The 5 Wine Bar You Can’t Miss in Toulouse
Search “wine bar” in Toulouse and the city answers with something more interesting than a row of identical
caves à manger: the places that actually rise to the top are a traditional English pub, a café-brasserie on one
of the old merchants’ squares, a British-style burger-and-quiz house, an Australian-themed bar in a former
newspaper building, and a Basque tapas bar on the busiest nightlife square in town. Toulouse drinks in company
rather than in reverent silence, and that shows in the listings. We went through 59 qualifying venues with a
Google Business listing across the central arrondissement — Capitole, Saint-Pierre, Esquirol and the streets
running down to the Garonne — and weighted each one’s rating against how many people actually left it, because
a 4.9 from 753 reviews and a 3.8 from nearly five thousand are not making the same claim, and the second is not
automatically the weaker one. Five came out clearly ahead, and between them they cover the full range of what
an evening’s drinking in this city can look like.
Seven Sisters, Rue Raymond IV
The highest-rated name on this list and, by some distance, the most consistently praised:
Seven Sisters, 4.9★ from 753 Google reviews. It calls itself a “genuinely
traditional English pub,” and the word doing the work there is genuinely — this is not a French bar with
a Union Jack on the wall but a pub run to the English template, with a kitchen that opens Tuesday to Saturday
between 7 and 10 PM and a happy hour every day from 5 to 6:30 PM. It sits on Rue Raymond IV, north of Place
Wilson, in the quieter grid of streets above the tourist centre, which is part of why it reads as a local’s pub
rather than a stop on a circuit. Open daily from 5:00 PM, to midnight Sunday through Wednesday and to 2:00 AM
Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Café de la Bourse, Place de la Bourse
The one on this list that is as much a restaurant as a bar, and the only one that opens in the morning.
Café de la Bourse holds 4.8★ from 1,118 reviews at 24 Place de la Bourse, the
small square named for the old merchants’ exchange a couple of minutes’ walk from the Capitole. Its own website
is a reservation portal and nothing else — no menu, no history, just a booking widget — so what can be said
about it honestly comes from the listing and the hours, and the hours say a lot: 10:30 AM to midnight Tuesday
through Thursday, until 1:00 AM on Friday, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 AM on Saturday, and closed both Sunday and
Monday. That is a full café-brasserie day, coffee through lunch through the long evening, rather than a bar
shift. If you want a glass somewhere you can also sit down and eat properly, this is the address on the list
that is built for it — and the one you need to book, given how much of its capacity is table service.
The Four Monkeys, Rue de Metz
Open since 2015 on Rue de Metz, the straight run between the Capitole and the river, and the most
programmed venue here — The Four Monkeys works its calendar hard. Monday is quiz
night at 9:00 PM, and around that sit karaoke evenings, live concerts and rugby on multiple screens, which in
this city is less an amenity than a requirement. The draught list mixes the expected names with craft options,
the cocktails are made rather than poured, and the kitchen’s signature is a handmade burger in buns from a local
Toulouse baker, including a duck-and-blue-cheese version that only really makes sense in the southwest of France.
The pub describes its own crowd as “cosmopolitan,” staffs multilingually, and is accessible for visitors with
reduced mobility. 4.5★ from 1,476 reviews, open every day 4:30 PM to 1:30 AM, and to 2:30 AM on Saturday,
with happy hour from 6:30 to 8:00 PM.
Café Oz Toulouse, Rue Gabriel Péri
The big one, and the one whose numbers need reading carefully: Café Oz holds
4.1★ but from 3,099 reviews, four times the volume of the top-rated pub on this list. That is the
signature of a high-turnover late venue rather than a weak one. It is the Toulouse branch of the French
Australian-bar chain, installed in the historic building known as Le Télégramme just off Place Wilson, and it
commits fully to the theme — surfboards, didgeridoos, crocodiles and Aboriginal paintings on the walls, beers
imported from Australia and New Zealand behind the bar, and what it calls a “no worries” atmosphere as the house
line. DJ sets, live concerts, themed and Erasmus nights, screens for the sport, and light snacking rather than a
real kitchen. It also keeps the latest hours in this guide by a wide margin: 5:00 PM to 3:00 AM Sunday and
Monday, to 4:00 AM Tuesday through Thursday, and to 5:00 AM on Friday and Saturday.
Le Bar Basque, Place Saint-Pierre
The most reviewed venue in this entire search — 4,783 reviews, more than the other four put together — and
the lowest rated at 3.8★, which together tell you exactly what Le Bar Basque
is: an institution on Place Saint-Pierre, the square that carries most of Toulouse’s student nightlife, running
at a volume that guarantees a wide spread of opinions. Its own description is unusually direct — “bar festif,
tapas à partager, cocktails & matchs en direct” — and it does not pretend to be anything more contemplative than
that. The kitchen leans on Basque and southwestern French tapas and sharing boards; the drinks are draught beer,
classic cocktails and house creations; the screens carry the football and the rugby; and the stated ambition is
“les grandes tablées, les planches qui débordent, les verres qui trinquent” — big tables, overflowing boards,
glasses knocking together. It is also the earliest opener here, from 11:00 AM most days and 10:00 AM at weekends,
running to 2:00 AM midweek and 3:00 AM on Saturday.
All five, on the map
The interactive map has all 59 qualifying bars we found across central Toulouse,
these five marked and numbered, and a button that hands the walking route between them straight to Google Maps
on your phone. The good news for anyone planning an evening: unlike a crawl in a bigger city, these five sit
within roughly a kilometre of each other, so the whole list is genuinely walkable in one night.
Getting the most out of a bar crawl in Toulouse
The five here are close enough together to do on foot, but the hours are the thing to plan around — Café de
la Bourse shuts entirely on Sunday and Monday, while Café Oz is still going at 4:00 AM on a Wednesday, so the
order you walk them in matters more than the distance. If you are visiting rather than living here, a local eSIM
from Airalo means maps and the last métro timetable work from the moment you
land, and a pre-booked transfer with Welcome Pickups saves negotiating
Toulouse-Blagnac at the end of a flight. Rounds add up over a five-stop night, and paying in euros without a
foreign transaction fee on every one of them is the difference between an evening and an evening plus a bad
statement — a Wise card handles that, and if you are settling in Toulouse for
longer than a trip, a French-usable account from N26 or
Revolut is the sturdier version of the same fix. And since four of these five
run mostly in French once you step away from the anglophone pubs, a few conversation lessons on
Preply before you go are the cheapest possible upgrade to the evening: ordering
a Madiran or a plate of tapas in French changes how the night goes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the best-rated bar in Toulouse?
By raw rating, Seven Sisters on Rue Raymond IV at 4.9★ from 753 reviews, followed by Café de la Bourse
at 4.8★ from 1,118. Weighted against volume the picture shifts — Café Oz holds 4.1★ across 3,099
reviews and Le Bar Basque 3.8★ across 4,783, which are the scores of very busy late-night venues rather
than of bad ones.
Are there actual wine bars in this list, or just pubs?
Honestly: mostly not wine bars in the strict sense. Google classifies these five as two pubs, two bars and a
restaurant, and the ones with published drink offerings lead on draught beer, imported beer and cocktails rather
than a curated wine list. Café de la Bourse is the closest thing here to a sit-down place where wine and a proper
meal are the point.
Which of these is open latest?
Café Oz, comfortably — 5:00 AM on Friday and Saturday, 4:00 AM Tuesday through Thursday, 3:00 AM on Sunday
and Monday. Le Bar Basque runs to 3:00 AM on Saturday, The Four Monkeys to 2:30 AM, and Seven Sisters to 2:00 AM
Thursday through Saturday.
Which ones close on particular days?
Only Café de la Bourse, which is closed Sunday and Monday. The other four list opening hours for all seven
days in Google’s current data — worth checking the individual listing on the map before you go, since holiday
and seasonal closures do not always reach the profile.
Can I do all five in one evening?
Geographically yes — Rue Raymond IV, Place de la Bourse, Rue de Metz, Rue Gabriel Péri and Place Saint-Pierre
all sit inside central Toulouse and the whole route is walkable. The constraint is the clock, not the map: start
at Le Bar Basque or Café de la Bourse, which open earliest, and leave Café Oz for last.
- 1. Seven Sisters — 26 Rue Raymond IV, 31000 Toulouse
- 2. Café de la Bourse — 24 Pl. de la Bourse, 31000 Toulouse
- 3. The Four Monkeys — 7 Rue de Metz, 31000 Toulouse
- 4. Café Oz Toulouse — 1 Rue Gabriel Péri, 31000 Toulouse
- 5. Le Bar Basque — 7 Pl. Saint-Pierre, 31000 Toulouse