April 8, 2026
The Sporting Club Hotel was listed in the 2006 Cheap Eats guide, then became the Charles Weston around 2015, and has since reverted back to the Sporting Club name. Cheap Eats described it as "a bit like your best mate's lounge room", which was reasonably accurate. Some of my mates' lounge rooms have had upgrades since 2006, as has the Sporting Club, but the simile doesn't really fit any more. We first visited in 2011, moved closer a couple of years later, and have since stopped in several dozen times, I'd guess - it was our go-to casual hang-out spot in the 2010s.
In 2006 Cheap Eats mentioned chicken parmigiana and lamb shanks, but by 2011 the menu was more of a tapas-and-tacos situation. But I reckon vege burgers are one of the better ways to track a pub's trajectory. In 2012, the $20 portobello mushroom burger that Michael ordered earned howls in the comments for being too expensive. A year later, I mentioned the $16 crumbed haloumi burger, which I went on to order many, many times (raised to $18 in 2015) - it was beloved. At some point, it got switched for a vegan-friendly tofu burger, which I declined to try for several years in my haloumi grief, and then learned was actually also very good. The pub's food experienced a post-COVID dip, and then it had its makeover, and the Southern fried enoki burger with cheese and slaw ($26, pictured above) arose. This burger made a positive impression on Michael on our most recent visit - crispy, chewy and savoury.
Much as I did on our first blogged visit, I flitted around the sides list. The wombok, snowpea, mint and feta salad ($14) was fun, fresh and very finely chopped. What looked like raw red onion (which I detest) was actually radish, with the additional purple on top most likely sumac. The vegan-friendly roast potatoes with garlic and rosemary ($14) were unexpectedly served with the garlic and rosemary forming a viscous green goo all over the spuds. While weird to look at, it tasted brilliant, with the potatoes having been cooked to a rich golden brown before they were dressed.
The current Sporting Club Hotel isn't our favourite incarnation of the pub, but it's still a pretty good one. I've no doubt we'll continue to pop in for years to come, even if it no longer feels like a second lounge room.
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You can read 2011, 2012 and 2013 posts about the Sporting Club Hotel, a 2015 post about the Charles Weston iteration, and then a 2025 post about the Sporting Club reversion.
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Sporting Club Hotel
27 Weston St, Brunswick
9996 1869
Accessibility: The Sporting Club Hotel has a flat standard-width entry, an even wider flat entry directly to the beer garden, and plenty of space inside. There's table service in many areas, with ordering and payment also possible at the bar, which in our experience can be very loud. It's been a while since we visited the toilets; back then they were easy to get to but were just ordinary sized cubicles split by gender.
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