Pub: Railway Hotel
Where: 280 Ferrars St., Sth Melbourne
Phone: 9690 5092
Date: 6 March 2009
Score: 14/20

If there is a more avuncular name for a pub than the Railway, tell me what it is. Simply, you walk into a pub so-called and you expect Bill Hunter and Jack Thompson trying to crack onto Jacki Weaver behind the jump.

In a flash, Gerard Kennedy has arked up and a blue with young buck Rusty Crowe flares, but before it gets out of hand, Steve Bisley arrives to restore order.

Gary Bond, however, nervously cowers in the corner, avoiding eye-contact and thus any further trouble, wishing he were in a far away land. ********

If only Aussie movies were like any Railway Hotel; Clichéd, obvious, but somehow comforting. Let's face it, a pub called Railway restores life’s balance that a ‘Fou Fou’s Lagers by the Estuary’ couldn’t come close to.

Actually, this pub should be re-named The Light-Railway given its proximity to the Sth Melbourne line and all about it is good. Save for, when I visited, the most vital ingredient of a pub, especially one called Railway.

It's Draught Beer.

This pub has one of the best beer gardens/courtyards in Melbourne, theming (??) somewhat Pacific island in look, but in essence, a wonderful spot to relax, have a refresher and contemplate the world a mere 3km from town.

The bar is delicious 'rough around the edges' old-world; long, lopping stainless steel, plenty of chairs to park the quarter acre, to the side a room for music, off on another angle a discreet area for pool and then on to the warm, neat ladies lounge/dining room.

And it success is based on hospitality; it doesn't need pokies or TAB and proudly wears this badge to the world.

Food service 7 days a week and as increasingly I'm doing this year, I asked what is recommended from the staff? The short answer was curry, and they were bang on.

But like Astaire and Rogers, McGuire and Malthouse, the perfect companion for this is beer and on this occasion, the draught, whether it was the time of day (early when I arrived) or lack of diligence with taps/lines, or something else, the taste didn’t encourage me to have another.

It's a pity because everything else works a treat, but when you pay $3.70/pot it must be right first time. To be fair this isn't isolated to the Railway, but I struggle to come to grips with the big question; Why does one food stuff, coming from one manufacturer, taste vastly different from venue to venue?

Now to the ripper pub grub.

First up a shared plate from their Terracotta listing; a sizzling pan with Turkish bread that offers 3 choices at lunch time - $15 ish. Tried was Carnitas; diced pork braised with oranges and tequila. Yes, yes, yes.

The mains were;

- Saar gosht - $23 – a lamb and spinach curry with all the trimmings. The right hummm to the palate, a superior pub curry,
- Bangers and mash - $17.5 – 2 monster bratwursts, fully plated with mash and veg. Great, comforting pub tucker.
- Pizzini pinot grigio - $32 – everyone's drinking it and Pizzini has specialised in PG (and other ‘newer’ grapes, e.g., sangiovese, arneis’) in the King Valley for ages. It doesn’t miss.

So maybe it was an off arvo for the beer also.  But with the cost of a pot threatening $4, all pubs should have it right.

That said, it is a fine pub that holds more than its own in the toughest of pub markets – South Melbourne.

******READERS FOR A TWIN PACK OF DEBORTOLI – WHAT IS THE ASTERISKED MOVIE REFERENCE??? I WILL POST WINNER AND DETAILS ON WEBSITE