When you visit the McKinnon Hotel, if by its exterior you think it has been there for One-Hundred years, you’d be right. Try One-Hundred and Fifty years plus! It was originally called the “Gardeners’ Arms Hotel” because of the market gardening in the area. Inside it is thoroughly modern. Complete with bottle shop, pokies, lounge, atrium bistro, outdoor eats area and bar. The bistro atrium area is bright and airy and a great place for lunch.
The wine and beer list is extensive. Let’s face it if a pub can’t provide a huge wine and beer list then meals isn’t going to win customers. I go for their Stout on tap. I have eaten at the McKinnon on two other occasions and both times thought the meals excellent. Service too was efficient and prompt. This time I moved out of my pasta comfort zone and ordered crumbed lamb cutlets. Next time I’ll be more sheepish with my selection.
I waited an extraordinarily long time for the meal to arrive. There was only a few tables of patrons in the bistro and others got their meal ahead of mine. I just kept thinking “it’s going to be good that’s why it is taking so long”. But the meal wasn’t good and I waited far too long for it. The lamp meat, the cutlet, appeared OK itself but the so called crumbing was shocking. No other way to describe it. It looked like either the cutlets had been pre-cooked then re-cooked to server or they had been crumbed and frozen, therefore the lengthy wait. The crumbing was rock-hard and heavily chard in some areas and most of it fell off the meat as I cut into the cutlet. A very poor effort on chef’s behalf.
If this was my first and only meal at the McKinnon Hotel I would be saying “eat somewhere else”. Because I have had two excellent dining experiences here over the last year or so I would have no qualms to re-visit. Try the pasta and risotto and forget the cutlets. Or just go for the stout on tap.
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