Review Railway Hotel, Fitzroy North - Fitzroy

Haven't been for 28 years, but was on my bucket list for after lock down. Just as good as I remember except no spaghetti pesto so had fettuccine. Not gentrified, just classic pub. Loved it.

The sad thing about writing this review is that they I have happy memories of The Railway as a classic inner north Melbourne pub that served excellent pub classics, and some wonderful hearty and well cooked Italian food. The decor always left something to be desired, and they had this weird system for wine whereby you just went into another part of the pub to the bottle shop, picked your wine, and took it back to the pub where they stuck a couple of bucks on it. I liked that, and they had (and still have) a pretty good range of wines and very reasonable prices. Eight friends and I dined here recently on a Thursday night, and the whole experience was an unmitigated disaster from beginning to end. Not one person enjoyed their meal. Let me be specific: My veal parma was a very small serve of tough veal and very sparse topping (although the napoli sauce was pretty good). About eight chips accompanied the meal, and I have attache a photo of the so-called side salad. Oh, by the way, nothing had been eaten from that salad--that's how it landed on the table. I ordered an $18 antipasto platter for the table to share. The tiny serve of very ordinary antipasto barely covered the middling sized plate it was served on. The meats were OK, but it wasn't served with any bread or accompaniments of any sort. At $7.50 or even $10 it would still have been ordinary, but at least cheap. At $18 it was a bald-face rip-off. There would have been about $3.00 worth of produce on the plate. There was also close to an hour's gap between the antipasto and the main, despite the fact that I asked for the antipasto to come at the same time as the mains. One of my companions ordered goat with polenta. When the tiny serve arrived with chips and salad, there was no polenta. When he asked, he was told that if you ordered chips and salad with the goat, you didn't get polenta, Eh? No-one had a meal they enjoyed. Steak was tough, and the mixed grills were sparse and ordinary. The table was given two small plates of bread that was none too fresh. Overall, it was a shocking dining experience. We have all put a massive line through this place and will never eat there again. The only good thing about the meal was some good wine at a very reasonable price. As I said at the start of this review, the sad thing about this experience was that all of us had very happy memories of some excellent unpretentious pub classics and Italian food at this once venerable institution.

Authentic pub, plus Italian cuisine - score. Wine at bottle store prices, stunning outside seating under grape vine pergola.

Great pub. Old school. Awesome fun.

Love this pub...started going back there after covid19 restrictions were lifted. Classic old style pub with Classic old timers...decor unchanged. A welcome blast from the past friendly and good honest staff, locals, food and atmosphere....hope it never changes...and beautiful quiet beer garden...Paul Edwards

Great customer service and Amazing food 👌

I booked this place for dinner with friends several days before arriving. Even that experience was difficult. Despite having a web site apparently for the purpose, it wasn’t able to accommodate bookings. So instead I emailed, explaining the issue. I was told to call - no problem, I did. After some difficulty I was eventually able to. When myself and guests arrived at the time booked.... well, the fun started.... Upon walking in the front door, we were asked if we’d been anywhere else previously. Then we were told they were too busy. When I pointed out I’d booked for dinner, they looked at the book (allegedly) and claimed we had booked for 30 minutes prior to our booking. I pointed out we hadn’t (and had an email proving it). We were reluctantly told to find a table outside. And if we wanted to eat we had to order in less than 5 minutes. Then the final indignation was that when we found a table, and asked for service, we were refused it. We immediately found welcoming and warm service at The Great Northern. Despite having been previously, we will NEVER go to the Railway again. And certainly ensure our friends do the same. Worst customer service I’ve received in all of Melbourne for many years

Great hotel , beautiful food and nice staff, very friendly place to visit.

This could be an awesome local inner north pub. It has a great old school feel, has maintained so many features from older times, has lovely staff, but, and this is a big BUT, the kitchen can’t deliver on the menus promise.<br/><br/>It has so many mouth watering options on the menu but you’d be lucky to find the needle in the haystack. Which ones the delicious dish? You may have to roll the dice a dozen times before finding something palatable.<br/><br/>Bland lamb shanks with minimal sauce, pigs trotters that were uneatable, vinegary minestrone, spag bol that tasted like cloves, bread and butter pudding served with ice cream that was off. And you need to wait an hour or more for the dishes to arrive on your table after ordering.<br/><br/>My suggestion for this pub; cull your menu by 75%; focus on what you do best (chicken livers are a good dish on the menu); give your kitchen time to focus on the smaller number of delish dishes that you can push out fast; stay with the Italian theme.<br/><br/>I want to love this pub. A local pub with great Italian food, how good would that be?

Love this old gem. Well priced drinks, great pasta, good prices, super fun trivia night, amazing heater, the staff are really amazing too, the bar lady chased us down the street when my friend left her bag there. Absolute legend. Corker of a pub! Will be back next week, hope there's a meat tray ! Thanks again.

The sad thing about writing this review is that they I have happy memories of The Railway as a classic inner north Melbourne pub that served excellent pub classics, and some wonderful hearty and well cooked Italian food. The decor always left something to be desired, and they had this weird system for wine whereby you just went into another part of the pub to the bottle shop, picked your wine, and took it back to the pub where they stuck a couple of bucks on it. I liked that, and they had (and still have) a pretty good range of wines and very reasonable prices.<br/><br/>Eight friends and I dined here recently on a Thursday night, and the whole experience was an unmitigated disaster from beginning to end. Not one person enjoyed their meal. Let me be specific: My veal parma was a very small serve of tough veal and very sparse topping (although the napoli sauce was pretty good). About eight chips accompanied the meal, and I have attache a photo of the so-called side salad. Oh, by the way, nothing had been eaten from that salad--that's how it landed on the table.<br/><br/>I ordered an $18 antipasto platter for the table to share. The tiny serve of very ordinary antipasto barely covered the middling sized plate it was served on. The meats were OK, but it wasn't served with any bread or accompaniments of any sort. At $7.50 or even $10 it would still have been ordinary, but at least cheap. At $18 it was a bald-face rip-off. There would have been about $3.00 worth of produce on the plate.<br/><br/>There was also close to an hour's gap between the antipasto and the main, despite the fact that I asked for the antipasto to come at the same time as the mains.<br/><br/>One of my companions ordered goat with polenta. When the tiny serve arrived with chips and salad, there was no polenta. When he asked, he was told that if you ordered chips and salad with the goat, you didn't get polenta, Eh?<br/><br/>No-one had a meal they enjoyed. Steak was tough, and the mixed grills were sparse and ordinary. The table was given two small plates of bread that was none too fresh.<br/><br/>Overall, it was a shocking dining experience. We have all put a massive line through this place and will never eat there again. The only good thing about the meal was some good wine at a very reasonable price.<br/><br/>As  I said at the start of this review, the sad thing about this experience was that all of us had very happy memories of some excellent unpretentious pub classics and Italian food at this once venerable institution.

Enjoyable atmosphere in this Fitzroy grand old dame ..... great house wines and free live band on Thursday night.<br/><br/>Handy location, most of its old charming characters are there for our eyes to wonder, it comes with thoroughbred racing photo and Essendon football memorabilia - boooooo :-). <br/><br/>Took a while for our orders to come out from the kitchen, after the straight away Anti-pasto platter. Our order of T-Bone steaks are a tad overcooked but okay, plain, no sauce but you can request for a small gravy. A small serve of Veal Saltimbocca was nothing extraordinary, but okay too, like their spicy side vegetables and John Dory was well cooked too. <br/><br/>Kudos for their house wines for $5/glass, great selection.<br/><br/>Service is okay, a Pub is a Pub, however  much to enjoy, especially the atmosphere with the locals. <br/><br/>Nonetheless a great place to hang out in Fitzroy any night of the week.

I would have to say from the moment we arrived it was down hill , decor was extremely dated ( I get it's an old pub ...but please ) service was very ordinary and the food left a lot to be desired ...I rarely give a poor rating ....generally fair / positive or not at all!! But can't let this one go....over an hour for entree!!! Barmaid did her best to help .....but will not return!!

Real Casalinga home cooking. Really love coming here. In Summer the grape vines cover the outdoor area, chilli bush, limes... The quality of the food is always amazing. Thursday lunch is Gnocci day!

Shabby chic meets Italy in Fitzroy North. The venue is incredible. Ideal for functions and large groups, especially the large outdoor beer garden. The food is spot on, unpretentious, tasty, home cooking/ pub grub. Excellent choice in wine at all budgets. This venue has so much more potential for this to be an iconic institution in the area, just requires more TLC to hit the right market and see this place booming.

we went here with a party of six all of us were impressed with our meals, decor back in the 70s county pub. clean as anything <br/>great homestyle Italian slanted meals

Rude. The publican is a arrogant bloke unless your one of his crew. The area is spoilt for great friendly pubs so dont bother with this place. Very slap dash meals.

Worst Ever. The continental sausages were dreadful, the 'salad' was abysmal and the chips were ok.<br/><br/>My partner had the mixed grill and left the liver because it was gross. I've had better meals at the football club and they don't claim to be chefs. Way better at any football club than this muck!<br/><br/>The only upside was the company and I brought that with me.

Railway Hotel. Great home cooked Italian meals. I never choose anything that is not Italian at this place, because Italian is their speciality. Sitting in the room with the fire and the washing is like sitting at home. It is a nice atmosphere. I am sure they only dry their washing on quiet nights, and always in the room where nobody usually sits.

It has a great country pub feel to it, one of the last left of its kind making this a place a rare little gem

If you are after a geniunely delicious and authentic home cooked Italian meal, look no further! Wonderful feed!

Railway grub. We ate here a few months back and it was disgusting - had veal shanks that came with rotting vegetables, they were old and acidic and just gross. The socks/underwear drying over the fire seemed quaint pre-meal weand in hindsight was probably a very good indication of what was about to happen.

Authetic Venetian food. I was blown away!! Had my first meal at the Railway Hotel tonight and it was just like my mum used to make it. Brought me back to when I was a child. Thank you :-)

Fantastic. Old style italian food yhe way it should be! My favourite place for italian food!