When? – 31/1/13
Where? – 57 Swan st. Richmond
Price? - $22
Website? - http://cornerhotel.com/
Reviewers – Lee & Matt
Update - We revisited the Corner 6 years later and tried the parma up on their rooftop bar, you can read about it by clicking here !
Does The Corner Hotel need an introduction?
I feel like its one of those places that “needs no introduction”, it’s a Melbourne institution! Yet I feel like I should introduce it anyway…
The Corner hotel! On the corner of Swan and Stewart street in Richmond. (quite a low key corner to be the pubs namesake if you ask me, you’d think a more high profile corner should be called “The Corner” I say they should switch names with Young & Jackson … now thats a corner to be proud of!)
A live-music staple, if you’re into music in Melbourne, then you’ve been to The Corner. The walls are literally wallpapered with posters of past gigs, this is a pub that bleeds music, and with a fantastic rooftop beer garden/dining area it’s a great little spot for a pre-show or post-footy pint.
Unfortunately we visited The Corner on the 31st of January, which you will probably know as “That day in January that fucking pissed down” We arrived, rather soggy, and decided to forego the rooftop deck in weather such as it was, and opted for a cosy booth on ground level.
We found a menu, eyed our target…
…and placed the order at the bar. After a run of Mediocre salads I was excited for something a bit different, and the promise of coleslaw fit the bill nicely.
The parma looked impressive when it hit the table. Heaps of shaved ham and perfectly golden cheese. It looked a treat. I cut into it and revealed a healthy thick looking chicken breast that wasn’t overcrumbed… Then I took a bite, and was rather disappointed.
First of all, the toppings were great (as expected) the cheese was tasty, the abundance of ham carried a great flavour. However the chicken was so dry. “As dry as a dead dingo’s donger” is a phrase that comes to mind, and a lack of much napoli didn’t help it at all, I found myself reaching for my pint of Mountain Goat between each bite, just to rehydrate my now dry mouth (and Mountain Goat is delicious).
I’m hoping that we got a bad batch and they aren’t normally like that, because there is so much potential here squandered.
I’m the kind of eater that likes to put a bit of everything on the plate onto my fork, and when combined with the mayo in the coleslaw it brought it back a little, but not quite enough.
The chips were great. Beer battered chunky chips, cooked to perfection - only slightly under-seasoned but the salt shakers on the table made short work of that.
The salad. I wanted to like it so bad, and there was so much of it. However although it looked like coleslaw, it didn’t quite taste like coleslaw, and that threw me off. The mayo was thick, bland and the whole thing carried a odd flavour. You know that really bitter taste that larger roquette leaves get? that. All the way through it.
As mentioned in the parma section, it was good when mixed with the parma, but on its own it fell short.
$22 is pretty standard for parmas these days, and I definitely didn’t leave hungry (it was truly a mountain of coleslaw). If the extreme dryness of the chicken was only a temporary issue, then I’d definitely be back, otherwise I wouldn’t go out of my way for this one - Maybe if I was already at The Corner again I would give it another go, otherwise give it a miss.
All in all The Corner is a great spot - A Melbourne mainstay, and probably one of the best live music venues that we have. I know I’ll be back to sometime soon, probably not for the parma though.