Vale Hotel - City of Knox

The middle of winter on a Monday night would be one of the most unlikely times to find lots of diners out in Melbourne and so it was at the Vale Hotel with only about 20 seats occupied in a 250 seat bistro.However the tables were stable, the chairs comfortable, the floor to ceiling windows extremely clean and the rich reddy-brown carept (which looked great) spotless as was the bar area.Peter (an Asian gent in his late 20s I'd guess) was very hospitable and took our orders which with a Monty's Rewards card led to savings of 20 per cent on Monday nights, meaning three meals for under A$60.Colleague Jess was unsmiling and could learn much from Peter. She wasn't narky, but could have at least allowed a hint of friendliness to emerge. In contrast, Peter cleaned the tables diligently and really looked like he cared (because he probably does.) My companions had a porterhouse that the recipient wanted cooked rarer than what arrived, but it was still tender and acceptable, while the other had a parmigiana that she enjoyed.I had a huge Fisherman's platter that had a couple of battered scallops, three battered prawns, a huge piece of delcious fish, a copious quantity of steak-like thick cut chips and a reasonable amount of fresh salad.We accompanied this with lemon lime and bitters and Carlton Dry (beer) from the tap, all good.The venue's music was a bit loud but the pokies players kept to themselves.There is a generous amount of parking on site.Once again our meal showed what good value these Woolworths/ ALH Group hotels are, although I'd have preferred the music to be less intrusive and perhaps the portion sizes could be slightly smaller. Having said that, some tradesmen types would wolf them down so they might then complain that dishes were insufficient in size.Nonetheless The Vale is a very good venue during the depths of mid winter and probably much nicer when the weather is good and sunshine appears.

Main meals ok. Desserts OMG the Cheese cake was aweful and the Banana fritter was terrible. Please do not deep fry deserts in the same oil as fish etc.

Hubbie and I have been to the Vale Hotel a few times and have never been disappointed. After the last couple of visits we feel they go above and beyond! I actually wish I had taken a photo of our plates today as they were amazing!!! Everything was scrummy and service was A1!!! Is it any wonder we keep going back. Yummy, yummy!

Regularly go here for lunch and I enjoy the food selections from the lunch menu. The seniors menu is good value and the service is usually quick. Nice relaxed atmosphere in the dining room.

Went to this combined pub, poke and restaurant, for dinner on a Saturday night was okay is the usual standard pub fare. There were three of us in a sparsely populated restaurant (20 diners) we ordered an entree of garlic bread and three mains a chicken parmigiana, a spaghetti carbonara and salt and pepper calamari.The entree took 25 minutes to arrive by which time we all had been wondering if we were going to get anything at all as a number of other diners arrived after we had ordered and already had their entrees and mains before we got ours. The bread was hot and tasty enough now time warp another 20 or so minutes and one of our mains arrived then over the next five minutes the next two finally got to the table.The meals were on par with bar food, nothing special the only stand out was the salad dressing and salad everyone agreed it was very tasty and not the prepackaged salad that most pubs use, but it could have done with more than one piece of tomato in each salad.The Parma was the extra large steroid looking chicken breast and a very sub par Parma was the comment. The carbonara was given a slightly average rating and as it came without mushroom in the sauce the consumer advised it was very nice except the dish was smothered in shaved Parmesan cheese. The salt and pepper calamari was given a very tasty rating and there were a few prawns in the dish as well and while not as hot as it should have been it wasn't rubbery like it so often is when it is cooked by pub cooks.