City Wine Shop

Awesome seasonal food with extensive wine list. One can expect quality, attentiveness and a good time at this joint. I have visited this place for the third time and will be back for more.

Great ambience with old school charm and antique interior. The seating for City Wine Shop is combined with The European.

Siglo and The Melbourne Supper Club are upstairs, which makes a great transition to lounge and chill out at night. You can also finish off with gelato next door at Spring Street Grocer.

To me, these joints make an essential Melbourne experience.

P. S. The ox tongue was particularly special and noteworthy. Also the cod roe crumpet!

My partner and I love this wine bar, as we are regular visitors to Melbourne from Sydney. It’s especially convenient for those staying at the Sofitel around the corner. On our last trip we stopped here two nights in a row and enjoyed some excellent wines.

There were two somms/staff who were particularly passionate about wine and offered a wealth of knowledge: one from Piemonte and the other from Alsace. We really are fortunate to have talented people from around the world who come all the way to Australia to contribute their skills and expertise.

The wine list here seems to be thoughtfully curated, with an impressive range of international and Australian wines for different budgets and tastes. We loved sitting inside at the bar, where we could chat with and learn from the somms and bartender. The food is excellent, too, though obviously it’s the wine knowledge and selection that draws the oenophiles. Outdoors is more spacious and fun if you have a bigger group and just want to have a casual drink and meal.

Btw, you can also buy a bottle from their well-stocked shelves behind the bar seats, with a very reasonable corkage fee per bottle, not per person. And when they noticed me looking for a particular wine, they pulled out a separate list of what they had in stock and rummaged around their cellar to offer further hidden gems)

The 2015 Heymann Lowenstein Mosel Riesling GG was lovely and the more local 2014 Mount Mary triolet was something different, but we also had a beautiful bottle of Cigliuti, Serraboella 2015 Barbaresco (thanks Piero!) and took home an Alsatian GC. They even sell our fave Zalto glasses and those stylish Brian Hirst decanters (which are becoming harder to find because he’s stopped making them).

I should have started this earlier.befoe I started eating. I had the European Steak Tartare (which was excellent). Recommended.

Love coming here for a sneaky vino and a few of their delicious food offerings. Can't go past the gnocci. Absolutely delicious!

Steer clear! Dropped in for a glass of wine before a show. Wine poured was basically undrinkable. Staff did not care and were totally uninterested. Their only concern was to collect payment for 2 glasses of wine that we did not drink!

City Wine Shop is always an enjoyable experience. The selection is excellent, the staff are knowledgeable and mostly hospitality veterans, so the service is always excellent.
I recommend going when you can afford to be extravagant and try a few bottles and some of the accompanying dishes.

An old favourite for me in Melbourne. European bistro style vibes. You get a cute well stocked wine shop with great wine options and amazing food whether you after some nibbles, main or dessert. The level of service is good and there is outdoor seating which means it's dog friendly

We actually ate at The European. It was good but I still think Phillipe's offers better value, food-wise. Food's quite good but service was not quite right.

Fairly quiet for a Friday but staff were attentive and as usual chatty and polite.
We took our 4&5yo for the first time, we’ve been many times and knew portion sizes were generous so one gnocchi main to share for the kids and 4-5 starters and a shared main for two adults was plenty of food.
Wines on point as always.

Finally made it to City Wine Shop after wanting to go for at least five years. Great setting, food and wine, however the service really let it down. Our waitress was very aloof. Offered no water at any point during our meal. Our glasses of gamay were served with 2 large pieces of cork and foil floating in it. Generally the food was great, however our St Johns bone marrow had very little marrow in it, and certainly not enough to cover 1 slice of bread let alone the 4 it came with. You’d expect from a melbourne institution like this to have seasoned, polished floor staff, not our experience unfortunately.

My dogs face says it all. He want the food and wine and so do you. The marinara was to die for. A bit pricey but of course look at where it is. Highly recommend.

Had a great anniversary lunch sitting out the front in their terrace seating. My favourite outdoor dining in Melbourne. Amazing food, drinks & staff. Picked up a bottle of nice Nikka Whiskey to take home & some dessert for later on from their shop.

A delightfully located, unpretentious yet special spot with nice wine and snacks. Great service.

Popped by for a pre-dinner drinks and snacks and CWS consistently delivers.

Our oysters and polenta to go with our wine were delicious!

Service were quick even tho CWS is starting to fill up on the Fri night we were there.

Keep it up team!

Fantastic spot for fine wine and good food. Conveniently located on the Spring st end of the CBD. Have a great selection of wines to suit all palates and good range of food to match. Service is friendly and helpful. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a nice wine lunch or an after work drink

Still such a great place, always like going, you walk in and relax and leave knowing it's going to be like this the next time.

Love this place to catch up with friends, business meetings or just yourself has everything you could want, staff are great and could tell you anything about the wines and food on offer and super friendly always get the polenta chips, it’s a must!

Great little wine bar with cozy indoor seating area and a nice outdoor area.

The Cod Roe bilinis are amazing and a must try, and they have an extensive wine selection by glass or by bottle.

We have to commend the amazing staff on the night, really accommodating and friendly and just made our already enjoyable night even better.

Waited by the “please wait to be seated” sign for 20 mins, with wait staff walking by me and not even acknowledging my presence.
Not cool.
Not impressed.

Spent a very pleasant hour on the late autumn afternoon outdoors with wine and an excellent couple of cheeses. Friendly knowledgeable staff.