Great Northern Hotel

April 21, 2013

Pub club is running out of new pubs to sample - we're into the mid-30s now and starting to struggle for ideas. I've been a bit suspect on the Great Northern in Carlton since having a fairly average lunch their some years back, but other clubbers had enjoyed better experiences and we decided to give it a shot. 

It's a lovely pub - lots of space, a beautiful (and pretty well-heated) beer garden and a big stylish bar loaded up with an excellent range of beers. They're also pretty keen on their sport - pub-club coincided with the tail end of the A-League grand final, and we had to take shelter in the beer garden to escape the high volume telecast. Even out there you're surrounded by TVs broadcasting every code of football imaginable, but at least the sound is down.

The menu is pretty much classic pub food (steak, parmas, burgers etc), with a few vego options available. Along with the two mains, there are a handful of snacks and tapas (fried pecorino, eggplant and zucchini chips, chips, wedges, nachos, garlic bread). We couldn't really see a way of cobbling together even a vaguely nutritious meal from among them, so stuck with the mains.

I went for the pubbiest option: eggplant parma (traditional melanzane parmigiana with layers of eggplant, zucchini, tomato and mozzarella cheese topped with Napoli sauce and grana padana parmesan, $19).

First up: the chips weren't too bad. Otherwise, this really didn't work for me - a super thick layer of cheese on top of a soggy pile of eggplant and zucchini. When eggplant is done well it can be brilliant, but it really doesn't leave much room for shoddy preparation - I couldn't finish this in the end.

Cindy ordered more adventurously with the marinated tofu steak (tempura battered tofu marinated in Thai spices with Asian vegetables and pickled ginger, $18).

This was a much better dish - the tempura batter wasn't light and crispy, but it was nicely seasoned and the accompaniments were fresh and flavourful. It was nice to see the Great Northern trying something a bit adventurous for their veg customers and, based on our non-veg friends' reports, this was easily among the best dishes on the menu. It's no Fox Hotel-style tofu dish, but it was tasty, fresh and well prepared.

I'm left with pretty mixed feelings about the Great Northern - it's a lovely pub, with excellent beer and a stunning outdoor area, but the food was disappointing, the bar service a bit sluggish and the whole inside area pretty footy-focussed. For an evening eating chips, drinking beer and watching sport, you'd be hard pressed to find a better venue - for a decent dinner, it'd be a fair way down the list.

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There's a mix of opinions around the internet about the Great Northern - nearly everyone's a fan of the venue, but juganaut's foodie thoughts didn't think that much of the food, Fitzroyalty hated the commercial pub trivia and Parma Daze loved everything but the parma. There were more uniformly positive opinions from Bar Amigo, little eats and Gastrology.

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Great Northern Hotel
644 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North
9380 9569
veggie mains $18-$19, snacks and tapas, $7-$14.50
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Accessibility: The beer garden is ramp accessible from the street, while the pub itself has just a couple of small steps on the way in. Inside is big, but things get pretty crowded with tables and chairs (ditto the beer garden actually - it's crammed with furniture). Ordering and payment is at the bar. We didn't visit the toilets.