Top Fun Kids Cafe is a new indoor playground inside Burwood One Shopping Centre in Burwood East, and I went in expecting very little. It turned out to be one of the better indoor play spaces I’ve taken my toddler to.
I’d walked past places like this before and braced for a few sad bouncy castles in a warehouse. Top Fun wasn’t that. It had the same kind of setup as Pixieland at M-City Monash and Honeyccino Kids Cafe in Oakleigh, except built out further and with more going on in each corner.
Getting There and What It Costs
The cafe is at Shop 43 & 45, 172-210 Burwood Hwy, Burwood East, inside Burwood One. It’s open 9:30am to 5pm on weekdays and 9:30am to 7pm on weekends and public holidays, and there’s a car park at the Coles end of the centre with plenty of spots.
Entry is priced by age, and a two-hour session runs from about $15 to $25 depending on how old your child is, with the option to pay for extra time. Each adult pays $5, which comes back as a drink voucher for the cafe. Nobody tried to upsell me on a pair of grip socks, which I appreciated after other venues that make them part of the entry fee.
What’s Inside
The space has a proper sense of design to it rather than feeling like equipment dropped into a room. The colours are bright, and it’s broken into zones:
- A big slide and ball pit
- A dress-up corner, a play kitchen and a mini supermarket
- A small car repair workshop
- A carousel, trampolines and even a small swing
There’s also a free racing-game setup upstairs, a touchscreen game and a milking activity at the supermarket area. A lot of warehouse-style playgrounds don’t have this much, and this one is inside a shopping centre.
Who It Suits
This felt built for toddlers and preschoolers, roughly ages one to five. My daughter is eighteen months old, and two hours wasn’t enough for her. Older kids might find parts of it a bit simple, but for the younger end it’s both engaging and safer than the bigger equipment aimed at school-age kids.
The one letdown was the baby and younger-toddler area, which was smaller than the rest of the space and had simpler equipment.
Cleanliness and Crowd
The floor space turned out to be much bigger than I expected, and it never felt crowded. Staff were spread across the zones and cleaning constantly, and the layout is clear enough that it doesn’t feel chaotic the way some indoor playgrounds do. Being newly opened, most of the families there were Chinese-Australian, which may change as word gets around.
Somewhere to Sit
There’s a wall of windows with seating, simple food and drinks, a big screen playing cartoons and plenty of couches, so it’s an easy place to actually sit down while your child plays.
Would I Go Back?
Yes. It’s the best indoor play space I’ve been to in a while, and if you’re in Melbourne’s east or need somewhere indoors on a bad-weather day, it’s worth the visit. Being inside Burwood One also means you can get the grocery shopping done on the way out.
If you’re after more rainy-day options, we’ve also reviewed SuperPark at Highpoint on Melbourne’s west side, and you can browse every indoor play centre in our directory or check the Victorian school holiday dates