The Flying Duck Hotel

Overview

The Flying Duck Hotel's famed beer garden and atrium have been given a new lease on life with an extensive makeover, now complemented by a modern public bar, an open-plan main dining space and a private dining room seating up to 40.

The latest incarnation of the much-loved backstreet Prahran pub comes courtesy of the same crew behind Rustica and Hobsons Bay Hotel, with a fresh fit-out from local architect firm Fiona Drago. The 150-plus-year-old building's internal space has been completely opened up and re-energised with earthy hues, brass accents and a generous splash of olive green.

Head Chef Ben Pigott (Hobsons Bay Hotel, Supernormal, Cumulus Inc) is behind the revamped gastropub's menu offering, heroing brasserie-style fare brought to life via the kitchen's wood grill. Wood-fired flatbread is matched with black garlic toum and smoked salmon caviar ($14), wood-grilled Shark Bay scallops are elevated with herb butter ($8), and smoky hose-made aioli graces a prawn po boy slider ($12).

You'll find many nods to the classic counter meal in plates like the local fish and chips ($27), a cheeseburger ($24) and the dukkah-roasted cauliflower steak with smoked hummus ($22). Deeper in, wood-fired barramundi is paired with warrigal greens and a seaweed butter sauce ($38); a slow-cooked whole lamb shoulder feeds three or four people for $110; and there's a couple of hefty grass-fed options for the steak-lovers.

A stack of weekly specials runs from a weekday happy hour slinging $7 schooners and $8 wines (4–6pm), to Monday's $25 steak night, to half-priced oysters and prosecco bumping up the mood each Thursday.

Find The Flying Duck Hotel at 67 Bendigo Street, Prahran. It's open daily from 12pm–late.

Images: Parker Blain