Bellota Wine Bar

Winelovers paradise! A huge variety of wine to choose from. You only pay 15 A$ cork fee and that is real good value. Plenty of fantastic wines to choose from and the food was great. Steaks prepared to perfection.

More photo updated 13/7/24 Lovely staff, delicious charcuterie selections. I bought wine from next door (Prince wine store) and it's really great value for money with hundreds of international wines you can choose from. Highly recommended

I totally lucked in moving within a block of Bellota. Always receive a warm welcome & good banter with the staff. Knowledgeable staff share their picks from the inventive wine list and seasonal menu. Sun hits the right spot out in the front area or cooler options in the rear courtyard. One can purchase a bottle of wine from Prince Wine Store and pop at the table, love this. Feels like you could be anywhere in Europe yet extremely close to central Melbourne. 10 mins on a tram from Southbank. They even minded my dry cleaning for days when I loosely left it behind…honest bunch! Can’t fault them. Book so you don’t miss out.

Great place to visit. Convenient with lots of parking. Wine gallery available next door is from same owner so tuns of wine seletion. Great food and service, a little bit pricy for its portion.

They’ve crammed in more tables so now it’s just a generic overcrowded white table cloth restaurant. No longer has the unique European bistro feel and the waiters are now over capacity. Used to love coming here, won’t be returning.

Valentine's lunch in the sunshine couldn't be better! We started off with some cheese arancini which were super scrumptious. The cold salmon entre with roe and kipfel potatoes was my favourite (ate as a main) and the special snapper was also delicious (although on the smaller size for a main). You can grab a bottle in the wine shop and just pay $15 byo which is a great deal 👏 Service and ambiance was fabulous, will definitely come back for dinner. Loved it.

Wow! our meal was absolutely delicious; cooked to perfection and beautifully presented. Shame about our abrupt waitress...very brisk, no mention of a specials board, practically threw the breadbasket on the table when asked for more bread whilst waiting for our meal to arrive. Still, we’d definitely go back but ask to be seated elsewhere.

A genuine surprise packet. Exceptional service and outstanding dishes with a beautifully curated list of options to match the gargantuan selection of vino available next door at one of Australia’s leading fine wine teams. Could not fault a thing and even the coffee was brilliant - Bravo ! Highly Recommend

Wonderful little wine bar with delicious food and an impressive wine selection. Modern Australian fare with Italian influences. You can even have wine tastings on select nights. Easy on-street parking in South Melbourne and expect it to be busy on the weekends.

Tiny little wine bar with pricey scrumptious food, delicious wine, an attached wine shop and even wine tastings. Food is modern Australian and Italian inspired. Choose from a selection of tapas, entrees and mains. Extensive wine list. Gets pretty full so without a booking, your best bet is seating at the bar. My dining companion got the chimichurri medium rare beef which comes with a large bowl of pommes frites. I got the market fish with eggplant puree, fried mushrooms, and more eggplant. Each morsel of my meal was absolutely scrumptious. My dining companion also thoroughly enjoyed his meal.

Bellota is just off Clarendon Street in South Melbourne and is not so much a restaurant as a wine bar that sells food. Really good food. The focus is on salumi and cheese, so perfect if you prefer little snacks as opposed to a main meal (though they serve these as well). Bellota is Spanish for acorn which is what the Spanish apparently feed to their pigs before turning them into jamon so it seemed appropriate to start with some of the latter. I ordered it as part of the salumi board (normally $28, but an extra $12 or $15 depending on the type of jamon you include), along with some Lonza (pork loin seasoned with fennel and chilli flakes) and Longaniza Oscura - a dry pork sausage made with squid ink which was my waitress's recommendation. I ordered a glass of Matsu Tempranillo to wash it down. The meat came with a little pile of pickled vegetables and some cornichons. The Lonza was nice - tasted like a very good leg ham, but with a creamier, richer flavour. The Longaniza looked like a fatty blood sausage and tasted like a cross between salami and chorizo. Not bad. The jamon was the pick of the bunch, moist and subtle with just a hint of saltiness. It was served with some lightly fried almonds which I could have easily eaten a bowl of. Great match of flavours and textures. They also have oysters - Coffin Bay from South Australia and Moonlight Flat from Batemans Bay - so I ordered three of each and a glass of Mount Horrocks Riesling. The oysters were fat and juicy, served with a little bowl of vinegar and finely diced onion, and the wine was light and sweet. Lovely combination. I really like Bellota. Really good food, great service and an amazing wine choice - the proprietors also own the adjoining Prince Wine Store and you can choose from one of the over 4,000 bottles on their shelf and have that with your meal if you're happy to pay the $15 corkage.

Whole Bellota Love - South Melbourne gets a brand new wine bar BY SHARKING FOR CHIPS AND DRINKS Prince Wine Store has opened a wine bar and, while the focus is very much on all things vinous - there are 3500 bottles to choose from next door (those costing $80 or more are charged at the shelf price, those less than $80 incur $15 corkage) - this place is not a one-trick pony. The food from Brigitte Hafner (ex-Gertrude Street Enoteca) is fantastic and the menu reads like a gourmet tour of Europe, moving from sea to land with bistro classics and fresh pasta dishes. Two choices of oyster were up first from the large marble 'crustacean bar' - Sydney Rock oysters by Moonlight Flat in Bateman Bay, NSW and Pacific oysters by Pristine Oyster Farm in Coffin Bay, SA. Served simply with a shallot vinaigrette and a squeeze of lemon it was all that was needed. Sparklingly sea-fresh and creamy in equal measure. Shared charcuterie platters comprised: chianina toscano, Berkshire ossocollo and felino, saucisson de Morteaux, jamon iberico from acorn-fed pigs, and culatello di Parma prosciutto. Served with olives, grilled bread and goat's curd - it was hard to choose between this and the slightly salty, very creamy foil-wrapped pats of butter - this is the kind of grazing I love. Potted smoked eel with pickled beetroot was sweet and earthy at the same time. Perfectly oozing ham and cheese croquettes - comfort food for the diners who had braved a wet and windy Melbourne night to be here. As an entree, spaghetti with fresh tuna, eggplant, capers, tomato and olives was deliciously Mediterranean and a perfect match for chilled glass of arneis from Piedmont. Main - the star dish of the night and a possible contender for our dish of the year - confit duck, red cabbage, pomme boulangere. I could eat those perfectly cooked (sadly calorie-laden) potatoes on their own. The duck was perfectly cooked and the cabbage amazingly flavourful. Gippsland scotch fillet with herb butter, pommes frites and salad tasted like we had just stepped into a bistro in Paris. For dessert, a palate-cleansing and slightly tart yoghurt pannacotta with grapes and a hazelnut and honey syrup, as well as a classically French walnut tart with a perfectly light shortcrust pastry base. Like the acorns (bellota in Spanish) that the famed pigs snuffle up in their hundreds, this South Melbourne newcomer sees diners gorge on Brigitte Hafner's down-to-earth food.

Wonderful, reliable and enjoyable local bar. Lovely space. Nice selection of wines available. Very nice dishes to be had. Efficient friendly service. Ticks pretty much every box for me. I'll definetly be back.

If it's wine you're looking for - Bellota is a great choice. Aside from a decent in-restaurant wine list featuring around 4 by-the-glass size options (everything from a taste to a half bottle), you can also pop next door and pay shelf price for anything from the Prince Wine Store. There is a corkage charge for bottles under $80, but given that PWS often has some good specials, there's a good chance you'll come out on top. If you're hungry however, prepare to be gouged. We left with empty stomachs and an even emptier wallet. Very unsatisfying. The service was pretty average, but this place is brand new so it may just be teething problems. We ordered a mixed cheese platter and they didn't so much as even tell us what was on it. Plates were cleared while we were still eating. They tried to charge us for things we didn't order. Very cold, rushed and awkward. All in all a 3 star because the wine selection is great and I suspect it will be just a few months before they get the place humming along nicely.

We saw this place down an alleyway & entered via the back door. Nice inside with a bit of a French feel. Attached to a bottle-O for convenience!

One of our favourite places to drink or have dinner. Great chef and fabulous wait staff. Delicious food and wonderful drinks. Definitely 5 stars!

Very nice bowl of Mussels and frites for lunch - perfect for for a cold wet Melbourne day. Interesting wine list and great staff/service, also thought the prices were very reasonable. I don't live in the area but plan to get back on a regular basis. It's part of the Prince wine store, always worth a visit and another reason to get back...Esp for the great Saturday afternoon wine tasting sessions.