The Central Hotel - Beaconsfield Upper

I've been to this place a couple to times and honestly I tend to pretty much avoid it.

This is one of my all time favorite pubs, with easily the best service i have had at any pub..i really recommend that you look past the blokey pub image and

The Texas Parma is delish, fantastic place run by fantastic people. Highly recommended.

We live in the area and haven't been to The Central Hotel well before having kids. Even back then it was a pretty average tired looking hotel. As we have found the Cardi hotel has got very expensive and the food quality hasn't been matching the price hike since its revamp we thought we'd try The Central hotel at Beaconsfield. Entrance is at back of hotel through either two doors flanked by security personnel - this is at 7pm on a Friday night. We go through an area that looks like the dance area due to the equipment setup and a bar - quite empty at that time of night. We could see the public bar area through a door next to the bar but had trouble finding the bistro which was off to the left. The bistro lacked atmosphere. Laminated tables that have some of the laminate come off on their sides. We are directed to a two seater table - table was wobbly - had to put a couple of serviettes under it. Given a laminated menu - basically american style burgers, with some classics - parma, steak. Not a great choice to choose from. My husband got a steak - asked for medium rare - was more rare and didn't look like a nice piece of meat - pretty average. He had some sort of anaemic cucumber as part of the vegetables which he wasn't game to touch or eat. Chips were pretty crappy looking and didn't taste much better. I had a "Fresh" burger with bacon and chips. The burger didn't turn up with bacon - had to ask where was it - it turned up quickly. Had american plastic bright yellow cheese on it with gerkins - it was dripping liquid everywhere - not all that easy to eat. The chips weren't much better than my husband's - weren't cooked all that nice. I will say the food did turn up quickly though. It took awhile for our second round of drinks to turn up and when they did the girl got mine wrong. Strike two. She appearred to be more focused on chatting to the young guys who came up to the bar than getting our drinks out to us quickly. The hotel is more for the young crowd who are looking for a local cheap place to hang out in. There were alot of people outside in the beer garden even for a cold night - warmer inside. I thought the owners were the same as those that bought the Cardinia (Cardi) hotel so we thought they may have spruced up that place as well - not the case. What is happening to all the pubs these days - the good ol' country pubs seemed to be a dying breed.

Four of us went there for dinner. What a mistake. The menu had more of what wasn't available than was. The floor needs restumping to. Every time someone walked past our table our chairs shook. Wonderful!. We left there after one drink and went to another establishment which had a full menu, solid floors and a pleasant atmosphere. Would not recommend the Central and won't be back again.