The Squire’s Fortune

It’s a shame that birthday dinners can’t be enjoyed everyday so when an opportunity to have another free meal appeared, of course I wouldn’t say no! This time it was with a group of 11 other people for a good friend’s 30^th birthday celebration.
Hari, the birthday boy, decided to order some entrees and main to be shared around. Each food was presented really well and certainly raised our excitement to eat. It was quite unfortunate that it didn’t taste as good as it looked… The best meal of the night were fresh spinach & rocket salad that was served with orange as well as wedges with sweet chilli and sour cream. The same can be said with our desserts that looked so beautiful when it arrived, but didn’t fare with what we expected.
From the grazing menu we had a bowl of chips and wedges, meat board platter, homemade pork sausage roll, sliders, calamari. We also added rocket & spinach salad just to add a bit of a healthy dash into our dinner. For main we had sticky pork belly, lamb shoulder, wanton ravioli, beef cheeks, and catch of the day. We chose three out of four desserts from the menu which were choux pastry with coffee ice cream, peanut crunch (with peanut sorbet) and ginger orange crème brûlée.
There wasn’t much to write about service since we only had minimal interaction with staff and the most intimate engagement was when we ordered our food /​drinks at the bar. From what I noticed, none of us was asked about how the food was and if we needed our bottles of water to be topped up.
The premise was decorated really well with wooden accent walls, ropes on the ceiling, wooden tables and leather chairs. The beer was always good at James Squire especially the refreshing pear cider that never failed to entertain. However the winter menu was quite a disappointment for us.
In summary, The Squire’s Fortune is a very good place for catch up with some friends over ciders or beers (one fifty lashes anyone?) and decent food, but there are definitely a lot of better places to get good food.

We visited on a Wednesday night when the place was busy, but not full, so we had a choice of where to sit, either indoors or outside with ocean views. The venue has bar and dining tables, and stools at the bar. The décor is soft industrial with thick rope strung across the ceiling, grey floors, wood feature walls and a mural telling the success story of brewer James Squire. All his ciders and beers are on offer along with inspired pub food. We ordered a delicious prawn, chilli and capsicum pizza which went beautifully with a glass of the Langmeil ‘bella rouge’ rose. It was a nice relaxed evening with a good crowd, I’m sure I’ll be back.

Pre-​birthday dinner was the reason for attending this place, cocktail amazing, with Gin & Pear Cider as major winning ingredients. Platter for two had all the means to be the perfect platter except some of the marinades for items didn’t do the food justice. Staff were nice, food & cocktails came out in prompt time, would attempt to go back again to try other menu items :)

With the long weekend on the horizon a group of us made plans to head to Squires Fortune on Thurday night for some end of week drinks and dinner. I had been here once before for drinks but had not yet tried the food. End result was that two out of the four nights on the long weekend found me in the venue.
Squires Fortune is located in the exact same location as where the The Stamford Arms once was, and what a renovation! Gone are the beer soaked carpet floors, tired looking furnishings and sickly old alcohol stence, replaced with a stylish, crisp, clean fit out!
There are heaps of seating options inside seating, outside seating, couches, tall bar tables and long tables reminiscent of a beer hall. The bar is positioned in one corner of the venue and on some nights a DJ plays tunes.
To the food — the menu is fairly extensive and there is a good choice of grazing or bigger plates, on this night a couple of us ordered grazing and two others chose a pizza. I ordered the House Made Tortillas with Chilli Salted Cured Beef which was a great choice as they were tasty and filling enough to have as a main.
Orders are placed individually at the bar which if you are catering for large groups is a great idea, as everyone can order and pay individually. The only down side of this was that my food came super quick and I was finished by the time the other meals arrived.
I must commend the staff they are super friendly and were more then happy to help out with our many enquiries about the menu. They were fast and efficient and if you ask they allow you to taste the Squires tap beer before you buy it which is great given their now extensive range on tap. On both nights I was here there was no real wait to be served.
Pricewise $ 11.00 for a pint, $ 6.00 for a middy and around $ 9.00 for a glass of wine is pretty good these days when there are other venues a stones throw away charging relatively more. I thought the food was fairly reasonably priced for the quality and wouldn’t hesitating heading back for a meal sometime soon. As of last week they are also accepting bookings.
This is not just a bar for beer drinkers however whilst they boast a large selection of their own beer on tap they also have two Squires ciders (also on tap) and a good selection of wine and cocktails.
A great addition to the Scarborough Beachfront and I look forward to spending more time in here and trying out the rest of the menu.

Beers are great. And that’s the appeal for me. A nice option for the pubs along Scarborough foreshore. For pub food, it’s overpriced in my opinion, and phone reception is crappy, but when you have million dollar views and a beer in hand, who needs a phone. I’ll be back. Get me a 150 lashes

Great meeting place for large groups, good wine selection and plenty of beer on tap. Food was ok, pricey for what you get. We had the tortilla and steak sandwich which was ample but lacked a little flavour. Great location!

The food is really good its just way over priced. Eggs benedict? More like Egg Benedict. 1 teeny egg on a huge sour dough slice. C’mon. Gimme 2 eggs.
The hot chips are really good, hand cut and all that. Just bring the price of the food down, or give a little more, thats all.

Unsure how long they have been open? Had the steak sanger and hand cut fries, fries had been cooked for some time prior to going onto my plate and the sanger although was tasty, but only warm. Room for improvement for sure there !, pizza’s coming out look more appealing and may try one next time? Pricing at the top end also. Great selection of draft brews on tap.
Lots of staff, to the point they were looking for something to occupy there time.
Many seating options inside and out, clean restrooms and great views of the ocean.