Chicken sate dish from Alberton Hotel. Picture: MICHAEL MARSCHALL Source: The Advertiser
A HISTORIC Port hotel offers more than just your classic pub meals.
My dining colleague is taking things very slowly. He is in a fog of nostalgia, having known the hotel we are in all his life.
Every breath he takes, every nook and cranny he explores conjures precious moments from his boyhood in and around the grounds and surrounds of the Alberton Hotel on Port Rd, just blocks from landmark Alberton Oval, spiritual home of the Port Adelaide Magpies and Power football clubs.
As with most pubs here and elsewhere, the old places no longer are what they were, having received degrees of renovation and addition as pokies, smart dining and screen-based betting became integral parts of modern hotel service over the past decade.
The Alberton has not escaped, says my friend, who is a long way down memory lane by the time lunch orders have gone to the kitchen. Fortunately, the hotel has retained its historic, external double-storeyed, stone, post and veranda appearance in its main building, though there are brick add-ons for a huge drive-through bottle shop to one side and a gaming room at the back that are relatively new in terms of the hotel's history, dating back to 1848.
The memory man recalls the times taxis ferried footy fans from the oval, when it did not have an alcohol licence, to the pub for a couple of quick, half-time beers and, in his case, as a boy, raspberry cordials.
He admits he also was most upset after the pub reworked its public bar, dispensing with a series of celebratory hand-crafted premiership mural panels. Some remain in miniature as a wall frieze, while the most distinctive, a gum tree with six magpies symbolising the football club's consecutive 1954-59 SA premierships, now is remembered only as a black-and-white photo in the dining room, a large midships space where today a few fun-loving groups of ladies are enjoying themselves over a buffet lunch salad before heading into the gaming room.
They encapsulate a fair bit of how the hotel positions itself, its catchphrase being "a family pub - not a casino".
For all its pokie room and sports television screen setup, the Alberton exudes a great friendliness across the several bars and at the nook where you order your nosh from blackboard menus.
The choices start with a classic set of modern pub meals, including s&p; squid as an entree with chips, all lightly golden fried, simple and good enough. My friend by now is having a trad attack and sees on a specials blackboard, which by the way contains more than 25 items that are relatively permanent, the most direct of offers. "Tommy Ruffs", one line states - no mention of how it is to be presented. Just plain, old tommies. He orders, purely because he recalls the halcyon days when he and his dad bought fresh ones and gar and plenty more out of fishermen's car boots in the pub's parking area. These tommies are great - four, fresh, fat, crumbed fillets, on decent chips. Salads and veg are gathered out of a long buffet bar to one side.
There is more to this menu than first meets the eye. Surprisingly, a great number of South-East Asian dishes, many Thai in orientation. Tom Youm gung and Yam pla Kum take pride of place. There also are a few Indonesian dishes, such as Ikan Balud, grilled baramundi with a spicy red sauce. The simple reason this exotica exists is because the head chef, Tom Nouju, is Timorese and has been in the kitchen for about seven years - now accompanied there by his sons.
Satay chicken to start with is very much crafted to suit local palates, three sticks with a sweet, brown, just spiced sauce. It is most friendly, more than authentic. An Indonesian barbecue steak dish with tamarind and hoi sin sauce takes a similar stance, generously portioned and easy to wolf down.
What to drink across such a dichotomy of dishes? Possibly one of the best and brightest golden pours of tap Coopers Pale Ale, for a start. And a couple of half-decent wines from a reasonably broad list that favours quite a few Yalumba products.
If you've won a motza in the pokies room or at the screens, lash out with a Grange or several available choices of very serious reds owner Peter Brien has collected.
A modern pub these days has to deliver something for everyone. The Alberton might not attract the gourmand brigade but there's plenty of dining pleasure to be had in a happy hotel dining atmosphere.
THE RESTAURANT
ALBERTON HOTEL
124 Port Rd, Alberton.
Phone 8447 1069.
Lunch: Noon-2pm, seven days.
Dinner: 5.30pm-8pm, Sun-Thu; until 8.30pm, Fri-Sat.
Seating: 100. Functions available. Wheelchair access and facilities.
Owner: Peter Brien.
Head chef: Tom Nouju.
THE VERDICT
THE BILL
Entrees: $6-$10.50.
Mains: $12.50-$21.50.
Desserts: $5.50.
Corkage: $7.
SUMMARY
A friendly, traditional hotel with a menu that offers classic pub meals such as an awesome mixed grill, as well as plenty of South-East Asian choices from a Timorese chef.
SCORE 12.5/20
Score guide: Below 10: Awful. 11-12: Fair. 13-14: Good. 15-16: Special. 17-18: Outstanding. 19: Brilliant. 20: Perfect.
