Hofbrauhaus, Melbourne

I was catching up with a mate and we wanted a few beers and something to eat. Having been there before I suggested we try hofbrauhaus, a German restaurant curiously situated in the Chinatown district of Melbourne.

Like I said I've been there before and had some very good nights, however when I walked in the door it looked different from when I'd been there previously. It wasn't jsut several of those beers making my memory hazy they'd definitely deon some renovations. I later found out that they'd actually had a fire in Mid 2011 and renovated out of necessity.

We pulled up a seat upstairs at the traditional style bench seating, always a great way to dine if you want to meet other people and have a social occasion, not so good though if you're out on a romantic first date. Like a lot of things it's neither good or bad, rather right or not right for the current situation. We were just out for a catch up and a beer so it was perfect. Our waitress was authentic Bavarian, she laughed when I pointed out that she was too young to be a widow as her Dirndl was indicating, only something a Bavarian would get.

Like Oktoberfest and German Brauhaus' they serve the beer in steins, a giant 1 Litre mug of goodness. They have quite a selection of beers including the obvious Hopfbrau brews as well as beers from other brewerys like Paulaner and Erdinger. A move I can only liken to serving Tooheys at the Foster's brewery. I went conformist and just went for a HB Original.

After some catch up we decided to get something to eat as we were feeling hungry. HB has all the usual German fare; sausages, pork knuckles and schnitzel. I opted for the Knuspriger Schweinebauch, oven roasted pork belly on a bed of red cabbage sauerkraut and a bread dumpling kind of like a potato rosti.

The pork was cooked to perfection and the crackling was awesomely cispy although a little burnt at one end. The dumplings were a good addition and helped soak up some of the lovely juice from the pork. If you're on a diet, especially a no carb diet, this is not for you as it is on the stodgy side, but went down excellently with a few beers. Mostly becasue after 500 years or so of brewing they've mastered the art of food that goes well with beer. HB in Melbourne also holds up the fine tradition of German beer and food.