The Clarendon Hotel in South Melbourne lands Michelin-trained chef - Eat Out

Sep 04, 2024

The boy from Melbourne has come home with a few tricks up his sleeve.

Melbourne’s historic Hotel Clarendon (formerly known as the Albion) has lived many lives since its 1858 construction and has now entered its most exciting era yet – taking “gastro pub” to new heights with a Melbourne-born, Michelin star chef at the helm.

Ryan Spurrell is drawing on his nearly 20 years of experience in restaurants like Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck, three-Michelin-starred The Ledbury, and more recently eating his way around South East Asia to curate an Asian-inspired pub menu with fine-dining credentials.

But if you’re expecting dry-ice and Wonka-esque alchemy, think again. For Spurrell, the most important aspect to his new journey is to make his high-end training more accessible, and to make his guests happy.

The interior of the Clarendon Hotel with white lantern lights, tall palms and large arched windows

Spurrell tells delicious. “For me, it is about making sure the dishes taste good. You go to your local pub, and you know what you’re going to get, and you’re just happy if it tastes good. That’s sort of what we want to bring to the local pub with good food and a good price point.

“This is why I became a chef. I want to be hospitable, cook for people, and make sure people are having a good time. I derive my enjoyment of cooking when the customer is actually enjoying their meals.”

At the newly refurbished Clarendon, history and contemporary gastronomy intertwine, inviting patrons to enjoy a menu that celebrates travel, history, and a bold, flavourful future. The Clarendon’s transformation nods to the building’s past on its Victorian exterior however the inside fit-out is barely recognisable thanks to a series of makeovers in its 160 years.

Steak tartare and crackers on a table at the Clarendon Hotel

Instead of fighting the tide, the hotel’s owners – Tiffy Group – lean into the opportunity to create something new, an elegant, airy and subtle fitout with accents from the broader Asian continent. Paper lanterns give a diffused glow to the dining space. Gold-flecked Chinese fans adorn the walls. Bentwood chairs and imposing lush palms nod toward pre-war Shanghai opulence.

The design reflects the eclectic but cohesive menu where starters of tofu and black bean cabbage rolls sit side by side with charred Kangaroo tartare, rice crackers, and togarashi. A Vadouvan sauce, also known as “French curry” is served with spicy baked cauliflower and raita, showcasing Spurrell’s European training and South East Asian enamorment. And it wouldn’t be a pub menu without a Humpty Doo barramundi dish, served here with banana curry made with love and patience in-house.

A whole fried barramundi with yellow curry sauce at the Clarendon Hotel

“I don’t buy in a lot of things. We make all of our own sauces, cures, marinades. Onions don’t cost a lot, and they’re one of the main components in a curry. The labour is a little bit higher for the restaurant, but the flavour you get out of it is a whole other level, and it allows you to keep your prices lower because you are making it from scratch.”

While the focus at Hotel Clarendon is to be a restaurant first, the team always save space for locals keen on an after-work drink at the South Melbourne pub. Just as they have done for over a century.

Find Hotel Clarendon at 2/209 Clarendon St, South Melbourne. For more details head to the Hotel Clarendon website.