Hybla Tavern in Albany – A Shock to the Palate

I thought I had finished writing about my Taste Great Southern trip earlier in the month, but alas something kept niggling me to write about the Hybla Tavern on Middleton Beach in Albany. It definitely surprised me, that’s safe to say!

The reason I feel I have to write about the Hybla Tavern is because during our 3-night stay in Albany, we visited this spot 3 times, yep THREE times! I planned to try more places, but something just kept us going back to the Hybla again and again.

We were staying at the lovely Castlereagh 4 self-contained apartment right next door to the Hybla which we booked through the Amazing Albany website. After the long trip down from Perth that morning, and not to mention someone wanting to stop at Gilberts Wines, Galafrey Wines and West Cape Howe Wines on the way – meant we were pretty buggered by the time we got to our accommodation.

Even though we had a boot load of wine already, we thought we’d check out one of the nearby drinking holes to help unwind further. Naturally when a pub is mere metres from your accommodation you just have to check it out which is why we landed at the Hybla.

The Setting

The tavern is located across the road from Middleton Beach and is in a gorgeous modern-day 2-storey country/farmhouse style house with white verandahs – I wish I had taken a picture of the outside, especially at night as it really is quite pretty.

Inside it’s your typical clean pub type set-up and furniture with high and low tables alongside outside seating so you can soak up the beach scenery across the road.

The Wine

So why was my palate shocked? Sorry to only divulge this information this far into the post. To be honest even though it was a pretty tavern, I was still expecting your A-typical pub wine list. You know the type of lists I mean and then your vino is served up in those typical stodgy thick wine glasses (ick!).

However, I was pleasantly surprised when I looked over the ‘Wine by the Glass’ list to find it heavily dominated by local Great Southern tipples. Yes the list isn’t big, but you don’t need to invite everyone to the party when you already have the likes of Castelli, La Violetta, Alkoomi, Duke’s and Willoughby Park!
To top it off, they use only the best when it comes to glassware – Riedel. I’m sorry to sound like an utter wine snob, but you can’t beat being served up a vino in a Riedel glass, not only does it help to show the wine to its full potential but it makes the drinker feel good in my opinion.

At the Hybla you can buy by the bottle for dining in and takeaway. The takeaway bottle prices are about $10 cheaper than the dine-in prices.

Of course alongside the wine they have all your usual alcoholic and non-alcoholic tipples. On our last evening after the amazing 3 Drops Lunch at Garrison we stopped in for our last ‘Hybla hurrah’ – of course we weren’t up for eating after that amazing lunch however a couple of espresso martini’s went down very well!

The Food

So the plan for our first night in Albany after a couple of drinks at the Hybla was to taxi into the town centre and hit up the much talked about Liberte. We did in fact have just the couple of drinks we intended to and then managed to get a very friendly cab into Albany (yep no Uber in Albany, we had to get a proper taxi and the taxi drivers are so lovely in Albany too!). We got to Liberte and we were about 2 glasses of wine in when the power went out. Totally out! We had another drink thinking it would come back up however once we finished this I thought I better check online…

The estimated time for restoration was 1am and seeing as we were absolutely famished we made the call to head back to Middleton Beach and you guessed it – we somehow ended up at the Hybla looking at their food menu. Such a shame not to eat at Liberte however we had a brilliant dinner at the Hybla – so a bit of a win-lose situation.

We loved the look of everything on the menu, so therefore we thought the best option for us would be the Melt Beef Share Board for 2, from memory is was about $50-60. The whole Melt Beef concept is really interesting, you can read more about it here. It was the onion rings and the slow cooked beef, cheese and pickle sliders that Mr. Spittoon and I still talk about and it made our decision for dinner the next night after the Albany Wine Festival very easy.

I wish I had tried more from the menu as it all looks really good! Next time we are in Albany, this will be our first stop!

The Service

This was the cherry on top. Good service really makes a business and I think at the end of the day, it was the awesome service we had each and every visit that has driven me to write this post and made us keep going back. The staff were so friendly and helpful at all times, even when we turned up after drinking wine all day – perhaps a bit worse for wear. No judgement, just good service. Haha thanks guys!

If you’re in the area, I would highly recommend stopping in for a wine and bite to eat – it’s a place that tradies who love the pub will enjoy alongside those who like a bit of wining and dining pampering. See you soon Hybla!

Address: 11 Flinders Parade, Middleton Beach WA 6330
Phone: (08) 9841 1120
Website: www.hybla.com.au
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