Windsor Castle Hotel

There are heaps of amazing pubs in Melbourne, and this is certainly one of them. The first thing that I noticed were the three pink elephants standing on the roof, and the second thing was the awesome beer garden with the grass hut stylised bar at the back. What is even better is that this is one of those pubs that are hidden off of the main thoroughfares, meaning that it is one of those pubs for people that are in the know. Another cool thing are all antlers hanging above the arches, and glass cabinets full of various nik-​naks. There is also a quiet restaurant at the back, and a piano bar. Unfortunately there is no piano in the piano bar, which means there is no soothing piano music to listen to while drinking your beer. That doesn’t bother me though because I could sit all night in the beer garden just absorbing the amazing atmosphere that filters through this place.

Came here for dinner last Thursday, and as soon as I walked in It felt like it was quite a few people’s local pub. Really friendly atmosphere with a lovely restaurant type seating area and also a dimly lit room with stools and tables to eat as well (perfect for date night).
The standard menu had all the well known faves with a bit of Mexican thrown in. The specials board was really impressive but unfortunately by the time I got to ordering my meal at 8pm my choices had dissapeared. I guess this is a good sign but even so I was disappointed.
Overall impression was that this pub would be excellent for a catch up drinking session with best friends, especially on a Sunday. I really liked the Windsor Castle and recommend.

Love this place, the food is fantastic and at such a good price. And the bar has Fat Yak by the pint say no more. A true hideaway local Melbourne bar.

erk, what have they done? Seems like a change of hands or owner or something — but it’s not the same anymore.
Weak, crappy (spirit based) drinks. What a shame.

I went here for a «Sunday Session» to meet some friends on a beautiful afternoon. By 3pm this place was punched. I couldn’t believe I was fashionably late for a Sunday Session. When I walked in… I thought… meh, just another bar. And then suddenly, I spotted it. An outdoor patio! The heavens parted and a ray of light shone through. I was happy. Outdoor drinking is my thing… I love it. That makes me sound like an alchy (and I assure you I’m not), but who doesn’t love a cold drink outside on a beautiful day surrounded by beautiful people. J’adore! We ended up staying hours and drinking too much beer… correction, too much pricey beer. But, hey, it was a great day to be tipsy! I will definitely return to this lil hotspot… afterall, Melbs is known for it’s Sunday Sessions and I’m known for attending them.

Our food would have been a 2, but the bar is more like a 4, so there we have it. A 3-​star joint. I wanted to love this place. I do really love the vibe of the bar and the totally unexpected back garden with its lush greenery and bamboo. It was really awesome back there. But the food was way disappointing. The prawn «spring rolls» were actually just those friend shrimp that have that little pastry wrapped around them straight from your grocer’s freezer. The lettuce they mentioned was just a bit of lettuce beneath the prawns. These were not spring rolls but rather friend prawns you’d find at a cocktail. My chicken parm was flavourless and my partner’s pork schnitzel was as well. The chips were also from the grocer’s freezer — krinkle kut frieds or something like that.
A really disappointing $ 60 meal at a really cool vibey kind of neighborhood bar.
So there is the 3.

I’ve always loved the name of this place. The Windsor Castle Hotel.
In my head this is a grand old building with vines covering the sides with huge archways, beautiful gardens and a string quartet playing in dinner suits while patrons sip on fine wines and yell «Bravo» after each song.
This is not the case.
It’s about as Aussie as you can get and it attracts the types that are as Aussie as it gets. In my head, it’s a lot nicer. I unfortunately can here after the first day of the spring racing carnival so it was packed full of bogans in suits, which probably doesn’t help my outlook. Still, I though the place as a whole wasn’t much chop.

I remember the first time a friend led me to this pub on a Saturday night. We took a turn off Chapel street and down a dark alley for what seemed like ages (I was pretty thirsty at the time) though in reality it was not long at all. We arrived at the pub and it appeared dead from the outside, kinda looks like an old mans pub, it’s anything but.
The interior has a really cosy vibe, we found a table and whittled away an easy few hours drinking and shooting the breeze before even realising there was an amazing beer garden outside. Once outside it seemed like everything was stepped up a notch and this is where the party was. Love the hawain holiday theme and funky shack serving bevies outside.
It is worth making the trip, if only it wasn’t the other side of the river.

Now it must be noted that this joint was my local for about two years and I frequented the pub every week during that period. Back then it went through a bit of a transition and I dunno if it’s ever really recovered…
What was so good about this place was that it was a low key vibe where folk could drink, eat and converse with very few hassles. Then these fucking creeps started moving in on weekends because for some reason the place got a bit of a rep as a meat market, especially on Sundays. So all of a sudden there’s all these desperate suburban unknown guys hanging out there and you not only could never get a spot, the vibe turned into this sausage festival and people started fighting and shit.
It’s a shame because the food here is awesome, the garden bar is rad (like tiki in style) and the staff were always pretty good. Now the vibe is completely different and I’ll never go back.
Gotta love the elephants though.

Like me, if you have ever driven down Dandenong road and seen a line of pink elephants walking on top of a green building and thought to yourself, I should not be driving at the moment, think again, it’s real and worth looking at the map on how to find access to this mysterious place.
Anytime of the year when you walk outside into their courtyard you get the feeling like you are on holiday at club med. There is bamboo everywhere and a little shack that serves alcoholic beverages all night. If you get there before the kitchen closes you are also in for a treat as the pub food that finds its way to your table will leave you very satisfied.