Grand Hotel Ph: 9429 2530 ; 335 Burnley St, RICHMOND 3121 www.grandrichmond.com.au Pub, $$ -, ** for Food Open 7 days noon 2.30 6-9.30pm; Licensed; AE DC MC V EFT Chef Leonardo Gelsomino & Valerio Nucci (10-1-10) Owner Ros Harvey, Valerio Nucci, Barnie Bouchaud, Leonardo Gelsomino & David Yuncken (10-1-10)

Mietta's Review

In mid 2007 the Hotel was put on the market.

Valerio Nuce and Epicure Catering took over this local and converted into an Italian gastro-pub with Leonardo Gelsomino as chef. The menu is limited but the food is excellent and the price, for the quality, very fair. But, the room is a rather tacky mess and the waiting staff demonstrate have perfected 'the waiter's eye', i.e. one can never catch. Perhaps no bad thing given the intense irritation that contact with them engenders. So drink up (the wine list is fair) and console yourself with the first class food.

Other published opinions

The Age Cheap Eats 2010 Score: *** "food Loud and lively, the Grand gets packed to the hilt with an inner-city crowd who are right at home in the cosy red booths, deco-inspired decor and Backyard Blitz-style beer garden"

Age Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 14.5/20 "Let's not put too fine a point on it - The Grand is a pub. Certainly, it's a posh pub, with heavy drapes, thick carpet and an Italian menu that trumps many of its peers"

Gourmet Traveller 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide "In a dining scene thick with shared plates and molecular gastronomy, the no-nonsense Italian cooking at this pub dining room can seem almost radical. The Grand feels like the kind of oldschool place where lunch could end at dinnertime (luckily, the room's thick carpet and linen tablecloths help keep the noise levels in check)"

Herald Sun Zoe Skewes, 17-10-09 "Top-notch pubgrub venue with a courtyard that should be high on your list for Friday-night drinks - once the rain clears."

Herald Sun 3-10-09 "This renowned gastro-pub has hearty Italian flavour"

The Age Cheap Eats 2009 "While not quite a grand dame of the city's food scene yet, this one-time back-block boozer gets considerable raps for its modItalian gastropub fare"

Herald Sun Stephen Downes, 10-03-09 "Would I go back? ? Without hesitation It's coming up to five years since The Grand's dining room opened. It delivered then - and does now the best-priced fine Italian eating in Melbourne. This is Latin tucker as good as it gets Try to find its equivalent in Rome Produce is superb, dishes are simple, the cooking is uniformly, precise and the culinary results are sublime. Expert service and a great ambience complete the package. "

Herald Sun Stephen Downes, 24-03-09 "The Grand's traditional Italian food is Melbourne's best. Need I say more? It's refined, it's elegant, it's tasty and it's composed from premium ingredients"

Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 15.5/20 "Despite mottled designer walls and the shell of a Victorian-era pub, The Grand remains close to being our most authentic osteria. Yes, there's beer on tap. So, too, are there seldom-seen pasta dishes (say, pizzoccheri and vincisgrassi, or the sublime breaded maltagliati tossed with prawns)"

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * "Valerio Nucci Lasagne - vincisgrassi - made with offal; whole calamari chargrilled, sliced and served with capers, parsley, lemon and olive oil; pork-stuffed roast rabbit leg served with risotto Milanese"

Herald Sun Extra Food, 19-08-08 Score: **** "This renowned gastro-pub has hearty Italian flavour and regulars return for homemade pasta, simple seafood or the kitchen's signature vincisgrassi, a traditional lasagne from central Italy"

The Age Cheap Eats 2008 "From rags to riches, the revamped Grand is the grand-daddy of gastropubs. Chefs dish up acclaimed mod-Italian food in the dining room and cheap eaters reap the spoils with a topnotch bar meal from the same kitchen"

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 15/20, One Hat "The Grand is all about simplicity, elevated. It's about having the confidence to serve a piece of fish - the best available - grilled, anointed with extra virgin olive oil and partnered with a salad selected with obsessive care"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "A restaurant with culinary bravado, The Grand is another example of what happens when you transplant an old pub's Aussie heart with an Italian model"

The Age Cheap Eats 2007 "It looks like the gastropub is here to stay. Crowds are still lining up for silver service in classic drinking dens, and are paying top dollar for it."

The Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 15/20 It's a classic Australian pub in one of Richmond's less-gentrified pockets. Yet the kitchen beats with an Italian heart. From it come beautifully finessed dishes that consistently deliver clarity of flavour. Decision-making is the only downside of dining in the Grand's restaurant, which you enter via the bar""

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide Best pub dining "It's Italy that suffuses the smart dining room at Richmond's The Grand where co-owner Valerio Nucci keeps a chefs eye on things. We love the vincisgrassi."

The Age (melbourne) Magazine May 05 Gastro Pubs John Lethlean "Valerio Nucci, an Italian chef of renown and Venetian origins, and his partners refurbished the dining room molto stylishly, and introduced a simple, interesting menu."

The Age Good Food Guide 2005 score 14/20 "DESPITE its concentration of cafes, Richmond has few places where you would actually want to dine, making the relaunch of the Grand as a pub with a pleasant little ristorante all the more welcome. Part-owned by a renowned Italian chef, Valerio Nucci, the Grand's dining room has been spruced up to create a comfortable, contemporary space"

Herald Sun CityStyle Best of Melbourne 04 Best new-style pub "The Dining Room sticks to the old pub plan with well-priced, generously portioned food, but goes a step further by dishing up seriously good Italian tucker. The dimly lit bar is becoming a destination in itself."

Herald Sun, Weekend, 15/5/04, Bob Hart,'This place,at first glance, may look to be just another perfectly surburban pub...But you will discover that all is not as it seems when you call,last-minute,for a table and detect a polite chuckle at the other end.Sorry,fully booked...some very special things being prepared in this place.'

The Age, Epicure, 13/4/04,Kirsty Wilcox,'Was Richmond's best kept secret!Funky bar and sublime Italian style food in the recently renovated restaurant.Pasta made fresh daily-lasagna to die for.'

The Age, A2, 13/3/04, Melinda Houston,'as well as the familar, comfortable front bar and courtyard, there's a beautfully revamped dining room that not only takes full advantage of the traditional airy architecture but it is turing out very classy Italian home cooking.'

The Age, Epicure, 10/2/04, John Lethlean, Score 15/20,'For lovers of simple but more Italian food, a place to visit frequently.'

Herald Sun, Sunday Magazine, 1/2/04, Lyall Corless, Score 8.5/10,' First-class food at moderate prices.'

Herald Sun, Citystyle, 20/1/04, Stephen Downes, Score 18/20,'perhaps the finest pub eating we've seen in Melbourne.The food is resolutely Itailan, simple and of the great domestic tradition...Limited but well-priced wine list'