The North Melbourne Hotel found new life this year — it was a seafood restaurant, now it's an eccentric, affordable pub with interesting décor and a quality dining room. It only took six days for the new owners to transform the space. They left the structure of the building the same, and focused instead on decking out the interior with black chandeliers and marble statues.

The standard pub menu has been spiced up — European and Spanish delicacies like duck parfait, vegan paella and a whole suckling pig with all the trimmings appear (the latter is only available to pre-order). There's still Carlton Draught on tap though, and you can grab a glass of wine for $5. Not bad for an inner city pub.