Spleen Bar
The Monday comedy room holds about sixty people, and it is where Wil Anderson, Adam Hills, Tom Gleeson and Sammy J have gone to try material that has not been tested yet.
Why go
Spleen sits at the Parliament end of Bourke Street and opens 4pm to 5am, six nights a week, closed Sundays (Spleen). Time Out described it in 2011 as having already been doing the same thing for close to fifteen years, which puts the bar somewhere around thirty years old now. The description the venue gives itself is classic rock-good vibes cocktails & liquor til 5am
, and that is an accurate account of the ambition. What makes it worth a plan rather than a stumble is the comedy, which runs every Monday and now sells tickets rather than running free as it once did.
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever is cheap, and a ticket for the Monday night.
- Avoid: Sunday, when it is shut, and turning up at showtime. Time Out's advice is to be there half an hour early if you want a seat.
What locals & experts say
- Time Out Melbourne (2011), on the comedy:
Sandwiched into a minuscule 60 person capacity room... week after week this place plays host to some of the best comics in Melbourne and beyond. A prime opportunity for well-known names to try new material (and lesser known ones to hone it) the quality is remarkably consistent.
The page is unbylined, so it is the masthead's view rather than a named critic's, and it is fifteen years old.2 - The same page on the bar itself:
This unpretentious bar at the top end of Bourke has been doing it's thing for close to 15 years,
offeringcheap drinks and snacks in cosy, lounge-like atmosphere.
2 - The venue's own comedy roster names Wil Anderson, Charlie Pickering, Adam Hills, Josh Thomas, Lehmo, Jimeoin, Frank Woodley, Tom Gleeson, Corinne Grant, Sammy J, Tom Ballard and Eddie Perfect among the acts who have played the room.1
- No critic, no award, no chef vote. Nothing has been written about the drink here by anyone, and the entry does not pretend otherwise.
Good to know
- Where: 41 Bourke St, nearest station Parliament.
- Timing: 4pm to 5am, Monday to Saturday. Closed Sunday.
- Booking: walk-in for the bar. The Monday comedy is ticketed through TryBooking.
- Food safety: no entry for this business on Safe Food Victoria's register of convictions as at its 21 July 2026 update.3
- Near MCEC: no. Top of Bourke Street, about 2.5km from South Wharf.
Verdict
could-visit — It is worth a Monday, and worth knowing about at four in the morning. Spleen is a small unpretentious bar at the Parliament end of Bourke Street that has been pouring cheap drinks for close to thirty years and opens 4pm to 5am, six nights a week. The reason to plan around it is the comedy: a weekly Monday night in a room Time Out put at about sixty people, where established Australian comics including Wil Anderson, Adam Hills, Tom Gleeson and Sammy J have worked out new material. Time Out's practical advice still holds, which is to arrive half an hour early if you want a seat, though the night is now ticketed rather than free. There is no drinks programme here and this entry does not invent one. It earns its rung on a specific room doing one specific thing well, at $ prices, later than almost anything nearby.