BYO guides
Plain answers to the questions people ask about bringing their own bottle to a restaurant.
- What does BYO mean at a restaurant?
- BYO means "bring your own": the restaurant lets you bring your own wine, and sometimes beer, to drink with your meal. Most BYO restaurants charge a corkage fee to open and serve it. In the United States and the United Kingdom the same thing is usually called BYOB, "bring your own bottle".
- What is corkage, and how much does it cost?
- Corkage is the fee a restaurant charges to open and serve a bottle you brought yourself. Across the Australian restaurants on findbyo that charge it, corkage averages $12.79 and the median is $8; 226 venues on findbyo charge no corkage at all. Updated 11 Oct 2026.
- How does BYO work at a restaurant?
- You bring your own bottle, hand it to the staff when you sit down, and they open it, bring glasses and serve it. A corkage fee is added to your bill, either per bottle, per person or per glass. Check before you go what the restaurant allows, because many are wine-only and some are BYO only on certain days.