Match Bar & Grill

249 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Phone 03 9564 6522

Bars with manifestos. Hmm…I don’t know whether to wince or to whoop in excitement as it toes that very fine line of pretentious gitdom.  The manifesto at this particular bar is that it has a strict no pints, no alcopops, no energy drinks and no chart tunes policy, which ever so delicately excludes a younger more pisspot set. The no sky sports, no quiz nights and no pork scratchings gets rid of the others.  This is Match Bar and Grill, a hip venue with a mission to “fix great drinks for a mixed crowd of grown-ups who appreciated the difference.”

And I must confess, appreciate it I do.

My first visit was for a casual Friday lunch, my second, dinner the following night. Why? Well it’s just ever so cool to sit on the balcony overlooking the State Library, good food in one hand and good drink in the other. The service (despite the proliferation of British accents) is friendly, professional and slick, and the whole feel of the place is relaxed and cruisey.

I went the steak ciabatta ($18), and as you can see, this was one mean steak sanga. Inside the dense crusty ciabatta lay tender slices of beef, topped wth caramalised onions, a perky horseradish cream and peppery rocket.  Hand cut chips (drool) sat to the side, sitting proud with their skins still intact.

Dan went the ol ‘pub grub favourite – Bangers & Mash ($18). Two juicy Andrew’s Choice pork sausages sat beside piped buttery mash. It was drizzled with a light onion gravy that was delightfully free from thickening agents.

On Saturday, I chose the Chicken schnitzel ($22) topped with a lemony red cabbage slaw, toasted pine nuts, raisins and cress. As you can see, freshness and excellent produce is the de rigueur here.  Dan went the garlicky/lemony/chilli crab linguine, but somehow I forgot to take a photo! (I think I was just really excited by my schnitzel!)

Foyer entrance of Match Bar & Grill

The other unique drawcard of Match is the DIY wine service.  Uh huh…charge up a card and enter the wine tunnel and have fun with the enomatic wine samplers that have been designed to store, preserve and serve wine at its best.  Starting from 30ml shots up to a full glass, you can sample a unique range of wine from the rather special 1992 Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz ($40 for 30mls) to the 2006 Innocent Bystander Sangiovese Merlot ($2.50 for 30mls). Full glasses range from anywhere between $8 to $180 (uh huh, the Henschke again).

They also do some rather good cocktails and mixes, and beer is restricted to a choice of three brands, bottles only. If you dine in, the cucumber-infused table water is an absolute winner, making me craving a No.1 cup of Pimms.

I’m sure I’ll be back, and soon.