The Last Jar
They churn the butter, bake the bread, cure the meat and smoke the fish on site, which is not what an Irish pub has to do.
Why go
The City of Melbourne's own listing describes the kitchen working in the tradition of a country farmhouse
, making as much as it can in house (What's On Melbourne). Head chef Jake Beazley comes from Northern Ireland and is known for the beef and Guinness pie, and the venue says he rotates the a la carte menu often (The Last Jar). There are over twelve taps carrying Guinness, Stone and Wood and Kilkenny alongside a rotating craft section, plus an Irish whiskey list. Wednesday and Sunday are traditional music nights where anyone can pick up an instrument and play. The weeknight specials run from a $22 burger to a $35 steak.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the beef and Guinness pie, with a pint of Guinness. Soda bread and black pudding if you want the Irish end of the menu. Whatever came out of their own smoker or cure.
- Avoid: Monday, when it is shut, and Tuesday or Wednesday lunch, which does not exist. Lunch starts on Thursday.
What locals & experts say
- The Urban List Melbourne, unsigned, which is why it is quoted as the masthead rather than a person:
Offering traditional meals made with fresh, local ingredients, the menu gives Melbourne one of the most authentic Irish feasts. Anything that can be house-made, is. From cured salmon to hand-churned butter, the possibilities are endless.
3 - The City of Melbourne's venue listing on the drinks:
after dinner treat yourself to a whiskey from their extensive Irish whisky list
, with the beers and wineschosen to complement the traditional farmhouse cooking, with a focus on local producers
.2 - No critic and no chef. Nobody with a byline has reviewed this pub, and across 44 voters and 89 articles in Broadsheet's Where Chefs Eat series no Melbourne chef names it. The one Guinness answer in that whole corpus points at a pub in Apollo Bay.4
Good to know
- Where: 616 Elizabeth Street, on the Queensberry Street corner at the north end of the CBD, walking distance from Queen Victoria Market.
- Timing: Tuesday to Sunday. Lunch Thursday to Sunday. Happy hour every day from 4 to 7pm.
- Booking: walk-in, with a function room and a beer garden for a group.
- Music: live most nights, with the traditional sessions on Wednesday and Sunday.
- Diet: a vegan pie runs on the Wednesday Irish night, per the venue's own menu. No wider allergen statement is published.
- A listing error worth knowing: The Urban List's directory page prints the postcode as 3161, which is Caulfield, several suburbs away. The venue is at 3000.
- Food safety: Victoria publishes no venue hygiene ratings. Safe Food Victoria's section 53D register of convictions, as at 21 July 2026, carries fifteen entries and this pub is not one of them.5
Verdict
could-visit — They churn the butter, bake the bread, cure the meat and smoke the fish on site, which for an Irish pub on the north end of Elizabeth Street is more than the format asks for. Head chef Jake Beazley is from Northern Ireland and the beef and Guinness pie is his. There are over twelve taps, Guinness and Kilkenny among them, with a rotating craft section alongside, and an Irish whiskey list the council's own listing calls extensive. Trad sessions run Wednesday and Sunday and anyone can join in. The weeknight specials are the honest value here: $25 for the Irish night with the pie or a lamb stew. What holds it at this rung is that nobody with a byline has assessed any of it. The Urban List's unsigned verdict is the only editorial line found, and across 44 working Melbourne chefs, none names it. Good pint, real kitchen work, no independent verdict.