Photo courtesy of 366daysofbeer.com

Venue: Deja Vu Bar

Location: 525 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)

Style: Bar and Lounge

Food: Standard pub fair but on the fancy side.  The food was great, but not amazing.

Beer variety: 12 rotating taps plus a large variety of bottles.  Their website says 80+ bottles available but it doesn’t seem like that many.  Stock is always coming in and out, so the menu isn’t necessarily up to date.  Have a good look at the fridge.  Variety is mostly Australian but there’s plenty available from other markets.

Staff: Fairly knowledgeable.  They seemed to have tasted most on the menu and were more than happy to recommend something.

Overall: This is a great bar with a great variety of beer.  It’s located in the part of Melbourne’s business district that full of lawyers and nicer offices, and, like most of the bars in the area, is designed to cater for workers near by.

In this way, the bar seems a little confused.  It’s done up fairly nicely, but the overall design and vibe makes the bar seem like it was done on the cheap side.  It’s a great bar with a great staff and selection, but appears corners were cut on the overall design and construction and it really shows.  In some ways it seems to want to be a welcoming pub, in some ways it seems to want to be a nice place for after work drinks, but some ways the vibe is of a place that just packs them in and serves cheap beer.

The venue doesn’t seem warm and welcoming, but at the same time doesn’t feel high class and nice; it feels a little empty.

However, the bar has a great open feel to it.  This takes away from the communal feeling felt at a lot of bars/pubs, but does well to suit for a few quiet after work drinks with friends.  So the redeeming part that it feels a bit empty is that it gives the place a quiet feel where you know you won’t be bothered and you don’t feel obliged to mix and mingle.

Give this place a try and come back a few times to see what’s on tap.  This could be a great place to go regularly if you work in the area.