Match Bar and Grill Review

Review by Jess McDonald

If you’re sitting at work on a Friday afternoon and thinking to yourself, "I might just have a quiet one tonight," stop thinking like that; instead, get a crew together and head to Match Bar and Grill.

Match Bar won ‘Bar of the Year 2011’ at the Australian Bar Awards, so a bar connoisseur such as yourself really ought to go there to make sure it’s deserving of that title. There’s no line, no entry fee and no strict dress code (just make sure you look neat). So, while seeming both classy and casual, Match is the perfect place for after work drinks or a few classy predrinks before your night spirals out of control and you become a menace to society.

Match is located on the corner of Little Lonsdale Street and Swanston Street (opposite Melbourne Central) so it’s in a prime location. This means that though the crowd at Match is typically in the 20-30 age group there’s usually a bit of variety in the people that go there.

Keep in mind that if there are lots of people at the bar you might have to wait a little while as most people are ordering cocktails, however this does give you time to flick through the menu. Cocktails will set you back between 12 and 25 dollars. The prices may seem slightly higher than average, but the staff at Match squeeze their own orange, lemon, lime and grapefruit juice so they are as serious about making cocktails as you are about drinking them and it’s worth paying a little extra. Anyway, have you forgotten that you didn’t have to fork out for entry? It also helps that the staff at Match are always really friendly and chatty as well as knowledgeable.

Inside Match there’s a fairly dark interior, you’ll find big comfy leather couches in the lounge area – perfect for when you’ve got a reasonably big group. Behind the couches and all along the back wall are large windows and as you stare out of them you’ll find yourself thinking, "I need to get out onto that deck."

Rather than seeming separate from the lounge, the deck seems more like a continuation of it. In fact, with views over Swanston Street and the State library, the deck is a much better area than the lounge. It also tends to be much busier, but there’s still a chilled out, friendly vibe about it. The booths are the best spot to sit in both summer and winter given the amazing heat lamp above them but you’ll have to get in early to claim those seats. However, there are plenty of other places to sit or stand and sip your cocktail, as you think about how silly you were to think that having a quiet night in was ever really going to be a serious option.



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