Hotel Carrington

Hotel Carrington is a gorgeous gastropub in the Valley offering relaxed dining and drinking with two beer gardens, a  sports bar, and a bottle shop housed in the heritage-listed Carrington Chambers. 

Perched on the corner of Wickham and Gipps Streets, The Carro is a sibling for West End's Montague Hotel. Taking over the ground floor of the historic building, including the space formerly occupied by Sabotage Social, this character-filled bar and eatery features exposed brick walls, pressed-metal ceiling, and polished floorboards with a stunning dining room, two beer gardens, and a secret laneway which leads to the bottle shop. 

The menu offers a range of Modern Australian dishes including delicious grazing plates, stone baked pizzas, and mouth-watering smoked meats. Customers can enjoy a libation or two while grazing on plates of cheesy garlic pizza bread, spicy chicken wings, Chinese-spiced calamari, and baked brie wheels served with crusty bread, and port and cranberry sauce. 

For something more substantial, there's half a dozen tasty pizzas to choose from, as well as juicy wagyu beef burgers with aged cheddar and house made relish, and karaage chicken burgers with Asian slaw and kewpie mayo on milk buns.

Otherwise, there's fresh, wholesome salads which can topped with your choice of hot smoked salmon, smoked chicken, or garlic prawns; while meat lovers can order something from the custom-built Texas smoker - think smoked lamb rump served with potato salad, crispy pork belly with harissa roasted vegetables, and barbecued beef brisket with mac n' cheese, onion rings and slaw.

Sweet tooths will be satiated with The Carro's dessert platter piled with rocky road, vanilla panna cotta, tiramisu, chocolate crumble, fairy floss and Baileys Irish cream. 

The bar is fully-licensed with craft beer on tap, imported beer, a decent wine list including 7 wines on tap, classic cocktails and signature cocktails like the Bees Knees (Tanqueray gin, fresh lemon juice, and honey gomme) and Knickerbocker (Captain Morgan rum, Cointreau, fresh lime juice, and fresh raspberries).

Alternatively, patrons can pick up a bottle of wine at the on-site bottle shop to enjoy in the rear garden bar. 

By Deb Lidster