Schmick makeover for RMIT pub Oxford Scholar

Former RMIT students will remember the Oxford Scholar for its $1.50 pots and cheap parmas — it’s a far cry from the $24 jugs of beer and poke bowls on offer now. But one thing remains the same: the chips are still damn good, writes Dan Stock.

The poke bowl is the go to dish of the Oxford Scholar.

For the engineers, it was The Clyde. For future medicos, it was Hawks star Johnny Platten’s PAs, but for me, it was Naughtons on Royal Parade where many a macroeconomics lecture lost out to pots and pool and a packet of Stuyvos.

But it doesn’t matter which one it is — student pubs always smell like chips.

And the schmickly renovated Oxford Scholar — one of Melbourne’s oldest pubs and the longstanding hub for RMIT’s students and their lecturers — is no different.

It looks every bit a modern Melbourne pub with brushed concrete, blond wood and brass, with loads of different areas to pull up a pew, including amphitheatre-style seating that faces sport on screens out the back.

Bigger is not always better: the beef short rib burger

But it’s the scent of crunchy-fried carbs in the air that draws staff and students alike to the bar where $24 jugs of Carlton join an easy-pleasing line-up of locals, with interest that includes a Mack Daddy dark ale from Moon Dog ($6.50 a pot) and a scotch ale from Keilor Park’s Fury and Sons ($7).

Wines, too, are a short, thoughtful selection that traverse first-time savvy-B sippers (Mitchelton, $10 glass) to those with tenure. Although if I were a professor about to drop $170 on a bottle of Leeuwin Art Series chardonnay, I’d want to know the vintage.

Bright and buzzy staff behind the bar take orders for food from an itinerant menu that ticks off snacks — pork spring rolls with nam jim ($11.50), kataifi-wrapped prawns on pesto yoghurt ($14.50), and beef burritos ($16) — through to sticky date pudding ($12) to finish.

The kataifi prawns bring something a little bit fancy to the table.

Haloumi fries — chewy, salty cheese fingers — are a good idea but needed better batter to hold the crunch, while the housemade babaganoush ($11.50) is an unassumingly mild version of the species.

Of course there’s a plate-hugging parma ($24.50) topped with grill-golden cheese and a selection of burgers, though the cola-braised beef tried was a classic case of the chef not trying their creation.

While the short rib ($22) served on the bone is a novel idea, the thick puck of meat is far too big for the bun it’s served with and makes eating it as a burger impossible, especially with the added onion rings inside. A midterm fail.

I know a $30K HECS debt focuses the mind on first-class honours rather than pub crawls, but along with students sipping softies this lunch, burgers costing 20 bucks and more are another sobering reminder that things have changed a lot since my uni days.

Classics like the parma also make an appearance on the menu.

None more so than the surprising healthy hit on the menu — a poke bowl ($18) that’s a perky rainbow of crunchy veg, including purple cauliflower, blackened broccoli and pickled carrot, teamed with soy-seasoned salmon on supple soba noodles.

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And what about those chips?

They’re pretty darn good. Fluffy and crunchy beer-battered beauties, because no matter how things change, some pleasures remain the same.

OXFORD SCHOLAR

427 Swanston St, city

theoxfordscholar.com.au

Ph: 9964 6976

Open: Mon-Fri from 8am; Sat-Sun from noon

Go-to dish: poke bowl