Pub Of The Week: Tony Leonard reviews the Victoria Hotel, Yarraville

Victoria Hotel

188 Hyde Street, Yarraville.
8840 4822

When? May 26, 2023.
www.vichotelyarraville.com.au

VENUE 

As part of the ever expanding portfolio of pubs that fall under the Australian Venue Co., (AVC), the Victoria (recently acquired) has been a mainstay in the west for years on the ever busy and heavily industrial end of Hyde Street.

It is a good looking pub.

Freshened up with modern fittings and fixtures after a period of non-trading (Covid related), the Vic is laden with rooms for functions, (Mason was enjoying his first birthday there on a recent Sunday), has a sports Bar brilliantly set out, to a large divided/split  dining room and to the rear, an ample car park for off street parking.

To have this much space in such a desirable and densely populated suburb, is indeed a luxury.

The bar, with gorgeous half height green tiles is the conduit for all areas, and it is order everything from here and the food is brought to the table: in other words little table service.

But with AVCs formidable reputation behind it, this is a no brainer to be flying.

This wasn’t my experience. To be fair, there’s nothing so bad about it to exclude it from another visit, but ascribing to a long belief that if your dining room is half full on Sundays, then maybe the locals have passed judgement and  prefer other options for the leisure dollar.

The menu for food and drink is ok, but nothing that screams at you as a must try/wow that sounds different..

In football award terms, The Vic  is more ‘Most attentive at training’, less ‘Triple Brownlow medallist’.

FOOD/DRINK

The menu doesn’t stray from established pub grub, the likes available at most venues.

Entrees provide more choice with 12 items to choose, mid teens ($), with Housemade Chicken Tenders, chilli maple syrup, (16.5), Fried Fish Tacos, (17j, Wagyu Beef sliders, cheese, pickles @ $17.5.

Three burgers, (26) come fully loaded; in the mains Seafood Linguini (32),  Beef Short Ribs , mash, carrots, broccolini (35) and a 300g Grass Fed Porterhouse, full plate (39), are some of the choices which number around 8.

Curiously, nothing was on special this day away from the published menu.

Beer stays mainly to the Carlton portfolio, with some high profile independents in support, e.g., Stone/Wood Pacific ($8), Fixation IPA (8.5). Carlton D, at 7.2/pot was tried and was fine. The wine list was familiar, with offerings from Edge of the World, 821 South, Tempus Two, most of which appear at other AVC venues. Apostrophe SGM, 12.5pg/58pg, was a very  good blend from Frankland River, WA.

The average  meal prices (bistro) are;

• Entrees – $16
• Mains – $30
• Desserts – $15

Tried was…

• Pork Belly Bites (17)/S&P Calamari (17.5). The Pork, marinated garlic, honey,  soy were very good. Right crunch, good flavours, 8 pieces, nice start: S&P Calamari was very much your typical species seen in many pubs. No problems.
• Sunday Roast $28. Lamb, roast vegetables, mash. Two parts to this one. There was nothing elegant to the presentation. 3 slabs had been carved from the piece, with some of the fat not fully rendered. The vegetables were fine, but strangely the preferred bedfellow to roast lamb, (mint jelly/sauce), was noticeably absent. Again OK, but not in the same postcode (literal and figurative) to one had recently at the Half Moon in Brighton.
• Fish and Chips. $27. One large battered filet of Rockling, sits atop a mesh of chips (good) and Salad (not bad). However, the way too thick batter when removed, revealed a smaller, so so piece of Fish that, at best, was passable. More than happy to compare this one to the generous, similarly priced , at the Pink Hill Beaconsfield, a much superior version.

SUMMARY

The Vic has had a fickle past, with many trying to capture an audience, but  the turnover of operators confirming that this is an elusive task.

And this is the conundrum: is it the right offer in the wrong location, or wrong offer in the right location? For sure this end of Hyde St isn’t cache ridden as say Ballarat/Anderson St Yarraville, but there’s plenty of people living close by.

AVC is extraordinarily successful, operating 200 plus venues across Australia so the compare and contrast is easy. Earlier this year, the Sarah Sands was reviewed and although these two are stablemates, the Sarah has the Vic easily covered.

Maybe it was a bad day, as the staff seemed short handed with no one seemingly in charge giving the orders, the food was standard pub grub, nothing more, nothing less.

Meh.

Score: 11.5/20