Lunch at Hotel Nest – Albert Park
filed in Albert Park, Beaches, Cafes, Food, Gardens, Hotels/pubs, Melbourne, Tram Route 1 on May.27, 2009
The Hotel Nest in Albert Park is an ideal place for Sunday Lunch. I’m not talking brunch here. This is a place for lunch.
It’s an old Pub on the corner of Victoria and Page Streets that like so many pubs in the area has taken on a new lease of life. It has taken on a new name too. It is no longer the Red Eagle but the Hotel Nest with a rather charming logo. It’s on their glasses.
It’s close to the beach and on a calm morning you can take a walk along the beach, breath in the ozone, watch the locals with their dogs and then wander along Victoria Street to Hotel Nest for lunch.
When you arrive head for the Greenhouse room although somehow it is more a garden room with garden paraphernalia hanging from the walls and pots of flourishing Olive trees.
The room is stunning and worth the trip just to see it. It’s all white and light with a glass roof that retracts. Yes like the Telstra Dome and now Wimbledon. Push a button and some of the glass roof move aside – very classy. The whole make-over is stylish and sophisticated. I loved it.
The food is described as Modern Australian and priced about right for this type of venue. We ate what is described on the menu as Nest Wagyu Beef Burger with blue cheese and fries advertised as a Nest classic. The Wagyu beef was divine but the blue cheese was missing and the chips were McDonald’s. The egg was a nice touch a reminder that’s it’s Aussie cuisine. For $20 it would have been nice to have had hand cut fries and enough blue cheese to get the flavour.
The wine was good. A Glass of Tarrawarra Estate Chardonnay glass at $9.00 was good drinking.
Hotel Nest is a lovely old traditional building and some of the bygone ambiance is retained in the main dining room, the bar and the function rooms. But it’s the Greenhouse that gob smacks. As I said it is worth the trip just to look at it.
Take the Number 1 tram from the city going to South Melbourne and either stay on until you reach the beach or get off at the stop 31, the stop after Richardson Street. Hotel Nest is on the corner you have just past.
Related posts:
- Station Hotel, Napier Street, Footscray – lunch in their European-style dining room.
- Cafe Saigon, Victoria Avenue, Albert Park
- Cricket Club Hotel South Melbourne – ideal eating on a cold night
- The Melba Room at the Langham hotel-a return visit and another great eating experience.
- The Garden of Eden in Albert Park
January 31st, 2011 on 6:51 am
Wanted to meet some friends at your hotel for a drink for an hour next Tuesday evening at 6PM before having dinner at Bistro but was surprised when we walked passed tonight to find it closed. There was no opening times/days in the window and your website does not include it so unless you reply to let me know I will have to drive round tomorrow evening to check if your open at that time.
February 1st, 2011 on 5:24 am
Hi Neville
I have just found out that Hotel Nest is now closed on Mondays.
It is open from 12.30 Tuesday through to Sunday. Enjoy the time with your friends – it’s a great venue