Pub Of The Week: Tony Leonard reviews the Postmaster Hotel, Kew

Postmaster Hotel

Cnr. High St/Cotham Rd, Kew
9852 8200

When? 25 August 2023
www.postmasterhotel.com.au

VENUE

Another pub whose roots lay elsewhere, the Postmaster has evolved from the QPO, and in its original form, the Kew Post Office.

What is on offer at the Postmaster is a most likeable pub, providing the sort of hospitality that makes Melbourne pubs so good and so desired (Read as potential corporate acquisition). Good food, attentive staff, comfortable surroundings.

All this is packed into a triangular brick building where Cotham and High streets split. The #48 to North Balwyn saves the parking /.05 concerns.

(The magnificent City Of Kew War Memorial stands out the front, honouring the brave and sadly fallen of WW1 campaigns. It is a glorious piece of architecture.)

Climbing the short stairs, and to the side is the beer garden (looks good) before entering. Smart, airy, timber floors , polished bar, neat prints adorn the dining area with two discreet function rooms past the aforementioned bar.

A couple of specials are outlined on the blackboard and a smaller area of tables and chairs are strategically placed for groups to gather and watch the footy.

No TAB/ No pokies.

Young staff ensure little waiting for orders to be taken, while drinks are ordered from the bar. Familiar taps for the beer, wine list has numerous choice and it’s a matter of sitting down and relaxing.

And in keeping with so many pubs, generous ‘nights’ dot the week with Monday Night, fully plated Eye Fillet is $29 (that is very fair shopping), a highlight.

Steady as she goes, the Postmaster ticks over sweetly.

FOOD/DRINK

The menu is compact, interesting, set out in six sections, and increasingly in pubs, it’s the entrees/starters section holding more interest than previous, when if it wasn’t calamari with breads, it was a trio of dips with breads.

The Postmaster’s board ($29), is a generous share of cured meats, smoked almonds, Persian feta, artichokes, housemade dips, with Turkish bread for the clean up work. Grilled broccolini, bok choy, chilli /garlic oil ($10), housemade mushroom arancini (4 for $16), are coupled with calamari, wedges etc.

Six pizzas, three steaks (Goulburn Valley Scotch, 350g, sauce, broccolini, chips @ $46), Pub classics, burgers, salads, round out the mains and a couple of fine desserts to finish. All are overly generous in plating, but very tasty. The house burger ($24), a beast of a thing may have been an Everest challenge for the faint heart: Not to the 11-year-old Hillary who scaled it with ease (Still unsure how it was bowled over!).

Small array of taps serving good commercial draught (and at $6/pot) and a massive wine list rounds it out. Best thing is that the list offers genuinely different, Toolangi Chard, Majella Cab/Sav, with Trevelen Farm Riesling ($14pg) from Great Southern WA, the preferred and very good.

The average prices are;

• Entrees – $16
• Mains – $29
• Desserts – $14

Tried was;

• Fried haloumi, honey, golden raisins – $17. Sweet, salty, moreish, all 3 ingredients worked so well, with a very large triangle of cheese cooked right. Nice, very nice.
• Barramundi, cauliflower purée, bok choy, parsley oil lemon – $32. Crisp skin, white flesh, fresh, reasonable size, good support cast. To elevate to excellent, a handful of chips would have been wonderful, but this was a fine piece of cooking.
• Chicken parma – $28. Chips and salad. If you like them big, then come to the Postmaster. The chook itself was well cooked, moist, but the coating was a tad too heavy (Breadcrumbs again?). Still, the most, most fastidious parma lover would devour.

SUMMARY

The Postmaster, very much like its suburb, ticks over quietly and successfully. All the elements of a good pub, one in which you can gather, have a drink and enjoy each other’s company is a given.

The Kew Junction is becoming a real battle ground for the leisure dollar, with Guy Grossi at the Clifton Hotel reopened; the long-time and much-loved Skinny Dog just up the High St, and the Postmaster all within 500 metres.

(I didn’t think it happened, I met a girl from Clapham: UK Squeeze, Up the Junction)

Interesting times, confident that The Postmaster will hold its own.

SCORE: 14.3/20