Beautiful beer gardening at Prince Alfred Hotel, Richmond

Prince Alfred Hotel
619 Church Street
Richmond
Web: http://www.princealfredhotel.com.au/

So a friend has been living in Weipa for quite some time and came back to Melbourne for a catch-up. If you don’t know where Weipa is, it’s further from Brisbane (to the north) than Brisbane is from Melbourne. It is Far(king) North Queensland. Prince Alfred’s in Richmond has a giant good looking beer garden and gastropub-esque food. Put two and two together and you get a nice Saturday afternoon catchup.

Someone ordered chorizo at some point. Informative food blogger, I am. Heh.

I’d had a hens night the night before so was feeling a bit average this day, sticking to lemon lime and bitters (everyone’s non-alcoholic pub beverage of choice). However, there’s a pretty good tap selection. The menu’s got some pretty interesting things on it – before I got there, friends had ordered the heirloom tomato salad with mozzarella and basil, and mini burgers. I tried a tomato. It was special, in a good way.

I had a pizza for lunch, the fennel and sage sausage, roasted field mushrooms and taleggio pizza. It was okay – the sausage wasn’t very interesting to me and a bit nubbly, which always freaks me a bit out with sausages – what part of the animal am I eating?! – and the base was not the best. In fact, I think that’s what the main issue was – the base was cardboardy and not very interesting. Thin, but not crispy and chewy like the best of them can be.

…I’ve definitely had worse pizza, though.

Others around the table ordered a variety of dishes and seemed very pleased. The steak particularly looked good (and massive); had a bit of dish envy with this one.

Green beans, the best steak side ever (after the chips).

Friend D got penne with pork and veal meatballs, as well as a side order of croquettes. I don’t think they were the salt cod croquettes that were on the menu; all I remember is that they were very corny. No, not in a “croquettes are the new fondue” way, no – they had a lot of corn.

Not sure about ordering pasta out, if I’m not at an Italian restaurant. Not sure.

Prince Alfred is doing some interesting stuff with their food, and the beer garden is a smasher. I always think of Richmond as being miles from my house, but I actually walked here from my place in South Melbourne, and it did not take very long at all. A pleasant journey was had along the river. I need to check out more of what’s going on in Struggletown.

Corn IN stuff is blurgh, but that’s a personal opinion.