Best Bars in Ballarat: Craft Beer, Cocktails, Heritage Pubs and the Sturt Street Bar Scene

Ballarat's bar scene is anchored by the extraordinary heritage pub architecture of the Victorian goldfields era, with Craig's Royal Hotel (one of Victoria's most significant 1850s heritage hotels), the Provincial Hotel, and the Sturt Street heritage pub strip providing bar settings of architectural grandeur that no other regional Victorian city can match. The contemporary craft beer and cocktail scene has developed alongside the heritage pub culture, with the Hop Temple, the Mitchell Harris Wine Room, and the Bridge Mall cocktail bars providing quality contemporary alternatives to the heritage hotel bar experience.

Craig's Royal Hotel (10 Lydiard Street Ballarat) — Craig's Royal is one of Victoria's most celebrated heritage hotels and provides Ballarat's most historically significant bar experience, with the heritage bluestone and rendered Victorian hotel facade, the interior heritage barroom, and the Lydiard Street gold rush heritage setting creating a bar atmosphere of extraordinary historical resonance. Craig's Royal has hosted every significant visitor to Ballarat since the 1850s and the heritage bar retains the character of its original Victorian-era fittings.

The Hop Temple (Ballarat CBD) — the Hop Temple is Ballarat's finest craft beer bar, with the extensive craft beer tap selection, the quality food menu, and the CBD location making it the reference point for Ballarat craft beer culture. The rotating tap list and the quality of the local and national craft beer selection consistently impress visitors from Melbourne and Sydney.

Mitchell Harris Wine Room (38 Doveton Street North Ballarat) — the Mitchell Harris Wine Room provides Ballarat's finest wine bar experience, with the Ballarat-based Mitchell Harris winery's exceptional range of cool-climate Victorian wines, the quality small food menu, and the Doveton Street location creating a wine bar experience that is among regional Victoria's finest.

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