Dinner at the Court House

[Shinboners]

Apologies in advance, but this review is going to be a bit of a half-arsed one. I'm tired and grumpy, it's a bad, bad morning at work, and I'm at least a half hour drive from a decent coffee.

Anyway, we found ourselves back in the homeland, the Peoples Republic of North Melbourne. You see, I get very nostalgic about that suburb. I'm a born and bred North Melbourne boy, my earliest life memories are of the area, and of course, it's the home base of my beloved footy club. Unfortunately, like another Peoples Republic (of the Chinese kind), the romanticised, if somewhat downtrodden past, has given away to a bright, new, shiny NOW!

I've been meaning to go to the Court House Hotel. I've heard plenty of good things, and I was just about ready to take another dip into this Gastropub malarky.

With baby in tow, we enter the dining room, and we're greeted by two waiters who gave that sort of, "Uh, oh....I really hope they're not going to dine IN HERE. WITH THAT THING!". I can't blame them really...they want an easy night, the new generation of Peoples Republic of North Melbourne residents are only slightly less obnoxious than the little princes of another Peoples Republic.

Which brings me to the next question. What is this place? A pub or a restaurant? There's probably been thousands of words written about this, but I figure that if the dining room is located in a pub, then therefore, it is a pub - no matter how good the food and service is. And if it's a pub, then there shouldn't be any problem with taking a baby in.

The food was excellent. My descriptions of the support components of the dish will be a bit ropey, but bear with me. With the baby sleeping, the waiters had warmed to us and even cracked a few jokes. We decided to go straight to mains, and one waiter did ask us if we wanted entrees. This made me very happy as it meant that they weren't trying to get us out of the place as quickly as possible. I ordered the pork belly. The waiter suggested I should have a salad to cut the richness, but I pointed out (in, I hope, a humourous way) that being Chinese, pork belly and richness wasn't going to be a problem. It was excellent. It was so tender, the flavour was so rich, the crackling was nearly perfect. There was an apple flavoured source on top, which I thought was unnecessary, and a small, fluffy mound of something that tasted liked herbed mashed potatoes. Sorry, I didn't take too much notice of what was written on the menu, the belly was the key.

My fiancee had a pan roasted fillet of ocean trout. It was a fairly generous piece, sitting on some roasted vegetables and a sauce that had black truffle essense in it. The fish had a bright, gorgeous orange-red colour, and the flesh was firm and tasty. It was really very well executed. I was a bit meh about the vegetables, and whilst the sauce was very good, was the black truffle really necessary? But then again, it's probably does for the food what the go-faster stripes do for cars.

The Court House is a dab hand at desserts too. I had honey ice cream, served inbetween these two honey flavoured crisps. Excellent. My fiancee, as she always does, had something with chocolate in it. I'm not sure how good it was as I was too busy taking baby outside and explaining North Melbourne to her and why it's important.

So, modern day North Melbourne sucks. Sure, I only have the very romanticised memories of a 3 year old as a point of comparison, but I do wonder what the old butchers of 1890 would have made of the suburb these days. I mention the butchers because legend has it, they used to hang the shin bones out in the front of their shops, hence the traditional nickname of the North Melbourne Football Club, the Shinboners. See? Even my footy team has a foodie angle to it. But despite my reservations of modern day North Melbourne, the Court House Hotel seems to make it, well, almost worthwhile.

Edited November 28, 2005 by Shinboners (log)

[Dim Sim]

My fiancee had a pan roasted fillet of ocean trout. 

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I thought you are married.

I like to think The Court House as my local pub, well, I like to think I can walk there , I haven't been there for a while, earlier in the year I went there quite frequently,never been to the diningroom section, had some bar meals there a few time, always enjoyable and good value for money, a few of my friends went there last week for dining , they highly reconmend it. Once I saw a woman at the next table having some dessert, it looked stunning, I think it was peach Melba. mmmmm:rolleyes:

[Shinboners]

I thought you are married. 

Nah, just living in sin with our illigitimate child. The saving grace for us is that it's 2005 rather than 1950.

I don't think we're ever actually going to get around to the wedding.

I think my parents want the big wedding. All I (and my fiancee want) is a simple ceremony in the back garden with about 50 or 60 of our nearest and dearest, and then go to a good restaurant for dinner and drinking.

I like to think The Court House as my local pub,

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Lucky bugger.

It's just a shame that the Court House isn't in Blackburn South. Hell, I'll even settle for having the Terminus in Blackburn South.

Edited November 29, 2005 by Shinboners (log)

[PCL]

Have the reception at the Courthouse.

[Edward Quinn]

hi there,

Had a few entrees at the Court House Hotel today, beautiful chewy bread, just warm and fresh, followed by;

tuna carpaccio, crab rillettes and vegetables a la'grecque

terrine of duck, quail and new potato with red-wine poached pear

ham mousse with riesling and cornichon jelly

All of the dishes were balanced using sweet/acidic garnishes and were quite fresh and light going. The tuna was probably the most successful combination. The terrine was lovely but was perhaps a little under-seasoned when it was tasted with the sweet pears and their reduced poaching liquor. The Ham mousse was served as two quenelles, a round of the jelly and a cheese wafer (type thing). I enjoyed the mousse very much as well as the wafer, but the jelly didn't work with me.

It didn't seem to have much textural or flavour-contrasting relevance to the mousse. I probably would have preferred a few cornichons!

The tuna was simple and well done. Tuna carpaccio, quenelles of crab rillette and a small amount of peppers and red onion a la greque. Well balanced, simple stuff.

Hope I'm not sounding too picky, because I enjoyed all the dishes very much and it was great to be able to sample food of this calibre in such an informal and cosy environment. (I ate in the main bar). As this is my first post, I really want to express my thoughts but don't wish to appear unnecessarily critical!

I will definitely be returning for a more serious eating at a later date. Cheers!

[Edward Quinn]

yeah, sorry. That was in melbourne!

[The Chefs Office]

I was going to ask which Court House hotel.

I was beginning to think I was going mad because The Court House Hotel in Sydney on Oxford St is a 24 hour afair that would be lucky to serve an edible Chiko roll (I seem to have vague a memory of being ejected from there at around 5am in the morning about 10 years ago!).

By the sound of your review though, I'l check out the Melbourne version next trip down.

[Shinboners]

By the sound of your review though, I'l check out the Melbourne version next trip down.

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I was driving around the other day and I spied another Court House hotel in Melbourne!

So make sure you go to the one in Errol Street, North Melbourne.

[Shinboners]

Funnily enough, today's Epicure reports that Tim Saffery, the head chef at the Court House Hotel, will be leaving in two months. He's heading to The River (Moruya on the south coast of NSW). He's going to give it a go for six months, and if it works well, he'll buy into it.