After a Major Revamp, a Historic Malvern Pub Returns With the First of Three New Levels

The Angel of Malvern is open to punters again after a major redevelopment. The 170-year-old pub on the corner of Glenferrie and Dandenong roads has previously traded as The Gardiner Hotel, The Railway Hotel and simply The Angel.

It’s part of Kokoda Property’s Malvern Collective, a $450 million development on the 4720-square-metre site, which the developer bought in 2017. The two towers include 205 apartments, plus a retail precinct with a grocer, barber, jeweller, cellar door, cafe and fitness studio. 

A wine bar named Flores, and cocktail and listening bar dubbed Lately, will open on levels one and two in June. For now, you can check out the ground-floor Public Bar. The design, by architects Studio McCue, balances the building’s historic features with some modern accents. On one side, a bistro-style dining room retains some of the original brickwork and floor tiles, with restored windows letting in plenty of natural light. On the other, a glass-walled atrium houses a beer garden with a woodfire heater and a cinematic 165-inch screen for the footy.

Executive chef Justin North (formerly of Sydney’s Hotel Centennial and Mister Percy) designed the menus across all three floors, with former HQ Group (Arbory, Her) chef Josh Rudd leading The Angel of Malvern kitchen.

“I think a lot of pubs can overcomplicate things,” North says. “We’re trying to go back to basics here, focus on training our staff on some overlooked techniques that seem to be fading from hospitality, and really just nail the simple counter meals you’d expect from a pub.” 

Expect vodka rigatoni, slow-cooked lamb and paprika sausage rolls, chicken schnitzel with tarragon gravy, line-caught fish with triple-fried chips, and an Angus beef burger on a milk bun. There’s also a grill menu featuring O’Connor steaks and a Bannockburn half chook with autumn greens. Desserts of ginger sticky date with Starward whisky caramel sauce and baked Basque cheesecake with roast winter fruit and vanilla cream are hard to turn down.

“The idea of pubs is that they’re for the people, not for us [hospo operators], so the menu will only ever reflect what’s simple and popular. It’s not really the place for us to get carried away and do anything over the top.”

The drinks list is concise, too. Among the tap beers is the house Angel Lager, made in collaboration with Reservoir brewers Hawkers. A short by-the-glass wine menu includes some lo-fi local drops as well as a few European options; the bottle list is more extensive, favouring Kiwi, French and Italian wines alongside the Aussie labels. There’s also a range of classic cocktails, and some house specials such as the Sweet Talk, with Naught Sangiovese Gin, ume plum, blackberry and citrus, and the Jas Hands, with Terra vodka, jasmine, peach and mango.

The bar is open late – until 3am on Friday and Saturday nights – with DJs from 9.30pm. While Public Bar, Flores and Lately are technically “three distinct venues”, North says, “we can see how a night could start in the front bar, flow into a dinner at Flores and then finish upstairs with some cocktails. It’ll be interesting to see how people utilise the entire building, because there’s something for all occasions here.”

The Angel of Malvern
641 Dandenong Road, Malvern
(03) 9964 1895

Hours
Sun to Thu 10am–1am
Fri & Sat 10am–3am

theangelofmalvern.com.au
@theangelofmalvern