James Squire Hotel

James Squire Hotel

439 Docklands Dr, Docklands

(Ph) 9606 0644

B was back in Melbourne and said he felt like steak but I didn't want something that heavy since it was 40 degrees that day so wanted to find somewhere that does a bit of everything. Because we decided on dinner so late and it was the last Sunday before Christmas, a lot of the steakhouses were full or only had tables at 8.30pm or later. I finally came across James Squire Hotel at the Docklands - it's not quite a steakhouse, more like a pub but I had an Entertainment voucher for it so decided to go check it out.

We didn't realise but Christmas Carols were on at Docklands on this night so parking was horrendous here! We ended up parking at the end of the street on some random dirt/grass - lots of other people were parking there so we figured it'd be okay =P and lucky we did that and not park at the carpark - the line to pay for parking at the end of the night was sooo long!

James Squire Hotel is actually a brewhouse offering casual pub dining. None of us really drink beer (so I don't know why we came here but anyway =P) but we saw they had on offer a jug of Sangria for $15. The waitress looked at us for about a minute when we asked if we could order a jug before she said "okay". Later we figured she must have been a newbie 'cause there were various things we asked her for which she just looked at us blankly =/ The jug took more than 15mins to come - we asked another waitress and she said the drinks get made on the spot and it's being made - but how hard is it really?! It was so hot on this day and we were dying for our drinks!!

Finally!!

Mmm very refreshing with some strawberry and watermelon in it =)

I had read reviews that service is very slow here but our food came not too long after we ordered =) P went for the Slow roasted pork belly served on creamy truffled mash with confit garlic and jus $32.5

Looks pretty good served on a wooden board =) The crackling was unfortunately a disappointment - was soft and kinda chewy and definitely not crunchy =( I know they don't roast it straight away for you, but they could have at least ovened it again so the skin crisped up again! The actual meat was quite tasty but there was way too much fat on it, even for pork belly which you expect to be slightly fatty. The mash was quite good - really couldn't tell if they put truffle in it. And what is the point of the confit garlic?! Looked a bit lousy at the side of the board =/

I went for a Parma - Tender chicken breast coated with Chef's special blend of spices and bread crumbs, served with fries and salad. There 5 variations to choose from - S and I both went for the "Lash" - Napoli, charred bacon, button mushrooms, king island blue & mozzarella $27

Reading other blogs I think this parma used to be served with just chips with no salad - I'm glad they added some salad to the dish now 'cause what is a parma dish without chips and salad?! The "Lash" was a surprisingly good combination of flavours on the parma - the blue cheese was not too overpowering with the bacon and mushrooms =) The parma had a nice thin coat of crumbs and was nicely fried and not too soggy underneath the toppings. Chips were good too =)

B got his serving of steak - 300g Emerald Valley MSA porterhouse steak served with spice infused butter and fries $25

Looks pretty good with the slab of butter aye? B said it wasn't too bad =)


Food~
7/10 - since it's pretty much a pub, stick to pub foods like parmas, S and I both thoroughly enjoyed ours. It is a bit pricey compared to a normal parma, but with our 25% off wasn't too bad =)

Service~
2/5 - apart from the newbie waitress, it wasn't too bad and food didn't take too long

Atmosphere~
3/5 - quite nice with a beautiful view of the harbour

After our meal we went outside and found out there were going to be fireworks! We waited around for them - what a lovely end to the night =)

C.
xo