St Kilda,
3182, Vic
We used to walk past the run down, closed Newmarket Hotel when we lived in Balaclava, and were interested to hear it had re-opened.
The façade of the pub is still there, but from that point back, everything, including the glass in the windows and roof from the old pub has gone!
The modern concrete is visible pretty quickly, I'm not quite sure why the front wall was left, as everything else that made the place an old pub has been removed.
Some modern architecture is fantastic, the concrete interior of the new Newmarket doesn't do it for me, but apparently it has won awards! It reminded me a bit of a 70's or 80's hotel breakfast area...
The wall paper was interesting and slightly racey...
We visited on a Sunday lunchtime and the menu had many sections, we chose a couple of items from the 'Latin Streetfood' list and some seasonal veg dishes and shared them all.
The soft shell crab taco's arrived first, filled also with guacamole and fresh herbs, and the flavour combination worked well, I could certainly have managed a bigger serve!
The field mushrooms were beautifully grilled, perfectly tender and the sour cream and spices worked brilliantly.
The bravas potatoes had a great crunchy and flavoursome outer coating.
The mashed black beans weren't quite as mashed as I had expected, but had great earthy flavours and were a good accompaniment to the other dishes. I'm not a usually a huge fan but the BBQ'd corn with chilli won me over, it was fun and messy to eat!
The service was attentive and swift, even if our waiter could have been a tad more enthusiastic. The meal came to $62 including a couple of glasses of house wine.
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