Prahran (pran) is one of Melbourne‘s most lively neighbourhoods on the southside, home to cool wine bars, excellent restaurants, boutiques, and more smashed avo than you could eat in a lifetime. The best things to do in Prahran include the Prahran Market, Humming Puppy, Greville Street shopping, the pub College Lawn Hotel, and restaurants such as Entrecote and Borscht, Vodka & Tears. It’s one of the best neighbourhoods to visit in Melbourne, if you want to experience a bit of Melbourne’s famous cafe culture. You’ll find the heart of the neighbourhood around the intersection between Melbourne’s famous Chapel Street, the recently developed Greville Street precinct and the Prahran Market. It’s a busy area, and is relatively tourist-free, compared to neighbourhoods like Fitzroy and St Kilda. I lived near Prahran for two years, and have so many favourite spots in the neighbourhood.

The Best Things to Do in Prahran

Prahran Market

The Prahran Market is one of Melbourne’s three major markets, and it’s open several days a week with stallholders selling fresh produce, meat and fish, gourmet food and homewares, along with several hot food stalls & coffee shops. I love the spinach & cheese gozleme from Anatolia Gozleme Kitchen and the decadent grilled cheese toastie from Maker & Monger. My favourite coffee is from Q Le Baker.

Humming Puppy yoga

Humming Puppy is the most impressive yoga studio in Melbourne. The yoga classes at Humming Puppy are similar to what you’d find elsewhere, but the custom-built yoga studio has a soundscape that improves performance and focus. The studio literally hums, at two frequencies. The first is the Schumann Resonance, 7.83hz, which mimics the grounding vibrations of the earth. The second frequency is at 40hz, which induces Gamma brainwave activity to support focus and peak performance. The whole set up feels part luxury day spa, part luxury space ship.

Greville Street Shopping

Greville Street’s shopping precinct has been recently redeveloped, and has seen an influx of boutiques, bars and cafes as a result. There’s a small garden here, which was one of my favourite spots in the area to relax with a book or a coffee.

The Best Bars in Prahran

The Smith

The Smith is a modern Australian pub, with great food, a lively bar scene and a famous Gospel Brunch every weekend. If you’re in town for it, try and get to the Gospel Brunch which includes a bottomless spritz package, otherwise come in for dinner during the week.

Neptune Food & Wine

Neptune Food & Wine is a gorgeous wine bar & restaurant from some of the people behind my favourite restaurants in Melbourne. Nic Coulter & Simon Blacher from Tokyo Tina and brothers Dave & Michael Park from Pastuso, joined forces to bring coastal Italian vibes to the southside. Come for aperol spritz, Italian wines and small plates like charred octopus, stracciatella with heirloom tomatoes and vitello tonnato.

College Lawn

College Lawn is the best pub in Prahran, and has one of the best beer gardens in Melbourne. A classic local hangout on leafy Greville Street, College Lawn is the perfect spot for a pub meal in the sunshine.

The Alps

Wine bar slash wine shop The Alps is a cute and cosy spot for catching up with friends over a bold red on a dreary winter’s day.

The Best Restaurants in Prahran

Entrecote

Entrecote is one of Melbourne’s most glamorous French restaurants. Everything is a little bit extra, including the interiors, and the clientele. However, Entrecote has style and substance, making it the perfect place for a girls night out, a date or a celebratory dinner.

Osteria Renata

You’ll find excellent Italian restaurants all over Melbourne, and in Prahran, the pick of the punch is Osteria Renata. Small, warm and inviting, Osteria Renata is chic and yet unpretentious, and the food is superb.

Borscht, Vodka & Tears

Opened by a trio of Polish expats, Borscht, Vodka & Tears serves homestyle Polish cuisine and more than 100 kinds of vodka. It’s a mainstay in Melbourne’s dining scene, and the cosy, well-loved restaurant is a refreshing break from

L’Hotel Gitan

Renowned chef Jacques Reymond runs this charming bar & restaurant with his wife and three of his four children. L’Hotel Gitan is a more relaxed sibling to their other restaurant, Bistro Gitan in South Yarra, and is the perfect spot to catch up with friends over a glass of wine and a few French bites.

Cafes & Brunch in Prahran

Tall Timber

Tall Timber is the best cafe in Prahran. It’s small and unpretentious, with a permanently busy dining room and a small, charming courtyard. The menu is vegetable-forward and perfectly balances meeting your classic brunch cravings and offering a little bit of creativity and novelty.

St Edmond’s Cafe

St Edmond’s Cafe is a pocket-sized cafe tucked away in Edmond’s Place, just off the Greville Street Precinct. Housed in a graffiti-covered former garage (very Melbourne) and with a tiny courtyard covered in fairylights, St Edmond’s is always busy with active-wear clad Melburnians and four-legged friends on a weekend morning, but there’s never a huge wait for a table. Unlike Melbourne’s most famous cafes, St Edmund’s is tourist free and has a really lovely neighbourhood feel to it.

Hotels in Prahran

Due to Prahran’s envious inner city location, the few hotels in Prahran tend to be expensive. The Cullen by Art Series Hotels is a stylish option, conveniently located on Commercial Road near the Prahran Market and Chapel Street. There’s a second outpost of Art Series Hotels, The Olsen, just up the road in South Yarra. For more affordable accommodation, Hotel Claremont on Toorak Road in South Yarra is only a short walk from Prahran, and South Yarra is a lovely neighbourhood in its own right.

Have you been to Melbourne? What are your favourite things to do in Prahran?

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