The Melbourne Hotel, South Brisbane

Three Sundays ago, I had accomplished all that I needed to do for the day by around lunch time.  I felt like fish and chips, but the mainstay local fish and chip shop, George's Seafood had recently gone out of business.  I reasoned that if I went to a local pub, such as the Melbourne Hotel, I could get a fish and chip lunch special.  I was right.  On Sundays, the Melbourne Hotel has a lunch special consisting of flathead, chips, salad, and a beer for a very reasonable price.  I was sold.  I ordered this special.  They gave me my beer and I sat down to wait for my meal.  The beer was of the low-carb variety, which I usually avoid, but as it was what came with the meal and was in fact beer, I drank it anyway.  When my meal arrived, I more or less got what I was expecting.  The pieces of flathead were perhaps the thinnest I have ever encountered.  I know that flathead is a thin cut of fish, but these were particularly thin.  However, there were three of them, so it wasn't really a problem.  Thin cuts of fish aside, this was your standard pub fish and chips.  The fish was coated in a crunchy batter; not even close to too soggy.  This suited me fine.  The chips were run-of-the-mill, but I wasn't expecting anything more than that, and even run-of-the-mill chips are fine by me.  The meal came with aioli, which was also standard, but at least it wasn't too "garlicky".  The salad was not worth remarking on because I didn't touch it.  In conclusion, this was the sort of fish and chips one would expect to get from a pub such as the Melbourne Hotel, and if you like pub fish and chips as I do, it was good value for money (as far as Brisbane prices go).