Gamekeepers Secret Country Inn
Posted: October 14, 2011 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Melbourne, Melton, olde english, Pub food, Rockbank, western suburbs 3 Comments »
1555 Melton Hwy, Rockbank. Phone: 9747 1000
The Olde English thing has never worked for me.
I’d be hard pressed to tell authentic Olde English from faux Olde English.
In fact, I harbour suspicions that there is no such thing as authentic Olde English, even though I lived there for a few years a very long time ago.
But as I wander around the somewhat vast dining room of Gamekeepers Secret Country Inn, I rapidly warm to the place.
How can I not when its embracing of the gamey theme is done with such brazen, unapologetic and politically incorrect zeal?
There are formerly live things of the furred, feathered and scaled variety hanging from the ceilings and adorning the walls wherever I look. They’re now very much of the dead persuasion.
It was Keith of the venerable Heather Dell bakery in Yarraville from whom we got the tip about this place, but it’s a taken a year for me to find my way here.
With a drive on the Bacchus Marsh-Geelong road beckoning after lunch is done, I am finding the change of routine a tonic. I have an armful of newly-arrived CDs of the Tex-Mex and swamp pop variety, and even Hawaiian guitar recorded in Paris in the ’30s, to keep me very fine company. I love the internet!
Quite oddly the establishment’s food fare seems to be lacking any offerings of a game-based tucker equivalent of the overwhelming theme of the decor.
The food on the main menu and the cheapo lunch list that is the focus of myself, and presumably the handful of other tables in use for this midweek lunch, features a regular lineup of oysters, pasta, salads, ribs, steaks, a seafood platter, roast duck, garlic prawns and so on.
Typical country pub fare, in other words – its own kind of comfort food. This change of routine, too, can sometimes be a tonic and I’m looking forward to my lunch.
Having already perused the option at the inn’s website, I have my heart set on the corned beef from the lunch list, which also includes braised lamb shank, steak sandwich and beer-battered fish and chips – all for $14.50.
How nice and quirky is it to be charged $14.50 for something – as opposed to, say, $13.99 or $14.99?
The vegetable component of my lunch is very good – they’re cooked through but still have a beaut element of crunch.
The mashed spuds aren’t a patch on the coarse skin-on version we rustle up at home with just olive oil, salt, pepper and parsley, but I like it anyway.
The sauce, using a seeded mustard, has sufficient tang to overwhelm my three medium-thick and very mildy-flavoured slices of corned beef.
Remember back a decade or more ago when corned beef became so very trendy around Melbourne? This is like that – I hanker for the heftier, saltier flavour whack that resides in memory of the corned beef served countless time to me during my upbringing by that most superb of cooks, Pauline Ethel Weir. (Hi Mum!)
Maybe it’s another trick of the mind.
In any case, I save my last slice of Gamekeepers corned beef to savour at the end of my meal, at which point the flavours do come through with a strongish whiff of cloves.
It’s all good and I enjoy my lunch. The bill of $14.50 seems pretty fair for this kind of food in this kind of place.
After eating, I embark on another stroll around, taking in more of the dead critters and the music room upstairs. The entertainment fare seems to be very much of the Kenny, Dolly, Big O and Neil variety.
After paying and exiting, I walk across to the neighbouring Galli winery, where I am knocked out by the gorgeous dining room and peruse their menus, which actually traverse very similar territory and price range as those of the inn I have just departed.
Another one for the hit list!
My first ever drive on the road from Bacchus Marsh to Geelong is pleasant but somewhat featureless, though I do see lots of parrot-type birds – of the live variety this time.
The soundtrack is fabulous.
Blarney Stone Irish Pub
Posted: June 3, 2011 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Melbourne, Pub food, western suburbs, Yarraville 4 Comments »
35 Anderson St, Yarraville. Phone: 9687 2034
We’ve had a heap of meals at our local pub over the years.
None of them have been great, some of them have been good, some of them have been just OK, some of them we’ve said rude things about.
But where we were once rather dismissive of the pub fare on offer, we are now converts – of a sort.
The catalyst for this is a chilly mid-week night.
We feel like a break from the arduous work/school/eat/sleep routine.
We don’t feel like cooking. We do feel like a quick, cheap feed.
But nor do we feel like hopping in the car for a jaunt to Footscray.
So off we go to peruse our back-yard options.
After examining the bar menu at the pub, and going “Nah, not this time”, we stroll around the corner to Ballarat St.
We check out no less than five menus, and are dismayed to find them all beyond our mood or means.
We’ve become accustomed to the super-cheapness of Lebanese pizzas, so paying $16 or more for an Italian version doesn’t appeal.
Nor do we feel up to paying $24 for pasta.
And so on … and that’s just half the Ballarat St options, but I doubt the rest offer much variation.
Truth is, while Yarraville has myriad good food possibilities, it is sorely lacking the sort of choices that allow us to grab a quick and healthy bite for under $10 each – so easily had in Footscray.
Even at Nando’s or Burger Edge, the bill can exceed budgets, especially when a full-on meal is sought.
And the fish and chip shop lacks seating facilities.
So back to the pub we go.
It still has a metal sign that reads Railway Hotel under the Blarney Stone painted signage.
And therein lies its charm.
While it got swept up in the bloody silly Irish-themed pub syndrome that swept across Melbourne several years ago, nothing has changed.
Sure there’s a bit of Irish artwork around the place, and maybe a few more backpackers and travellers come and go, but basically it remains a well-worn home of a steady and loyal and mostly blue-collar crowd.
No pokies, but much beer and punting
As a holdout amid the solid yuppieness that surrounds it, the Blarney Stone/Railway Hotel is to be treasured.
And as such, applying any of our usual foodie standards – be they concerned with flavour, healthiness or pricing – seems both superfluous and ridiculous.
Even here, though, the bistro is a but rich for us, so the bar menu it is.
Bennie goes for the $12 burger – not for the first time.
This time around, it’s a tidy package that holds together well. It’s more in the style of an Aussie burger than its American counterpart, but he makes quick work of the lot, so to speak. All the chips follow likewise.
I order the chicken parma with chips and salad at a cost of $13.
This is less successful.
Disappointingly, the salad bits are little more the inconsequential embellishment.
The chicken is moist, but more like your typical chicken breast than a flattened piece of chook, parma-style. The very thin slice of ham add a surprising level of flavour and goes well with the cheese and bol sauce.
It’s an unusual option for me to pursue, so obviously I’m no expert. But I suspect it’d fall short of raising robust enthusiasm from hardened parma fans.
Still, it suffices. And the chips are fine.
Presumably, this could be ordered for $10 on a Thursday, which is Parma Night.
Tuesdays are anointed Locals Night and Wednesdays Pasta Night.
Our “local” will never be cherished among our favourites, but sometimes it’s just right.
And for dad at least, it is a handy stopover for a post-work or pre-footy beer.
Take it as it is or not at all.
Steampacket Hotel
Posted: February 11, 2011 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Melbourne, Pub food, western suburbs, Williamstown Leave a comment »
13 Cole St, Williamstown. Phone 9399 9600
I was in it for the company – which was all to the good, as I’m hardly enamoured with pub food.
Especially after our recent disappointment at the Ashley.
Our most local “local”?
Yikes!
But this was a fun night out – $12 steaks and free entry into that night’s trivia quiz.
My three dining partners – Deb from Bear Head Soup, her bloke Dave and Ms Baklover/Lauren from Footscray Food Blog – had heaps of good things, mind you, to say about the Station Hotel in Footscray.
And between the four of us we fancied we had enough all-round general knowledge – and few areas of arcane expertise up our sleeves – to put in a good showing in the trivia.
My previous visit to the Steampacket had been about five or so years before – to see my mate Ashley and his pals from the Louisiana Shakers pounding out some of their old-style New Orleans jazz.
Like so many pubs in the west, it has undergone change – although not so much as to completely ruin the place.
And there are no pokies!
The place was packed on Thursday’s steak/trivia night – and therein lies the biggest criticism we had.
The noise level was very, very high.
For most of the night it seemed to be at almost rock concert levels, forcing tablemates to shout instead of converse.
Indeed, such was the racket that we – cocooned in the pub’s dining room – were utterly unaware there had been a no doubt loud and raucous thunderstorm outside until I split for a few minutes to move my potentially ticket-attracting car.
The Steampacket boasts an inviting menu and a blackboard of specials at the rear of the dining room. It covers a broad range of steaks, seafood, pastas, salads, burgers, parmas and so on. If I return with Bennie in tow, it’ll likely be for the $11.90 main meal specials that are served on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6pm – see poster below for that week’s line-up.
But as pre-trivia repast, our entire table ordered the same meal – medium rare porterhouse. There are other, more pricey cuts available as part of the Thursday night deal, but none over $20.
We were all pleased with our meals – they did what was expected, if without sending us into raptures.
Steaks of a decent size and little on the chewy side. Yeah, yeah, I know – what did we expect for $12?
My chips were on the flabby side, and I could’ve done with more of them, and the salad bits and pieces were a tad straggly.
But the onion gravy I asked to be served on the side came in a little bowl, and was sweet and delicious for dipping into it every forkful of beef.
Yes, tartare sauce does float in beer.
The trivia was something else.
Bracing ourselves to be quizzed on all sorts of wide-ranging topics, we were instead assailed with probing queries on what amounted to little more than bogan pop culture.
We even had to take a punt on one of five entrants in a pot-skulling contest. We got that one right.
Still, we far from disgraced ourselves – or should that be the other way round, given that we did quite well and considering the general nature of the questions?
Dave stepped up with a few sports answers, and I opined – correctly – that if Winston Churchill had a third nipple I’d have known about it.
In the “sink or swim” section, and basing our answer on the fact that oil floats, we correctly guessed that tartare sauce would float in beer.
The trivia guy proved it – and then got a punter to skull the result. Heck, I don’t think he got any points for his for his brave efforts, either!
But mostly it was a matter of movies, TV programs, pop music and celebs that I’d barely heard of, let alone seen or heard.
When I returned the next day to take some pics, the staff said the previous night’s line of questioning should not necessarily to be taken as normal, and that the trivia quiz differed from week to week.
The Steampacket Hotel website is here.
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