Pub Of The Week: Tony Leonard reviews the Commercial Hotel, South Morang

Commercial Hotel

820 Plenty Road, South Morang.
9407 1082
www.commercialsouthmorang.com.au

When? August 19, 2022.

VENUE

The Commercial is a smart looking brick pub in the outer northern suburb of South Morang on the eternally busy Plenty Rd. (how people who travel it regularly retain their sanity is anyone’s guess)!

In a layout similar to the Manhattan (pub in Ringwood), it is gargantuan in size with 3 significant airport hangar sized areas: Dan Murphy’s, Public Bar, Dining Room. A shuttle bus service from some parts of the car park would not be out of place.

The bar is fairly standard with a massive TAB, big screens  showing the sport from across the globe (UFC a fav out here) and popular activities include Meat Tray Monday, Joker Poker (up to 950 at last count) and Bullseye the Bartender. (No idea). With 2 rounds remaining in AFL, Graeme was on an impressive tally of 139 winners.

Curiously, there are no Pokies out here but the  Commercial promotes live music (Aussie legends Screaming Jets perform here in October). Drinks specials, kids parties, the area that houses the Commercial could easily host some top line live sport, with a decent crowd.

The pub follows the line of most of its brethren  in the outer suburbs as far as food and drinks go, so no real surprises but it is increasingly noticeable to me that these pubs are lifting their game so the overall offer was most acceptable.

Real pride by the staff shown in the way they greeted and served a very large lunchtime crowd.

All elements of the Commercial working well.

FOOD/DRINK

Very much to the formcard of ALH pubs, the Commercial offers an extensive range of pub grub staples, all reasonably priced with a similar offering of favourites as far as food and drink is concerned.

Buffalo wings ($11/6; $16/12), Salt Pepper Calamari (14), Tempura Prawns ($16/5) all strike a familiar and popular start here.

Plenty of mains; 3 steaks, 3 burgers, (Commercial Burger full whack is 21), and a range of favourites that include the Mega Chicken Parma (28), Crisp Skin Salmon (28), BBQ Brisket chips/coleslaw, @ 32.

The pub offers 4 pizza, around $20, and a range of pastas. The menu is Familiar to Millions.

Beer and wine rely heavily on the CUB and Treasury wines lists, with a very good Carlton D at $5.9/pot, and Pepperjack Shiraz at $9.5/ glass, which is as good shopping for this massively popular red in any pub in Melbourne.

• Entrees: $14
• Mains: $26
• Desserts: $8

Tried was;

• Duck Spring Rolls. $15. Coming with pickled ginger and sweet chilli (which had a kick), these were packed with Duck, had the right flavours to make it as most enjoyable starter.
• Caesar Salad w/Prawns. $18, plus $8. This dish carries many guises as no pub really sticks fastidiously to the original. The Commercial Caesar is cos, bacon, croutons, boiled egg, anchovies, parmesan all in very large quantities.
• Rump Steak, Chips, Salad. $27.50. Meat was fined, under seasoned to my palate though, with a fine Peppercorn sauce to go with the C&S. As expected, no problems.

SUMMARY

The model for venues run by ALH is well established with the company operation in excess of 340 pubs across Australia and is best summarised as massive sites, out in the ‘burbs’, big sports bars, big  pokies (not here), big live music and a massive turnover of meals each week.

What is true as I have stated before that the offer is homogenised: what is served in one suburb is more or less the facsimile throughout the business. It is common and business sense to operate in this manner. 

Increasingly though pubs in the portfolio, like the Commercial in South Morang, are ramping things up and the offer from these big pubs, best  described as consistent and steady, are getting better when given a bit of leeway.

You know what to expect at a pub like the Commercial and here, my expectations were met. All good.

SCORE: 13.2/20