Pub of the week: The Home Hotel
The Home Hotel
2170 Warburton Hwy, Launching Place
59673303
Score: 13/20
26 January 2018
VENUE
1st Review
In a gorgeous setting on the Yarra trail heading to Warburton is the very neat, old world Home Hotel, doing a very steady line of food and drink.
Indeed the Home is similar in look to other pubs in the Yarra Valley – e.g Grand at Yarra Glen, Healesville Hotel which is summarised as part pub/part guest house.
The Home has a mix of public bar/beer garden/TAB/drive through bottle shop/with a grand split level dining room/fireplaces/ paintings, big leather couches and heavy timber.
The brick exterior in mustard/yellow is inviting and a secure outside Kids play area tips it off. TAB yes/No pokies.
New owners (12 months in) have set a course to win hearts and minds with a straight up and down uncomplicated offer, backed up with genuinely caring staff.
Interesting menu, support of local wineries, this is a pub which in its own way is slightly off the beaten track (there’s not a great deal at Launching Place) and is well worth a visit.
Check for trading hours in summer.
Good start to 2018.
MENU
Pub favourites, mains with a bit of dash, priced right is the menu. More than enough choices and generously plated. Love it when a pub tries to establish a signature dish and the Home has one and I quote; “Bastard Parma. $32. With ground beef, chorizo, bacon, onion, pumpkin, sundried tomatoes, jalapenos, chilli sauce, gravy, cheese, feta, fried egg”. And of course the big crumbed fillet!
Good luck.
Entrees ( more half share than entree) $16, mains $28, desserts $14.
TRIED
Japanese popcorn chicken, marinated in soy and ginger, served with homemade sauce.
$15. Good. Big serve, maybe 10-12 pieces, right spices, excellent aioli dipper.
Garlic Prawns in a creamy white wine sauce with coconut infused rice – e $18/m $29. Good. Ten prawns for main, sauce didn’t dominate, were well cooked, crunchy and good size.
Porterhouse 280g, Black Angus, with sauce and choice of veg or C&S for $31.50. Fair. Everything looked great and there was fantastic char on the meat, but just a bit too gristly in parts which sadly detracted as the C&S and pepper sauce were very good supports to the beef.
DRINK
Carlton Draught with some well known friends out here and well looked after. Clean taste, good glassware. Also liked the fact that some lesser known (by me) locals are well represented on the wine e.g., Yarra Peaks, Payne’s Rise, Elmswood. Indeed the latter’s Riesling – $8.5pg/$32 per bottle was tried and enjoyed. Most bottles at $40 or under, which is fair.
SERVICE AND STYLE
Just a friendly, warm greeting from the bar to the dining room to the co-owner. Small pub doing its best and succeeding. (And the co-owner laughed as she informed her first name is Carey, and married a Steve Carey and is happily known as… you got it.)
SUMMARY
This was a good start to the year. There is nothing overly fancy about the Home, yet the honesty of offer was not lost on me. These are relatively new owners, doing their best in a good old fashioned pub, trying to build a business which by outer suburban/semi rural standards is a little isolated.
I want to bat up for the Home here and some comments made on popular review sites. Let me reiterate my opening remarks for the year: Any review, MINE INCLUDED, have a shelf life of around 12 months. (Two years at a stretch). Change, especially in hospitality, is a constant. However when reviews are five-six-years old, maybe two-three owners ago, then why they are still displayed is unfair and potentially damaging.
Sermon finished. Back to the Home Hotel. It’s fine.