Anglers Tavern - Maribyrnong

That's our place for casual Wednesday night dinner. Food has always been great and service always on point

A rating of 1 is extremely generous This place ruined my birthday dinner.

This is a great place to go for a drink on a sunny afternoon with a great view over the Maribyrnong river.

I need to compliment the Anglers Tavern on the way and manner it has rebranded it's operation in recent years.Conveniently located on the banks of the Maribyrnong River, in the classy suburb of Maribyrnong, this hotel has a picture perfect position, and extremely worthy of enjoying a meal there.Public transport is convenient as is plentiful car parking. However if you are on the water…as in boating, you can-tie up at a small ramp beside the hotel or at a larger floating platform about 100m downstream. Walking/riding along the river pathways offers additional convenient access.The menu, staff, ambiance and general presentation are all excellent. The clientele, seemingly family orientated. The general layout has seperate areas for dining indoor and outside, there is also a large bar area with numerous TVs showing different sporting events and an upstairs area seemingly available for private functions.My wife and I have eaten there a number of times recently, and every time throughly enjoyed our meals, as have our guests. Interestingly they have a nightly “themed special” on their menu (except Thurs) which is particularly cheap without looking or tasting so. The sweets bar is very tempting for those that are tempted.Congratulations to the current management, they are managing extremely well, which cannot be said about a number of their predecessors, which in the past allowed the premises to deteriorate and attract a “not nice” clientele.

This pub is in an excellent location on the western bank of the Maribrynong River. It is a short walk from the tram stop on Raleigh St and has a large car parking area.I have passed by on many occassions but this was my first time to visit.There is a large beer garden/outdoor area with roofing to protect from the sun or the rain but short external walls open to the elements. There is a lot of seating available. This seems to be the entertainment/music area, and as we were leaving in the mid afternoon quite a few people were congregating there. It looked very inviting, but I had other plans.Downstairs is a very large dining area layed out in 3 general sections. We arrived at around 12.30pm. By around 1.30pm the dining area was very busy and most of the tables had patrons.Meals are ordered and paid for at the counter in the approximate middle of the restaurant but are delivered to your table by the waiting staff. The location of this counter is my biggest criticism of this establishment. There is insufficient space for people to queue while waiting to order. As the lunch time crowd reached its peak the queue snaked back from the counter and around the staircase, obstructing the movement of both staff & patrons.We were seated at one of the many window tables. Although it is not at the most picturesque part of the river the view was pleasant, and my young neices were quite excited to see a boat passing by. At the end of the dining area there were a couple of wall mounted large screen TVs, which was handy to keep track of the footy scores (my team was playing in the early afternoon game).We shared some garlic bread, bruschetta, & mixed dips with bread. The dips were good but, as is often the case when ordering dips, the amount of bread provided is insufficient. I didn't try the bruschetta, but it was rather large and looked quite cumbersome (not the "traditional" style of bruschetta that I have come to expect).I ordered the paella, which was served in a "sizzle pan". It was more dry than I would expect a paella to be. I think the "sizzle pan" is not an ideal way to serve this dish. Otherwise, it was quite tasty. The other meals were well received by my companions.I noticed that some other recent reviews have been very negative. I did not experience any of the problems those reviewers encountered. I found the food, the service, and the atmosphere quite acceptable. Do not expect fine dining, but good pub fare.