Rathdowne Tavern - $10 steaks Tue night

Yes, last night it was time to try out the Rathdowne Tavern's $10 steak offer. On first read, it does sound a little too good to be true: $10 for a steak and a pot? In Carlton?

But along we went to investigate, and I'm happy to report that all this goodness was completely true. They offer a range of steaks - the $10 option is the 200 gram steak complete with roasted vegetables and a pot of Carlton draught (they also have bigger steaks on offer for higher prices).

I also forked out an additional $8 for a side salad - which I liked, I thought the lime/citrus dressing was nice and tangy, but my dining companion was unimpressed with the salad. In fact he may have muttered "You could just spend an extra couple of bucks and eat more steak if you're that hungry". And yes, it does kind of negate the point of the whole "$10 dinner", I admit.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

When we arrived, possibly a little on the late side of 8pm, the place was packed. We got the last table, and were feeling quite chuffed about it until it eventually dawned on us that being this packed meant very slow service. Table service only, for ordering your dinner, and it took us a good while to be attended to. I would hazard a guess that there were only a couple of wait staff tending to all the tables in the hotel, but I could be wrong. Just take my word for it and get down there early if you're hungry, but if you're happy to kick back with your mates then you won't be worried. Its a nice venue, the big flatscreens seemed a little out of place to me, but horses for courses and all that.

Once our orders were taken, the steak appeared in no time flat. That kitchen is seriously pumping them out!

One small word of warning here: if you are ordering the $10 steak, we were advised that you can't specify how you'd like it cooked. It all comes out just a shade on the rare side of medium. So if you really like it either blue & bloody or seriously singed, you'll be dismayed by this news.

But for most people, I'm sure you'll cope - its a great steak, really good for the price, the roast vegies arrive tucked underneath the steak, a sprig of oregano and gravy across the top. Definitely worth a visit, if you are up for a good cheap steak in Carlton on a Tue night.

My cameraphone is still not playing by the rules unfortunately, so I might have to start carting a camera with me. If I can get it sorted there will be pics here soon.
Til next time, cheers!

Details:
Rathdowne Tavern, 184 Rathdowne St, Carlton

Back in the saddle

Last night we ventured to a favourite from the old days. Now, admittedly, its not a pub, nor did we partake in $10 steaks or parmas.
But Shanghai Dumpling, located tucked away down Tattersalls Lane off Little Bourke Street, deserves mention for a couple of reasons. It was always a good spot for a cheap feed back in my younger days, and having not been there in a couple of years, I felt it was time to revisit. Plus I haven't been around for a bit so it was also time to report in on the blog, and its the only place I've been since I got back.
Shanghai Dumpling used to be a place where you could squeeze in next to a couple of strangers all sharing a table, tuck in to a plate of dumplings and some chinese broccoli and leave without much fuss to the wallet.
Well, things didn't seem to have changed terribly much.
There has been a little bit of a decor shift - a few more booths in place, the grungy old plastic tea mugs have been replaced with shiny new white ones, and things are slightly rearranged (tea urn at the front of the restaurant instead of tucked down the back, etc) - but nothing alarmingly new to upset the mad, busy place we remembered. I also noticed that corkage has been introduced (different prices depending on whether you bring in a stubbie, a tallie, or a bottle of wine) and a few beers were now available for sale onsite. We figured we'd take advantage of that particular new feature and had a Tiger stubbie from the fridge, for $4.80.
I did note that the chinese broccoli in oyster sauce seems to have bounced its way up the price list to become one of their more expensive dishes, at $9.90. It was as delicious as always, however. A very generous plate of steamed vegetable and mushroom dumplings was $6.50 and a plate of fried pork dumplings was $6.80 - as you may notice, I strongly believe in eating the dumplings at a place with said item included in the name of the joint. We enjoyed the meal, enjoyed our noisy tablemates, and were happy to note that whilst things have had a marginal spit and polish, nothing really seems to have changed much. The only thing I did notice was that the old clientele didn't match the new one. Not so much a mix of everyone you could find in a teaspoon of Melbourne, and more just a bunch of groups of people heading out for the night. I reckon I only saw two students in the whole place which leads me to suspect that Shanghai Dumpling must have a newer, cheaper competitor that this old fogie doesn't know about.

Stepping out for a breath of fresh air

Thanks for the visits and comments so far guys, its great to know that my mates and I are not the only ones keen on this idea.
I'll be keeping up the blog but just a heads-up that things will be quiet on the home front for a couple of weeks whilst I take some r&r out of town. Yes, sacrilege, I should really be spending my time off in knocking over all those places on my list. If I'd planned my trip a little later/started this blog a little earlier in the year, things might have been different. As it is, I'll be back before you know it. And of course, if anyone's got any reviews or comments about places that they think belong here, just keep 'em coming!

Father Flanagan's $10 steak - Review

We started out this evening with the plan to tackle the Sunday roast at Don't Tell Tom in Sydney Road. Sadly, we were informed by the friendly bloke checking tickets at the door, that they had a tickets-only show on at the moment, as part of the music festival. So folks, if you are chasing a sunday roast, right now don't pay any attention to my list. I'm hoping things will be back to normal in a couple of weeks, but if they aren't I'll have to do a bit of updating.

So the three of us ventured down to Father Flanagan's, 484 Smith St (on the corner of Alexander Pde & Smith St) in Collingwood to sample their $10 steaks instead.
We were pretty happy with what we found, so without further ado, here's the story.

Salad: I can't rave about the salad, it had some squiggle of very ordinary creamy dressing across the top of some sliced onion and tomato over mixed leaves, but it was better than none at all, and didn't detract from the main event.
Chips: always a shame when they are placed under the steak, as there's the chance of sogginess, but these were fine. I'm always quick to shift the steak when it appears anyway, so any possible sogging avoided. Fairly generous serve of decent chips.
Steak: decent t-bone, everyone was happy with the way their steak was cooked to their liking, served with a basic pub-style gravy over the top. Thankfully it wasn't swimming in the stuff as I'm not the world's biggest fan of it, but its always good when there's something there to finish the chips off with.
Drinks: we had pints of beer and cider with our dinner, they were good, and not overpriced.
Atmosphere at the pub: tonight was fairly quiet, a couple of Irish boys sitting up at the bar chatting to the bartender, a handful of other people around, with Phil Collins crooning gently over the soundsytem. Definitely not a packed and jumping kind of place, although I have been here for St Patrick's Day and you couldn't move - packed in like sardines. From the looks of it they cater to the Uni crowd pretty well with lots of student offers, cheap drinks on certain nights etc.

Overall - good deal, definitely a bargain steak night to recommend if you're at a loose end on a Sunday and you've run out of dosh.

Note: I do have a shot of the plate on my phone but having trouble downloading it for some reason. Will get to it when I've had a word with the phone co.

More fodder!

OK I've gone forth and fetched up a few more places that are elsewhere for my southern & eastern-based cousins. I may have even dug up a couple from the west, too! Yes, not all of these are $10. I will slowly whittle it back as I go along. What I'd like eventually is to have the ideal list - the best $10 meal in Melbourne for every night of the week. Occasionally when I need a change of pace or I'm feeling a bit flush, I'll go all out and try one of these $12 or $13 nights...

How's this list looking? I'm pretty keen to give some of these a try-out. If anyone else has a review or a suggestion for me, please feel free to post it in the comments section. Or you can email me on 10dollarmealsinmelb (at) gmaildotcom

Monday
Father Flanagan's, 484 Smith St (Cnr Alexander Pde & Smith St) Collingwood - $5 meals & $6 steins
Clare Castle Hotel, 354 Graham St, Port Melbourne - All Meals $10
The Hawthorn Hotel, 481 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn - Parma & a pot $10 (6-9pm)
Prince Alfred Hotel, 355 Bay St, Port Melbourne - everything on the menu is $13 (except entrees/bar snacks, which are $6.50 - $9.50)
Gertrude Hotel, 148 Gertrude St, Fitzroy - all meals $12 except for steak & salmon $14
Richmond Club Hotel, 100 Swan St, Richmond - $10 parma
Edinburgh Castle, 681 Sydney Rd, Brunswick - $9.99 for roo & glass of wine

Tuesday
Clare Castle Hotel, 354 Graham St, Port Melbourne - Choice of 5 Parmas for $10
Stag's Head Hotel, 39 Cecil St, Williamstown - Parma $10 (advisable to book)
Gertrude Hotel, 148 Gertrude St, Fitzroy - Pasta/Parma night $10
The Hawthorn Hotel, 481 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn - Parma & a pot $10 (6-8.30pm)
Richmond Club Hotel, 100 Swan St, Richmond - $10 steak
Rathdowne Tavern, 184 Rathdowne St, Carlton - $10 steak night
Edinburgh Castle, 681 Sydney Rd, Brunswick - $9.50 pot and a pie

Wednesday
The Nash Hotel, 344 Victoria St, Richmond - Porterhouse with chips & salad, choice of gravies for $12, available both lunch (12-2.30pm) and dinner (6-9pm)
Stag's Head Hotel, 39 Cecil St, Williamstown - steak $12 (advisable to book)
The Hawthorn Hotel, 481 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn - Parma & a pot $10 (6-9pm)
The Bendigo Hotel, 125 Johnston St, Collingwood - Parma (9 different varieties) & a pot $10
Cornish Arms, 163A Sydney Rd, Brunswick - $12 steak night
Father Flanagan's, 484 Smith St (Cnr Alexander Pde & Smith St) Collingwood - $10 monster roast

Thursday
Gertrude Hotel, 148 Gertrude St, Fitzroy - Parma $10, Steak $14
The Hawthorn Hotel, 481 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn - $12 steak night (6-9pm)
Palookaville, 416 Brunswick St, Fitzroy - everything $10
Father Flanagan's, 484 Smith St (Cnr Alexander Pde & Smith St) Collingwood - $11 parma & a pot

Friday
The Bendigo Hotel, 125 Johnston St, Collingwood - scotch fillet steak & a pot $10
The Hawthorn Hotel, 481 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn - $12 mains (6-7pm)

Saturday
The Rose Hotel, 406 Napier St, Fitzroy - mains $8.50 - $13 (12pm - 10pm)
Palookaville, 416 Brunswick St, Fitzroy - everything $10

Sunday
Don't Tell Tom, 420 Sydney Rd, Brunswick - $10 sunday roast
Father Flanagan's, 484 Smith St (Cnr Alexander Pde & Smith St) Collingwood - $10 steaks
Spread Eagle Hotel, 372 Bridge Rd, Richmond - Parma-fest (Choice of 5 toppings - Hawaiian, Mexican, Traditional, Bolognese and Meat Lovers) $12

Last night's $10 meal = fail

Went out in search of a $10 steak night last night. Failed miserably.

Its not always going to be good news when you go out for a $10 meal, and I will not be just reporting the good news. You need to know where to avoid, as well as the great places to go!

Drove around several pubs, before settling for Rajee's Instant Indian. $7.50 for vegie curry, $10 for meat. Came with your choice of one kind of curry, and a big plate of rice.

Short review: Don't waste your time people, I reckon there's got to be a better option out there.
I know of a curry place on Elizabeth St in the city which does a plate for $11 which is definitely better - 3 curries instead of one, plus the rice, and the curry is of a far better quality. The curry at Rajee's was lacking in flavour, watery, minimal on everything except sauce. Sure, people might suggest that you get what you pay for - but I say, the competition for my blue heeler is fierce, and I won't be returning to Rajee's.

A list for future reviews

I'm trying to map out my week.

Here's what I have in store so far (and yes, its all located in the northern suburbs - will update as I get info from further afield):

Tue
Rathdowne Tavern, Rathdowne St, Carlton - $10 steak night
or
Edinburgh Castle, Sydney Rd, Brunswick - $9.50 pot and a pie

Wed
Cornish Arms, Sydney Rd, Brunswick - $12 steak night (obviously if I find something for $10 on Wednesdays, the Cornish Arms will get dumped from the plans)

Thu
Palookaville, Brunswick St, Fitzroy - everything $10

Fri
Nothing as yet

Sat
Nothing

Sun
Don't Tell Tom, Sydney Rd, Brunswick - $10 sunday roast

Mon
Edinburgh Castle, Sydney Rd, Brunswick - $9.99 for a roo dinner & glass of wine