The Station Hotel

The Station announces its raison d'atre before you actually arrive with a tantalising waft of charcoal grill that leaks out on to the street. Steak is the focus at this modern pub with pared-back decor. The crowd is a mix of local families, couples and groups; and 'crowd' they do - bookings for the smart (but loud) dining room are essential. Start, perhaps, with a rich, earthy chicken-liver parfait or octopus carpaccio crowned with a deep-fried Moreton Bay bug-tail. Then, that much-vaunted steak; perhaps a 500g Gippsland rib-eye, expertly charred and rested, with salad and seriously good, twice-cooked chips. The ample skill of the kitchen shows up in a pig's trotter braised into gelatinous glory, boned and wrapped around a mousse of chicken, morels and veal sweetbreads and finished with a wild mushroom sauce. Old-school desserts, like a velvety creme caramel with soused strawberries, are flawlessly executed, like the service from warm, well-drilled staff.