#throwbackthursday gastropub edition: The Park Hotel

Now you wouldn't think Werribee would be the most obvious location for a nice gastropub but such is the case with the Park Hotel. I've said this before: M is generally reluctant to go out west and Werribee is about as far west as you get in the Melbourne metro area.

Nonetheless, both he and I were pleasantly surprised by the quality offered at the Park Hotel. There were plenty of young people and students there as it was trivia night and the demographics weren't exactly what we had expected for a pub in Werribee. The food was really quite good, especially the pork belly which was very well cooked, perfectly rendered and soft with very crispy skin which the chef had done a great job at flattening, making the skin evenly crispy without it being puffy. The flavour was also excellent. For $12 for three very generous pieces of pork belly, it was ridiculously good value. The corn and bean salsa it sat atop, however, was less spectacular and we barely touched it after devouring the pork. The sliders were OK; the meat was sandwiched between my mortal burger enemy: brioche buns. The beef filling was not terrible but not super flavoursome either.

All in all, if we're ever in the area we would definitely come back and try some of their other dishes and maybe even try our hand at besting the locals at trivia.

Le Grill @ Nevermind Bar and Cones Gelato

Le Grill is definitely our pick for some of the best burgers and American style food in Melbourne. Somewhat hidden away in a pub on Burwood Rd in Hawthorn, it's worth the extra effort to find and get to. While the downstairs part has very little seating, upstairs there's a nice alfresco area, albeit exposing you to some drunk 18 year olds.

We came here on a weekday evening with a couple of friends and each got a burger and a few sides to share. I got the Le Grill cheeseburger with bacon and M got the double version of mine. The burgers were very tasty—juicy and flavoursome. They were a good size but not super big, so left a bit of space for the delicious sides. I also loved that the burgers came with some sides complimentary, in this case some slaw and what seemed like house-made pickles.

We all got the following sides to share: the poutine, the waffle-cut fries, and the buffalo wings; all were delicious. The poutine we were really looking forward to because we love the stuff; how can you go wrong with chips, cheese curds and gravy? Here they made their own curds and I wish you got more on the poutine, but that's my only real complaint about the dish. It was delicious and moreish and the table polished it off in little time. The waffle fries were also surprisingly good. I wasn't sure what to expect what these were super crispy and very nicely seasoned. The wings were also surprisingly good, not wet and tasteless like at some other places but sticky and moreish. The sauce (I wanna say blue cheese?) that accompanied them was also surprisingly tasty.

We'll definitely be back and next time we'd like to try their pulled pork and their other stuff from the grill.

Cones
After dinner we went to nearby Glenferrie Rd and Cones to grab a nice cream partially due to the warm evening and partially due to the fact that the coffee shop we wanted to go to had no more alfresco seating and the interior was ridiculously warm and muggy. Due to having been burnt by milky gelatos before I chose the strawberry sorbet. This had a pretty nice flavour but inevitably I found it too sweet and cloying. The texture was also too soft and melted for my liking. M thought the same about his lemon flavoured gelato but had less trouble with the sweetness. Our companions seem to enjoy their cones, however.