Clarence’s Bar & Restaurant

We drove past it twice. We walked past it once. We google mapped walking directions on my iPhone. Then we found it.

This is Clarence’s Bar & Restaurant, a place you can so easily miss if you’re not paying attention. Clarence’s is so dimly lit at night that you could mistake it for being closed. There is a distinct Melbourne feel – flickering candles, exposed brick, stained timber, and small groups of people with glasses in hand.

Char-grilled Harvey beef, smoked potato, pancetta

It is 7:00pm and we can’t get a table. The front dining room is all but booked out, so we are left standing in the bar having a couple of beers and ciders. For half an hour we using our awesome superpowers of night vision to scope out tables in the dark. And we are in luck – a couple are licking the scraps off their plates and the sound of bar stools screech backwards on the ground. We pounce on the table like wild dogs, and mark our territory. We order more drinks, but rather than beer and cider, we go for some cocktails. I choose the Dark and Stormy ($15.00) – Captain Morgan black label rum, Massenez creme de gingembre, ginger, lime and ginger beer. My mate gets a standard Dacquiri ($15.00) – Havana club anejo blanco rum, lime & sugar. The dark and stormy is literally all alcohol, making my head dark and stormy in the process – a good drink!

Dark and Stormy

Dacquiri

We order the Char-grilled Harvey beef with smoked potato & pancetta ($28.00), Spiced lamb with saffron, chickpea & rosewater labneh ($25.00), and a Ploughmans ($32.00).

We share the plates, starting off with the Harvey beef. It is an amazing dish that is presented beautifully in three layers. A layer of smoked butter soft potatoes are spread in a row like bars on a xylophone. They soak up a drizzle here and there of rich, sweet juice from the beef on top. The beef pieces are succulent, pink, moist and juicy. They are dressed with crushed, roasted cherry tomatoes and pancetta. We are chewing like camels – the beef is so chewy and soft. It is one of the nicest I have had in a long while.

Large succulent pieces of beef lying on a bed of potatoes

The lamb dish is also as equally amazing as the previously mentioned Harvey beef – shredded slow-cooked lamb packed firmly into cakes, sitting on a bed of rosewater chickpeas, with a dollop of labneh on top – melt in your mouth stuff.

Spiced lamb, saffron, chickpea, rosewater labneh

Spiced lamb dish with a large dollop of labneh

Melt in your mouth spiced lamb cake torn apart

Last but not least we tuck into a good ol’ British Plougmans which comprises a potted duck, English cow’s milk farmyard cheddar matured over 24 months, pate, fresh fig on brioche, salami, bread, grape vinaigrette, pickled cucumber, and picallili, a relish of pickled vegetables and mustard. The potted duck is the highlight, fitting hand in hand with the crusty bread. The picallili is also good, giving our tastebuds a ride of a lifetime.

Potted duck, Quicke’s farmyard cheddar, pate, fresh fig on brioche, salami

Bread, grape vinaigrette, pickled cucumber, picallili

The food at Clarence’s is generous and unpretentious, and sits above the rest. Great venue, good prices, and excellent service. Highly recommended!

Clarence’s Bar & Restaurant
Address: 566 Beaufort Street, Mount Lawley
Tel: +61 8 9228 9474

Opening Hours:
Monday – Thursday (4:00pm – 12:00am)
Friday – Saturday (12:00pm – 12:00am)
Sunday (12:00am – 10:00pm)

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1. Jackson’s Restaurant