Pub: Montague Hotel

Where:  355 Park St, Sth Melbourne
Phone:  9690 9044
Date:  28 May 2010
Score:  15.4/20
Internet:  www.montaguehotel.com.au

Here’s one for starters today: Ever been to a pub/restaurant and asked the wait staff what they recommend or perhaps what is the house specialty and get this reply: It’s all good!

To me that is setting off an alarm bell because if staff is reluctant to give up such a closely guarded state secret, it means that there isn’t anything that stands out, they haven’t eaten it themselves, or worse they just don’t know.

Today, I can only offer the vanilla response I so detest simply as The Montague’s package of food, wine, staff and ambience is wonderful and what I have tried as part of this review may well have changed already.

So let’s get to it;

-  Entree of prawn cutlets with crab wantons ($14). What a wonderful starter. Prawns warmed and crunchy, the wontons silky and soft and at a price in the bistro (full table service) barely above the standard pub price in the ‘burbs,

-  Assiette of Romsey Veal ($33) comprising 3 tastes of Veal Loin, Tongue and Sweetbread and Shank (braised and rolled). Simply presented all three dishes of the highest standard seamlessly supporting each other.

-  Duck breast ($33) with a Japanese Vegetable pancake. The trick of brown outside and luscious pink in is achieved easily when so often it is misses with a succulent juicy taste to the butter-flied breast while marriage with the rectangular pancake was a winner, the contents of onion, cabbage, carrot bound by the seasoned flour and so tasty.

-  Vegetarian trio ($24). Again three treats of miso glazed tofu, sweet potato gyoza and a vegetable curry goes way beyond your expectation of what may be the vegetarian option most pubs provide (normally a lasagne doing its Ironman impersonation in a sea of white sauce).

If you are thinking posh pub, hold the horses there; It’s not. My criticism of the Montague three years ago was that the front bar felt sterile. In essence, come in, have a beer and let’s gets you into the bistro.

Not now.

The 90o angular bar encourages you to stand around and have a drink. There are plenty of newspapers to have a sit and read if that’s your thing. The walls are painted in a deep, warm red, no pokies/Tab to distract and more closely feels like its northern cousin The Court House in North Melbourne.

The draught beer is great, the wine list thoughtfully assembled and while we dined, Curlewis Pinot Noir ($66) was tried. For a grape that so many get wrong, this is as fine an example that I have tasted. Simply beautiful.

Before you collapse at the price of that bottle, I agree it is a big pub price (but not exorbitantly marked up). You will sample well in the mid $30’s/7.5/glass.

However this is not restaurant in a pub in my opinion. Classics such as a burger, rump steak, snags, pie of the day can be knocked over in the bar very comfortably in the high teens-low 20s and I guarantee at a superior level of cooking.

The Montague is gaining in popularity and reputation but it has taken some time to reach this position. It now sits comfortably, not only compared to the Court House, but all pubs doing high end food.

So what’s good at the Montague? Basically everything.

Tony's Pub Of The Week 2010

Tony Leonard is back again this year providing readers with reviews from all the pubs he visits on the Neil Mitchell program every Friday after 11:30am. Your home for all of the reviews - 3AW.com.au/pub2010. View all the reviews by clicking on Tony's image on the right.