Best Affordable Bars in Johannesburg Where You Can Actually Afford a Round
Words by
Liam van der Merwe
Johannesburg does not bolt its nightlife to the ceiling. The city still has rooms where a cold one costs less than a minifare, where barmen remember your name and your usual order, and where a Friday round for four or five people can come in under R200. These best affordable bars in Johannesburg are not just cheap; they are places where daily life, weekend ritual, and long Johannesburg stories touch each other. You can walk in as a stranger and leave as “that friend who sat at the corner” if you let the afternoon run long enough.
Below is the map I keep on the back of my hand when I move between neighborhoods. I have been drinking at these bars on and off for years: after work, after gigs, after football, and sometimes just because I did not feel like cooking. Everything here is real, low-stakes, and deliberately unhurried.
1. Jozi’s Older, Grittier Cheap Drinks Johannesburg Joints
If you want cheap drinks Johannesburg with memory, you head to places that were already old when everyone started “rediscovering” craft beer. They are not trying to charm you. They just quietly serve.
The Ratz Bar in Doornfontein
Address: 11 Claim Street, Doornfontein
Walking in feels like stepping behind the curtain of Joburg’s official story. This is a narrow, low-ceilinged bar where most patrons work within walking distance: security guards, factory workers, students who ride the Rea Vaya or taxi from Hillbrow. On a busy night the air is dense with cigarette smoke (yes, people still smoke indoors in spots like this), and the jukebox has more than a century of Joburg music on rotation, from mbaqanga to Maskandi to early kwaito.
What to Order: Klipdrift and Coke with a beer chaser. A brandy and Coke is R25 to R30 in late 2024, and a beer is usually R18 to R20.
Best Weeknight to Go: Thursday, after work, about 18:00. By 19:00 the regulars start their second round and the energy is right for a long conversation.
The Vibe: Smoke stained, loud talk, no pretense. You leave smelling like a chimney. Not great if you are allergic to haze; perfect if you want straight stories about Joburg mining hostel days.
The bar’s history ties back to the industrial arc of Claim Street, once a hive of printing presses and workshops. The long zinc counter is chipped but solid; this corner has been serving drinks forever. If you are ever nervous about walking new streets at night, ask the barman to call you a metered taxi (the kind with a fixed price, not surge) instead of hailing a random minibus. That alone will keep your first cheap bar tour safer.
Local Tip: There are no fancy bars in Doornfontein, but there is a strong sense of neighborhood. Do not photograph people without asking and do not walk around flashing phones late at night.
2. Braamfontein’s Student Bars Johannesburg Stretch
Braamfontein has claimed nearly every student budget bar Johannesburg label at one point. The university crowd gives it energy long past midnight, and a few joints here mix cheap drinks with better-than-expected music and art.
Great Dane (formerly The Blacksun) in Braamfontein
Address: 73 Juta Street, Braamfontein
This entire building is a student bar Johannesburg institution. Floor after floor of different rooms: some for headbanging electronic sets, some for techno, some for “I had too much to drink” debates about post-colonial theory. The ground-level bar area opens onto Juta Street and stays busy weeknights and weekends.
What to Drink: Look for their house beer or house shooter specials. An imported craft beer can be R35 to R45; a local craft beer R30 to R35; student “I have a test tomorrow and want to forget” drink deals show up early week.
Best Night: On a Wits varsity budget, students swarm on Mondays and Fridays. Mondays are quieter than weekends but surprisingly cheaper.
The Vibe: Like a student house party that cleared its throat and put on pants. Loud music every level, but you can still hear your own voice on the balcony.
Braamfontein is where student politics meet cheap pints. The terraced houses along De Ville Road were once for mine managers; now they host postgrads and small NGOs. Pull one of those dense urban ironies with your beer. If you run out of appetite on the side, there are hole-in-the-wall food spots on De Villiers and Jorissen Street; vetkoek, kota, and slap chips that will keep your budget in the “I still have rent money” range.
Local Tip: Guard your bag on the stairs on busy nights. Someone will bump you on their way to the DJ booth upstairs; you will not notice until your AirPods are history.
3. Yeoville’s High Altitude View with Bottom Shelf Price Tags
If people come from outside Johannesburg, there is a good chance Yeoville is where they first realized cheap drinks Johannesburg do not mean bad experiences.
Ratz Bar Yeoville
Address: 42 Rockey Street, Yeoville
You stand on that deck and see Hillbrow Tower glowing in the distance, spires of the city center, and the usual haze hanging over the rooftops. There is always someone grilling something, a radio arguing in Yoruba or Lingala, and a Kenyan gospel song sneaking through. This is not a PR campaign for South Africa; it is ordinary, crowded, and real.
What to Order: Try their local fortified wines and mixers. A hot day begs for a R25 to R30 “Zambia” or “Four Cousins” and Coke while you chew the fat on the terrace, especially since the deck can get warm midday in summer.
Best Time: Sunset, between 17:00 and 19:00, when the light gets yellow and everyone stops watching their phones for a minute.
The Vibe: A balcony full of West and East African accents, some South African ones who moved up from the mine, and tourists trying to sound cool saying “Joburg is actually more Nairobi than Cape Town,” which it might be.
Yeoville has fed migrants for decades. Many of the bars and restaurants here are living rooms with liquor licenses. Ask older patrons about the hostel compound system under apartheid; this area saw much of that tension. They might tell you over a half-jack of brandy how the same bar now serves foreign students, local nurses, and taxi drivers.
Local Tip: Do not wander off Rockey Street alone late at night. Stick to main lit corners and short roads. Walk back toward the tall Lutheran church area or a place with security at the door.
4. Maboneng: Industrial Edges Meets Student Discounts
The budget bars Johannesburg logic of Maboneng is: big warehouses, cheap drinks, huge patios. You pay more than in Doornfontein, but less than in Sandton.
The Living Room in Maboneng
Address: 27 Fox Street, Maboneng Precinct
This rooftop bar sits on top of a converted industrial building you can smell as you climb the exposed stairwell: paint, dust, old cement. The place works like a hipster garden, fairy lights, mismatched benches, huge Joburg skyline as wallpaper. It calls itself a bar, lounge, garden, and place to think. In practice, it is also one of the easiest mid budget destinations after 16:00.
What to Drink: Local craft beer carafes and cocktail pitchers. A craft beer can be R30 to R45, well drinks around R30, while pitchers drop your per-head spend later at night.
Best Time: Late afternoon to early evening on Saturdays. The sun drops behind the warehouses at around 17:30 in early summer, and the city spreads out in orange.
The Vibe: Friendly, multicultural, occasionally too Instagram ready. Security keeps things safe during the day so you can let your guard down, but stay conscious at night.
Maboneng used to be pure industrial zone; warehouses, panel beaters, printing houses. The jazz clubs on Commissioner Street were once the only bright spots. Now this district is an intersection: long term residents complaining about noise at open air markets, newcomers paying R8 000 a month for reclaimed industrial lofts. You will hear those stories if you sit long enough next to someone with greased hands from the upstairs workshop.
Local Tip: If you are Ubering in, ask for “Fox Street, near the Arts on Main” pin. That avoids bad pickups down side roads after dark.
5. Melville’s Bohemian Budget Stretch
Melville is everybody’s “before I go respectable” quarter. There are niches in this suburb where you can drink like a postgraduate poet for prices that still call themselves cheap drinks Johannesburg.
Dasslers (or similar long-time Melville pubs)
Address: 7th Street area, Melville
If you walk down that strip around 19:00 on a Friday, the noise feels like a village fair. Music spills from several open doors at once: jazz cover band, DJ playing late 90s amapiano. You can choose between craft beer taps, or cheaper bottled lagers, or “we have one shooter that is popular” specials under R40.
What to Drink: Lager and a small Grappa. Expect a beer around R25 to R35, and a small spirit R25 to R35. Set yourself a budget of R100 per session, and you walk out conscious.
Best Time: Weekday evenings just after work. Sunday evenings are cheaper in some places, despite the nostalgia factor.
The Vibe: Mixed crowd: university people, music freelancers, plus odd older couple on their way home from choir. Lighting is softish, and conversation beats music volume reasonably.
Melville in Joburg is like Parkhurst or Greenside, just a bit older, with more vinyl shops. The buildings along 7th Street carry old Johannesburg stories in their peeling paint (well, sometimes not peeling anymore because landlords painted them blue and tagged them as hip), and the bars seem content to outlast each trend.
Local Tip: If you plan to stay after 23:00, walk back in a group. The side streets away from 7th Street are poorly lit. Catching an Uber directly from outside the bar is safer than roaming down the block.
6. Hillbrow’s Street Level Honesty
Hillbrow is where your Johannesburg history teacher’s stories lived and sometimes died. A handful of cheap bars Johannesburg are practical daylight stops. You are not a journalist here. You are another person ordering a drink.
Typical tavern / shebeen along Claim or Quartz Street, Hillbrow
Address: Claim Street or Quartz Street, Hillbrow
These are not attractions. They are wooden or metal counters at the corner of tall apartment blocks where residents step out in slippers and wrap jackets over nighties to buy cigarettes or brandy. Many operate in attached garage-like rooms or tiny tuck shops with licensed bars in the back.
What to Drink: A 375 ml “dumpie” lager, maybe R18 to R22, or a small bottle of brandy. Stock up on sugar while you are at it for the aftereffect.
Best Time: Mid afternoon until early evening, when the streets are still busy and the tall buildings cast shadows over the sidewalks. Avoid late night unless you live here or know the block.
The Vibe: Overcrowded laundry buildings outside, simple plastic chairs inside. TV up high, volume on some soccer match. Not glamorous, but very Johannesburg.
Hillbrow was once the densest residential neighborhood on the continent. You can feel that compressed living today: loud radios, shouting, buses hissing, people living on top of one another in 20 storey towers built in the 1970s. This area is raw Joburg, underfunded, vibrant. Do not romantically photograph the grime; instead buy the person next to you a bag of boiled sweets.
Local Tip: Dress plainly here. Visible designer labels draw the wrong kind of attention. Tuck your device into an inside pocket.
7. Brixton: Quiet Towers and Unpolished Pubs
Brixton becomes Joburg when you climb its water tower. On the ground, the suburb is less documented than Melville, but it keeps its own student style cheap drinks Johannesburg corners.
Local hotel bar / pub near Brixton Tower
Address: Corner of Caroline and Henley Streets area, Brixton
These are the kind of places where the plaster is cracked, old TV always on SABC, pool table by the door. They offer standard beer, maybe a green bar radio behind the counter, and politics on loop. People drink slowly; no one hurries you to finish.
What to Drink: Castle or Black Label long neck. Expect R22 to R30 in late 2024.
Best Time: Saturday afternoons between 14:00 and 17:00. Some soccer fans gather to watch games; others just escape the noise of home.
The Vibe: Dusty but cheap. You can almost touch apartheid-era ventilation ducts if you stand on a chair. The tower behind the houses reminds you how glamorously Joburg once supported its infrastructure.
Brixton Hill and the tower hold a special place in early radio and TV broadcast history for the city. There are stories of hijacked signal boxes, banned adverts, and long radiograms. Sip your beer and think how similar that is to trying to change modern internet policies. Many long term residents sit here ignoring politics completely.
Local Tip: Ask older patrons for tales of when the military trucked past and water was cut during long strikes. Buy a second round if they tell you both sides of the city’s madness.
8. Soweto’s Honest Overnight Stays
No budget bars Johannesburg list is sincere without Soweto. The lines between house, club, and café blur, but the hospitality is thick.
Vilakazi Street lined shebeens and bars, Soweto
Address: Vilakazi Street, Orlando West, Soweto
This strip is famous for Mandela’s house, but after sunset it turns into a winding row of small bars and eateries. You might end up in a former corner shop with extended tables running into the sidewalk. Inside there is loud music, cold beer, and grilled meat giving the air its perfume.
What to Drink: Umqombothi (traditional beer) if offered (usually R25 to R35 per container). Commercial lager is around R20 to R28.
Best Time: Saturday afternoon into early evening. Tour vans are still around, so the neighborhood feels busy and well lit.
The Vibe: Loud, communal, and family oriented compared to downtown. Children milling about until late, grandparents sharing chairs, visitors giggling about the phrase “now we are in Soweto” as if it is another planet.
Vilakazi Street witnessed the 1976 student marches, burned schools, and gunfire. Restaurants and bars here exist in dialogue with those events. At the same time, local residents will just brag about how many rand they spent on roof repairs last year. The memory of protest and daily life coexists.
Local Tip: Use a small taxi or trained local guide if moving deeper into the township after dark. Stick well lit main roads and known crime free spots. Vigilance never hurts.
9. Newtown: Cultural Mile, Budget Night Out
Newtown ties together old power stations, museums, and a few cheap drinks Johannesburg corners that still feel like the city’s backstage.
The old Market Theatre area bars
Address: Bree Street / Margaret Mcingana Street area, Newtown
This is where jazz once escaped the hostels and found a stage. Today, some bars near the Market Theatre and Museum Africa still serve cheap beer and simple food. You might see a rehearsal poster on the wall, a faded photo of Hugh Masekela, and a bartender who remembers when the building was a fruit market.
What to Drink: A pint of lager, maybe R25 to R35, or a small glass of wine if you are feeling fancy.
Best Time: Early evening on a show night at the Market Theatre. The crowd spills out into the streets, and the bars fill with actors, students, and old jazz fans.
The Vibe: Cultural, slightly chaotic, with a sense that something important happened here. The buildings are old, the paint is tired, but the stories are not.
Newtown was once the municipal power hub of Johannesburg. The old turbine hall, the cooling towers, the brick arches. Now it is a cultural precinct with uneven funding. You can feel that tension between heritage and neglect in the cracked pavements and the bright murals.
Local Tip: If you are attending a show, book your Uber before the performance ends. The area empties quickly, and waiting alone on Bree Street late at night is not ideal.
10. When to Go and What to Know in Johannesburg’s Budget Bars
Johannesburg’s cheap bars Johannesburg scene is not a single mood. It is a patchwork of neighborhoods, histories, and price points. A few practical notes will help you move between them without drama.
Best Days and Times:
- Weekday evenings (Monday to Thursday) are cheapest and least crowded.
- Friday and Saturday nights are busiest; expect queues and louder music.
- Sunday afternoons are surprisingly relaxed in suburbs like Melville and Brixton.
Money and Payment:
- Many smaller bars and shebeens are cash only. Carry R200 to R400 in small notes for a night out.
- Larger bars in Maboneng, Braamfontein, and Melville accept cards and tap payments.
- Tipping is not mandatory but appreciated; R5 to R10 per drink or 10% on a tab is common.
Safety and Transport:
- Use metered taxis or ride hailing apps. Avoid walking long distances at night, especially in Hillbrow, Doornfontein, and parts of Yeoville.
- Keep your phone and wallet in front pockets.
- If you are unfamiliar with a neighborhood, ask the bar staff which streets to avoid after dark.
Drink Pricing Guide (late 2024):
- Local lager (375 ml bottle): R18 to R30
- Craft beer (tap or bottle): R30 to R45
- Brandy and Coke: R25 to R35
- House wine (small glass): R25 to R35
- Traditional beer (umqombothi): R25 to R35 per container
Local Tip: If you are new to Johannesburg, start in Braamfontein or Maboneng. They are relatively well policed, easy to navigate, and have a mix of cheap and mid range options. Once you are comfortable, branch out to Yeoville, Doornfontein, or Soweto with a local friend or guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Johannesburg expensive to visit? Give a realistic daily budget breakdown for mid-tier travelers.
Johannesburg is cheaper than Cape Town or European capitals but pricier than many African cities. A mid-tier traveler can expect to spend R800 to R1,200 per day, including accommodation (R400 to R700 for a decent guesthouse or budget hotel), meals (R200 to R300 for two modest restaurant meals and a coffee), transport (R100 to R200 for Uber or metered taxis), and drinks (R100 to R200 for two or three beers at a budget bar). Street food and local shebeens can cut costs further.
What is the average cost of a specialty coffee or local tea in Johannesburg?
A specialty flat white or cappuccino at a trendy café in Braamfontein or Maboneng costs R35 to R50. A basic instant coffee at a local café or spaza shop is R15 to R25. Rooibos tea, if served in a pot at a sit-down spot, is R20 to R35. Street vendors may offer tea for R10 to R15, but quality varies.
Are credit cards widely accepted across Johannesburg, or is it necessary to carry cash for daily expenses?
Credit and debit cards are accepted at most bars, restaurants, and shops in malls and suburban areas. However, many small bars, shebeens, and street vendors are cash only. Carry at least R200 to R400 in small notes for tips, cheap drinks, and emergencies. ATMs are widely available but avoid using them in isolated areas at night.
What is the standard tipping etiquette or service charge policy at restaurants in Johannesburg?
A service charge is not always included. If not, 10% to 15% is standard for good service. At casual bars and shebeens, rounding up or leaving R5 to R10 per drink is appreciated. For larger groups, some venues add a 10% service charge automatically; check your bill before adding extra.
How easy is it to find pure vegetarian, vegan, or plant-based dining options in Johannesburg?
Vegetarian options are common in malls and suburban restaurants, with many offering at least one meat-free dish. Vegan and fully plant-based menus are growing in areas like Braamfontein, Maboneng, and Melville, where dedicated vegan cafés and pop-ups appear. In townships and traditional shebeens, options are limited; ask for bean stews, pap with gravy, or vegetable sides.
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