The Last Jar: 616 Elizabeth Street Melbourne

Going to the Last Jar is like stepping back in time. Walking through that door I had thoughts of Outlander and the inhabitants of Melbourne 100+ years ago. The venue really took me away from the present as the building is a simplistically beautiful relic of the past, with unadorned walls, hard wood floors and antique fittings.

The food matches the surroundings. The Irish-Gaelic menu requires a bit of google translate action but the unfamiliar titles contribute to the feeling that you are being transported to another era. It helps that they bake the bread, churn the butter, smoke the fish and make the sausages themselves.

A group of eight of us had a Wednesday night dinner at the Last Jar. We covered quite a bit of the menu and nearly all of it was top notch, humble, farm house style food.

According to my fellow diners, the steak was beautiful, very well cooked and able to be enjoyed without sauce or gravy. The fish and chips with mushy peas and home made tartare sauce was exactly what you would want. The pot of mussels with cider, cream, dill and parsley was a lovely soup that managed to be well balanced, not too creamy and quite flavoursome. The whiskey cured salmon, cream cheese and herb salad was disappointing as it was more like a plate of fixings for a sandwich than a salad (it was served with bread) but from the specials menu the croquettes were a standout and a highlight of the meal (apparently - with egg, dairy and seafood a plenty I did not try these dishes).

I ordered the pickled fennel, kale, heirloom tomato and black barley salad (without the yoghurt), along with the battered sausage (how could I not really?). The battered sausage was a little bit of a let down. It didn't taste like anything and on the last bite I noticed it was pink in the middle, which you really don't want from a sausage. The salad however was brilliant. With barley and kale I expected it to be heavy but it was surprisingly light and filling at the same time. I haven't had anything like it before and I would probably fail trying to recreate it at home (can the chef just move in with Senor Gringo and I?). Overall, the Last Jar is a lovely, homely Irish pub, with not a bogan or bar fight in sight ;) Two ticks. Well done folks.