The Red Brick Hotel, Woolloongabba

Last Thursday I found myself craving a pub style meal.  In particular, I was desiring a hamburger.  I recalled that I used to enjoy the Red Brick Hotel's hamburgers so I went online and found a menu that contained hamburgers that looked appealing.  That cinched it:  I was going to the Red Brick Hotel for lunch for the first time in years.  When I got to the hotel (which is no longer red bricked by the way) I discovered that there was a discrepancy between the online menu I found and the menu that was there on that day.  Unfortunately, the hamburgers on offer were not what I was hoping for, so I settled for fish and chips instead.  The first point about the Red Brick Hotel's fish and chips that I would like to make is that instead of coming with a set salad, one has a choice of salads.  This impressed me.  For the first time I can recall, I had the option of having a Caesar salad with my fish and chips:  Caesar salad being one of few salads that I actually enjoy eating.  So my dish arrived:  Caesar salad, three pieces of battered flathead, some standard-looking chips, and aioli.  The Caesar salad looked to be underseasoned, but when I tasted it, I found that this was not the case.  The salad did not contain any egg, which I usually like, but because the salad was just a side dish, this was only a minor issue.  The chips were fine.  In recent years, many traditional Australian pubs have gone to great lengths in improving the quality of their chips.  Apparently, the Red Brick Hotel has not followed this trend.  Having said that, even standard pub chips are alright in my books.  The flathead was quite good:  nice, crunchy batter, cooked well, and tasty.  The only drawback was the aioli.  It was somewhat lacking in flavour, and left a subtle, yet slightly unpleasant aftertaste.  It was by no means bad, but was not as good an enhancer of flavour as salt alone.  So after the first couple of tastes, I relied solely on salt for seasoning.  In conclusion, I was in the mood for a pub style meal, and that's exactly what I got.