Where - 280 Lygon St. East Brunswick

Price - $24

Website - https://www.eastbrunswickhotel.com.au

Reviewers – Adam T, Lee, Nikki, Rachel, Stefo

Back in 2015 the East Brunswick Hotel landed on our radar after a Herald Sun article named it as one of the best in Melbourne. We checked it out then (you can read about it here) and at the time we were relatively impressed. The pub was unrecognisable from the East Brunswick Hotel that once was, it’d be up there with our recent visit to Hardimans as one of the most drastic pub transformations we’ve ever seen.

The parma was pretty good! It was different to how we traditionally like our parmas here (it was hammered thin instead of giving it some thickness, shoestring fries instead of chunky chips), but it had a lot of redeeming qualities and overall it rated pretty well. It wasn’t the best in Victoria as the Herald Sun would have you believe, but as far as parmas go you could do a lot worse.

Then in a weird turn of events, not long after re-opening the East Brunswick shut up shop. The details are a little bit murky but basically one day business was booming and the next the doors were locked. After that I had written it off as another old pub that would be converted to apartments, imagine my surprise when I heard only a week or so ago that The East Brunny had, once again, re-opened her doors with new owners at the helm.

With new owners comes renovations, and while not as drastic as the initial transformation the East Brunswick underwent the new changes to the pub are more subtle, and to be honest, I think they’re for the better. The first time the pub was re-done they cranked it to eleven, the new owners have scaled things back to an eight or nine. Gone are the garish neon signs (which gave me a headache), the tiled floor has been replaced with wooden floorboards and large hardwood tables have really reinstated the cosy feeling that the last iteration was lacking.