The Yarra Hotel

June 27, 2017

Our mate Kate recently suggested The Yarra Hotel as a potential venue for our book club. The two factors in its favour are that this pub has half-price vegetarian meals every Monday and Tuesday night, and room for dogs in the beer garden. We figured we'd best test the food and pooch space before our next club meeting.

The menu has abundant veg*n and gluten-free options, all pretty well labelled; the veg dishes are often matching pairs to more traditional meaty ones. It's hearty fare: six kinds of burger (with a veg patty that can be subbed into any one), parmas (chicken or eggplant), ribs (pork or vegan mock), toad-in-the-hole (beef or veg sausages). 

Kate was excited to see Hungarian-style cabbage rolls ($11) on the menu. The vegan version is stuffed with mushrooms, then served with pickled peas, dill sour cream, and a beetroot puree that was most unexpected and most appreciated by Kate.

Michael took on the vegan hoisin ribs ($12), a thick and flavoursome wodge of mock meat served on chilli-ginger brown rice and topped with Asian slaw. It's a well-balanced, filling meal.

I steadily polished off a plate of house-made gnocchi ($11) with broccoli, almonds, zucchini ribbons and Grana Padano, picking out the slices of red chilli. The gnocchi were soft, with the odd golden-seared edge; terrific.

The beer garden is well heated and our companion dog made a few friends while we ate. Our meals were great, outrageously good value at early-week half-price, and worth their standard price too. We can see a good few cozy book club nights ahead at the Yarra Hotel.

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Fellow bloggers ParmaDaze didn't care for the parmas they ordered at the Yarra Hotel three years ago.

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The Yarra Hotel
295 Johnston St, Abbotsford
9417 0005
menus
http://www.theyarrahotel.com.au/

Accessibility: There's a small step on entry and another down to the beer garden. Tables are quite generously spaced. We ordered and paid at a high bar.