Melbourne is a city full of secrets; with
Underground Cinema experiences, hidden
galleries full of independent art and notably, plenty of unique
cafes which cement Melbourne's image of great coffee.
Melbourne's pool halls are no exception, many of them hidden away in upstairs locations or down in city basements.
Cue City is one of the more popular locations, situated in the CBD along Bourke St. Although in close proximity to shopping stores such as David Jones, its basement location is almost unnoticable. Thus this leeway from the bustling streets helps create an urban yet relaxed feel towards the pool hall. There is a generous number of tables spread out, around fifteen. The tables and balls are of good quality. Cost is at $15 an hour, inexpensive particularly if you're playing with a number of friends, considering that the location is in the heart of Melbourne.
iCUE Billiards is a good alternative to Cue City, also situated in the city but in QV, on the corner of Little Lonsdale and Russell Street. Apart from billiards and snooker, at iCUE they have Wii and PS3 games. They also hold regular billiards competitions, for example, a month ago they had a Singles Competition with a first place finish of $300 cash and $100 iCue credit.
A third billiards center which I recommend would be
Mr Cue, in Box Hill. Again with pay by hour, but Mr Cue is slightly cheaper than Cue City at $13. However, there are only a limited amount of tables and on Friday and Saturday nights particularly, Mr Cue is likely to be full. Kpop or Jpop is likely to be playing in the background, so if you are a fan of Asian music then Mr Cue must be checked out.
Many bars also have pool tables in the corner, but the experience is definitely different that of a pool hall's. Firstly, bars' tables are likely to be sub-size, and quality of the equipment may not be as good. Secondly however, usually those tables are paid by game, thus this will generally equate to a cheaper experience than if you play in a proper billiads dedicated venue.
In conclusion I can say that spread out around Melbourne there are plenty of places to play pool;
Master Billiards in St Kilda,
Red Triangle in Fitzroy and or even
Fast Eddie's in Moorabbin, however the three listed above would be my top picks if you are looking to spend a fun few hours with some friends.
