Wayside Inn

The owners of Footscray's Station Hotel have tweaked a winning formula to bring accessible pub-style dining to the south. The Wayside offers a pleasing experience at fair prices; the setting is a 1915 hotel that's been brightened and shined but not at the expense of its corner-pub soul. Hard surfaces cause clatter but tables are well spaced and there's a semi-secluded mezzanine. A good-value 'fruits de mer' list and a handsome red rotisserie in the open kitchen point to the edible highlights. The skewered, slowly roasted meats are succulent and intensely flavoured, whether it's beef rib and bearnaise for two, or other meats (venison, organic lamb, Boer goat, suckling pig, Aylesbury duck, Glenloth chicken) that appear according to a daily roster. There's a fine selection of grass- and grain-fed steak and pride taken in consummate chips. Chef Donovan has his classical techniques down pat so look out for such dishes as pork terrine, chicken liver parfait and chocolate marquise, all of which have their wits about them.