Midweek Melbourne Money Is Back to Give You Up to $125 Off Meals Across the City 

Melburnians, grabbing a bite to eat out of the house just got 25-percent cheaper — for a limited time, and as long as you hit up an eatery within the City of Melbourne municipality between Monday–Thursday. As they've done twice before now, the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne have teamed up to give the city's residents an extra incentive to head to a restaurant, bringing back their Melbourne Money dining scheme.

Still called Midweek Melbourne Money this time around — with that first word in the title highlighting a key rule — it covers meals either early or midway through the working week. Make a breakfast, lunch or dinner date across the first four days of the usual grind and you can score cash back, up to $125 per person across the life if the program.

Returning after the impact of the Omicron wave over summer, the initiative kicks off again on Monday, March 7, and applies to food and drink purchases anywhere that meals are sold — such as restaurants, cafes and pubs, as well as bars, clubs, breweries and distilleries — across the municipality. And, it'll cover a quarter of your transaction total, as long as you spend between $40–500 (including GST).

Among the places that aren't covered: mobile food trucks, vans, canteens, trailers and pop-up restaurants; catering, function and reception centres; private river cruises; convenience stores, milk bars, supermarkets, greengrocer, grocery store and service stations; and confectionery shops and packaged food stores.

Yakimono Dining Room

Once again, the focus is on eating out; however, you can also use the rebate for takeaways — as long as it is ordered either in-person, online or by phone on the eligible days, meets the $40 minimum spend and is collected by you from the venue. Accordingly, that means that you can't claim the 25-percent cash back on food that you order via home delivery companies such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo.

Also, the same big caveat that's been in place the last two times variations of the scheme ran still remains. So, you do need to purchase something to eat to get the rebate, with your drinks only covered if you're buying food.

This time there's $10 million available in total, and there's another important thing to take into consideration: it works on a first in, first served basis. So, heading out or getting takeaway as soon as the scheme starts and submitting your claim for a rebate immediately afterwards is recommended, as Midweek Melbourne Money will only run until the funds are exhausted.

And, redemption-wise, you'll still need to pay your bill in total when you're ordering — but you'll get funds back afterwards. You'll need to get an itemised receipt at the time of payment, then take a photo of it and upload it to the Melbourne Money website. Within five working days, you'll then score your rebate via a transfer to your bank account.

The Stolen Gem

The returning scheme falls under a huge swathe of initiatives announced in February by the Victorian Government, all which are aimed at helping get the city click into gear following the past few months — and, in the case of Midweek Melbourne Money, boosting weekday foot traffic.

Also on the way: the return of regional and metropolitan travel vouchers, statewide dining vouchers covering areas beyond the City of Melbourne, and a new $30 million entertainment voucher scheme for discounted tickets to the cinema, theatre shows, live music gigs and exhibitions, plus conferences and other events.

The Midweek Melbourne Money scheme kicks off on Monday, March 7. For more information, head to the City of Melbourne and Victorian Government websites.

Top image: Parker Blain.