Pub: Royal Oak Hotel
Where: 527 Bridge rd., Richmond
Phone: 9428 4200
Date: 12 February 2010
Score: 10.7/20
Internet: www.royaloakrichmond.com.au

Funny one this: Simply I don’t know whether to have an expansive review of my recent experience there or just give a skeletal summary of the Royal Oak, Richmond.

I went on a day most Melburnians will remember - 11/02/10. Humid, cloudy, stormy conditions had built for 3 days and when the skies opened around 4pm, it was reminiscent of a similar downpour some 35 years previous. Chaos reigned on the roads for hours.

Before that though, I popped into Royal Oak. Now Richmond, as a suburb for pubs, is a bit of a mixed bag, but generally they tend to operate on a sharper edge. The offer, as a rule, is reliable.

The ROH is one of 4 pubs {I think} that house pokies in the area. Even now, the ‘hotel’ part of the name is not promoted and the ‘club’ aspect is more prominent to the point of having to sign in as a visitor of the Richmond Football Club.

It still looks the same when Graeme Richmond ran it and pub rock was king; a memorable night was had there watching Angry and the Tatts go to work.

So let’s not argue the toss on pub/club, although the very limited website refers to it as Royal Oak Hotel. It is a big old world warhorse, with the public bar and pubtab comfortable enough to settle in. The beer’s fine, although they ran into problems on that day.

The dining room is basic, but not sterile and is split into 2 rooms. The offer of food runs to a straight up and down formcard, the top price being a big steak for $28.95. Pork was the roast of the day at $17.95.

Here’s what said the most about the ROH – an item on the menu. The N/a sign was over the Brushetta and I suspect the last portion was not sold on that day.

How could it be? How do you run out of bread and tomato?? Heaven knows that Bridge Rd., is sufficiently cosmo to have a loaf of ciabbata somewhere between Punt and Burnley.

Anyway, as I pondered this, I waited and waited for someone to take the order.  Now I can count and the diners numbered 8 at the time. Eventually someone surfaced and the order went as follows;

- Garlic Prawns - $19.95m, rice and salad. Good sized crustacean, but overpowered by garlic, a trap for young and old players

- Spaghetti Bolognaise - $16.95.  Plenty of it, rustic appearance, OK,

- Lamb Wrap - $16.95. Salad identical to the prawns which really needed something to bring out the flavours.

Now the wrap was quite tasty to be fair, only problem was that the most of the wrap was salad and garlic yog, rather than lamb. I approximated the cost of lamb, based on my contents, to be around $250/kg!!

I have spoken about Pepperjack ($40/bottle there) and Oyster bay ($38). So much for the working man at those prices. Slightly better value was the Goundrey Unwooded Chardonnay - $30 – tried and enjoyed.  

And that was the conundrum here at the ROH as the 25 minute trip to home had an hour added to it in the monsoon.  

There is a charm to it, but I suspect it is first a foremost a pokies venue that provides a good source of revenue to the RFC and the food and bev trail a fair bit behind.

Just don’t ask for tomatoes on toast.