The Imperial South Yarra

Nice vibe for afternoon drinks. Good selection of wines and spirits and food menu for some nibbles with drinks. Would be great to have more light inside the venue though.

The Imperial on Chapel Street, South Yarra has been one of those bars that I probably walked passed everyday, but never ventured in. This all changed the Monday before Christmas as a venue to have lunch before heading to the Jam Factory to watch Star Wars The Force Awakens.
We all arrived and took claim to a prime table outside on Chapel Street. We headed to the bar to look at the menu. The menu was your typical pub style menu, which really caters to most people. Lucky for us it was $ 15 Rump Day, and with that information I was hooked.
I ordered my Rump medium rare with pepper sauce. To be honest I was really looking forward to a good steak, and I was really hoping this was a good choice. A simple dish, but all too often restaurants get it so wrong. So with beer in hand we headed back to our table and waited for our meals.
The wait wasn’t long and my rump steak was delivered. It looked amazing, a good size piece of meat with a good serving of beer battered chips and a salad. With my utensils unwrapped I was ready to take my first bite. It didn’t disappoint. The meat was cooked perfectly and was seasoned just right. The pepper sauce was right on mark, and was a perfect marriage to both the steak and the chips.
Overall if you are looking for a great steak with a even greater price, then head down to the Imperial. I’m looking forward to returning to experience the rest of the menu.

Strolling down Chapel St., I noticed their sign on the footpath: $ 15 Main Meals on Tuesdays. Keeping a mental note, I thought I might stop by on the way back from shopping. There were other places that looked alright further down the street, but I kept thinking about that $ 15 deal. If I were to purchase a small snack somewhere else, it would come pretty close to the $ 15 deal advertised by the Imperial. I resorted to try it out. At around 6pm, there were only a handful of people that were dining. I didn’t mind. It was nice to sit a table near a fireplace and watch passersby outside. Ordering the most expensive main, the Rump Steak and Chips ($ 24…Well, $ 15 today ;)), I set to satisfy my steak cravings. (Lately, I’d been staying with my vegetarian friends and needed to get my meat fix somewhere!) The steak was alright, but the french fries stood out. I’m not sure what kind of spices they coated the fries. It was salty, tangy, and crispy at the same time– Delicious, in my opinion, and one of the better fries that I’ve had in a while. It was a decent sized meal that I could not finish it in one seating. I asked one of the staff members if I could get a take-​away container. Instead, he took my plate and packed up everything for me! How nice of him!
I like this place; It seems like a good location to catch up with some friends over drinks. :)

Wow it’s been a lot of years since I went to the imperial but here it is still standing! Quite a bit of outdoor seating which is always a plus. And happy hour till 7pm with $ 7 drinks the night I went — bargain! We also has some dinner here — a superfood salad to share and a good sized serving of chicken skewers in a nice spicy peanut sauce. There isn’t a lot around this part of south yarra in terms of bars so this is a good one!

Great spot for outdoor drinks and getting to know some beautiful local ladies. They have a great beer list and my mates enjoyed a solid espresso martini.

I first (re)discovered the imperial after a couple of month stint where I had been craving excellent chips, only to be consistently let down. On the very first bite my taste buds proclaimed: «Yes! These are the deep fried potato sticks of goodness we have been seeking all these days!»
The problem is, when you enjoy something rather more than you should, you take away a crippling fear that your expectations are now too high, and any return could only shatter your hopes and dreams. Not so here. Returned last night for $ 15 Tuesday (all mains) and had a 250g rump steak with chips and salad. Chips did still live up to the expectation. Steak was medium-​well when I had asked for rare, but I couldn’t be bothered to say anything for $ 15. It still tasted pretty decent. Happy hour drinks also runs 5−7pm so all up you can have a decent sized meal and wine/​beer for $ 22.
A great place for a casual after work drink or a classic pub meal.

Friday night first time I’d say definitely a place to start not finish. Pub style beer on tap and shot a before you head out for a big night chapel.

This was a very handy little stop for me after a loooong Friday at work and waiting for an event to kick off.
Friday sees a happy hour with $ 1 oysters, which looks fairly popular.
The only thing that I found a little funny was the configuration of the bar — super squished into tables so timing your bar visits may be key.
But it did the job for me — mission accomplished — relax and let some of the Friday tension go with a sneaky drink.

Good bar, good ambiance, certainly busy on Fridays! After work, happy hour place. The music was also good.

Great atmosphere, good quality food, slightly over prices drinks.
I have walked past the Imperial a number of times and have seen the crowds out the front, but for some reason never ventured in. This time my girlfriends decided it was time to test the waters, being a Tuesday night the hotel was offering a 12 for 12, this was 12 meals for only $ 12. We sampled quite a few meals between us, tuna salad, tomato and mozzarella gnocchi, chicken caeser and chicken parma. The tuna salad came out more than 20 minutes before the rest of our meals, not really a problem for us as we had already devoured 2 bottles of house Savvy B. Once we had all received our meals we tucked in and were very satisfied with the serving and quality. I found the drinks to be over priced, we had originally considered sharing jugs of beer, but even pots were way too expensive. Deciding to settle on a few bottles of white the cheapest was a local Savignon Blanc priced at $ 35, needless to say we polished off 3! Not the for drinking, but a good venue for outdoor seating and affordable midweek meals.