Banter Wine Bar

Cute little place with a selected menu but fantastic food! Lovely service and a great selection of wines. Perfect for an intimate dinner or a catch up. But better book a table in advance due to limited space.

I have been coming the Banter since it opened, but in the last six months have given it a miss. Originally the food was great, and service too, even if a bit slow. But as time has gone on the food has dropped off in quality, and the service mediocre and very slow.
Given the location and their highish prices they are well below the bar. Even as a take away option they are often very tardy in preparing food, I once waited 45 minutes to collect a phone order that had been called In 25 minutes before we got there. I think they didn’t even start cooking the pizza until we had been there a short while. Whether this was simple poor service or an attempt to sell more drinks to people waiting I cannot say, but it did not impress.
My last few pizzas from there had been only so-​so for flavour. They used to be good, and I had hoped that my experiences were a momentary lapse, but after several disappointments I suspect like many places they have simply lost it.

Getting the worst out of the way up front — visited on a Tuesday, and it was unexpectedly busy. Making matters worse, only one waitress was on (apparently someone didn’t show up that afternoon), so service was slow. It’s also very noisy when it gets busy (the name should be a giveaway), and it was inexplicably hot.
That being said, the food is excellent (I’d happily re-​order everything that I ate, and would go back again for dinner tonight if I could), the wine list is extensive, with some interesting unusual wines, and the waitress that was on was awesome despite being snowed under — one of the better experiences service-​wise I’ve had in Melbourne. Really good value, high quality food.

Nice and relaxed place. Good to catch up for drinks and nibbles and a chat.
The nibbles looked quite tempting but we went for mains and dessert.
The mains had strong flavours but were good. The desserts were yummy.

Fantastic pizza – vegan and fresh. Very Italian. Would love to come back here (if it wasn’t so damn far away from Calgary, Alberta, Canada!).

As newish pizza wine bar in North Melbourne’s hippest street. This place serves gourmet pizzas and has an array of unusual and interesting wines to match.
The servers here are clearly passionate about wines and will encourage you to try particular wines after chatting with you about your taste in wine.
Casual atmosphere. More bistro than bar. But with more class than the average gourmet pizza joint. Best addition to the Queensberry strip since Beatrix.