for foam-topped lattes and cocktail-esque tea and coffee concoctions. But at a time when every new coffee shop seems to arrive with specialty drinks, it’s nice to know that a good old-fashioned third-wave coffee shop can still cut through. Patricia opened its first store on Little

William Street in 2011. The new Lonsdale Street outpost is the first location owners Pip Heath and Bowen Holden have opened since. There’s a familiar bar-style layout, the same espresso machine – a La Marzocco Strada – as the OG location, and the same dedication to single-origin coffees. And it’s drawing the same kind of lines the Little William Street spot has been for 15 years. – Audrey Payne, Melbourne food and drink editor Regulars, CBD Long lines and viral menu items breed some scepticism.

Once you visit Regulars, all of it goes out the window. This little CBD cafe is legit – don’t let the viral –85°C coffee’s social media fame fool you. The dirty coffee tastes excellent and husband-wife co-owners Eddy and Prem Pan know how to source and serve a brew. The filter options are some of the best I’ve tasted, and the Facebook Marketplace-sourced fit-out and furniture is charming. You can’t miss the bright orange facade on Little La Trobe Street, and nor should you. Next

time you’re craving a caffeine hit in the CBD, Regulars is the move. – Scott Renton, Hot List editor Sabi Sounds, Hawthorn Something about Sabi Sounds is effortlessly cool. It could be the vinyl listening booths and the excellent sound system, or the retail shelf where you can purchase records. It could be the great coffee and the experimental drinks list. It could be the plush purple velvet seating, or the car meets where classic Porsches and BMWs convene out the front. Or it could

be the fact that, despite all of this, Sabi isn’t pretentious and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s still a place where anyone can hang out and have coffee without feeling like they’re interrupting someone’s cliquey catch-up. Despite appearances, it’s for everyone. As a good cafe should be. – Scott Renton, Hot List editor

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