36-42 Courtney St, North Melbourne
Phone: 9328 4222
I like pubs which put the word ‘Hotel’ first in their name. There’s something vaguely Franco-phoney about it, and also, it reminds me of that karaoke classic Hotel California.
A few of my colleagues and I had a farewell lunch for Ms S late last year at the Hotel Metropolitan. I’d been there only once before, for a beer and to watch the Melbourne Cup. That’s a whole other story, but basically I knew the place was a relatively upscale pub. I’d only been in the bar side of it, however. I hadn’t seen that there’s also a large, airy, genteel dining room off to the side.
The walls are covered with inoffensive (read neutral) artwork and botany illustrations, and I could imagine sitting down to a Devonshire tea in the setting quite easily. Except there’s a lack of soft furnishings in the room, so it gets a little bit echo-ey. Anyway, the service definitely matches the setting – attentive, polite, and just a touch on the cool side of friendly. All in all, pretty good.
Ms S and I both ordered the chicken Parmigiana, and were a little taken aback when it arrived. It was massive! So big that they couldn’t avoid placing it on top of the bed of chips (it’s a pet peeve of mine when pubs do that, because it makes it hard to cut the parma without mushing the chips below, and so then I have to move everything around on the plate, and it all gets a bit OCD). The napoli was full of tomato-ey zing, and the cheese was just starting to go golden brown. Definitely one of the better parmas I’ve had in recent times.





That is one good looking parma and doesn't look like a crappy preformed job either.