The Gertrude Hotel - Melbourne

The Gertrude Hotel Fitzroy has become a fantastic venue in recent years, with the historic pub having undergone several upgrades since being purchased by new owners in 2008. What was once a tired old pub is now a place worth visiting.

'Baby come back, any kind of fool could see. There was something in everything about you '<br/ <br/ The Dear Luncher adores this establishment. <br/ <br/ When Your Dear Luncher was The Young Luncher, he used to spend a lot more time in this part of Melbourne. Life was easy in those days. Beers, pubs, bands, night-life. No responsibilities. The Gertrude is the last remaining vestige of Your Dear Luncher 's youth. On occasion, perhaps once every 2 months he will make a pilgrimage to The Gertrude Hotel, to partake in copious amounts of craft beer and sometimes even food. <br/ <br/ The array of beer at this pub is tremendous. There are 10 rotating taps. The Dear Luncher loves rotating taps. <br/ <br/ The last meal consumed was a steak. I believe it was 250g Porterhouse, cooked medium and it was scrumptious.

I went today with two colleagues and between us we ordered two Parmas and a Texan Squealer Burger. The Parma was really good, generous size, fresh with an awesome bit of thick smoky bacon and a tasty napoli sauce. The chips were plentiful and good and the salad passable. The Burger looked great (I didn't have it), it was a decent size but not massive and I was told that it was really tasty as well. They have a really good range of beers and it was a clean and well layed out pub not cramped in. Price was reasonable without being cheap and the service was friendly and prompt. Good pub!

Reasonable pub grub. Reasonably good selection of food and wine. Funky beer garden with a small roof-top section, as well as a decent amount of seating on Gertrude Street and the adjacent side-street. Not a bad option!

I made the rookie error of not booking a table on Monday $16 steak night. We finished dinner and were asked to leave our table with 45 minutes notice because the next set of diners were due to come in. I think they took a punt that we would have departed and they wouldn 't have had to say anything to us. Clearly the 'reservation ' was not made until after we first sat down. <br/ <br/ It 's the kind of ruling I would expect at a George Colombaris restaurant, not a gastro pub. The waiters however were apologetic. Doesn 't matter, they should have left us happily drinking. <br/ <br/ P.S. Steak was good for $16. You get fries and salad on the side.