Napier Hotel
Kangaroo is Australia's original protein, eaten on this continent for tens of thousands of years, and it's still hard to find cooked well because it's so lean that most kitchens run it to gray. The Napier is where Damiano, a Melbourne friend, sends people to eat it.
Why go
The parma is Melbourne's argument dish, chicken crumbed under napoli and cheese, eaten in a pub with a pot beside it, and Urban List puts the Napier's among the city's best. Then the kitchen runs the version that only makes sense here, swapping the chicken for kangaroo. An 1866 corner pub in Fitzroy with no pokies and an artist-run room upstairs. It pours 15 taps of independent brewers, including Wolf of the Willows, Hargreaves Hill and Sailors Grave, and lists almost only Australian wine. The kitchen has built its reputation on kangaroo, a meat most pubs treat as a novelty and this one cooks with intent.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the kangaroo, rare. Jeff's order is the steak frites with béarnaise. Broadsheet's long-running pick is the roo parma, built with thick slices of smoked and peppered kangaroo loin over shoestring fries and a garden salad. The Bogan Burger feeds two, and there's plenty on the independent taps to drink.
- Avoid: taking the roo past rare. Lean and iron-heavy, it dries out and turns gamey when cooked through, which is how most people first meet kangaroo and decide they don't like it.
What locals & experts say
- Broadsheet: calls the roo parma
a staple of the menu for years,
rates the pub's 15 independent taps andalmost entirely Australian
wine list, and noteslocals get misty-eyed when you mention the Napier.
1 - Concrete Playground: flags the kangaroo dishes and sums the pub up as
like a big, warm, friendly Fitzroy hug.
2 - Time Out: an 1866 pub with
no gaming machines
and an artist-run space upstairs.3 - Urban List: names the Napier in its best-parmas-in-Melbourne guide,
some of the best pub food you'll find on the north side,
built onlayers of cheese, napoli, ham and perfectly-crumbed chicken.
4 - Local rec: Damiano, a Melbourne friend, sends people here specifically for the kangaroo.
Good to know
- Timing: open 7 days, food from lunch to dinner, later Friday to Sunday.
- Booking: worth it for groups on 03 9419 4240. Walk in off-peak.
- Near MCEC: no, about 6km in Fitzroy, 20 minutes by tram or rideshare.
- Not the same place: Napier Quarter, a cafe and wine bar several chefs recommend, is a separate business on the same street. This entry is the pub at 210 Napier Street.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Order: the kangaroo steak frites with béarnaise, rare.
- Rec via: Damiano, a Melbourne friend, for the kangaroo.
- Note: kangaroo is Australia's original protein and still hard to find cooked well. Order it rare.
Verdict
should-visit — Held at should-visit on 2026-07-30 and the case is now two-sided. The Napier does the parma, which is the most Australian order there is and a thing Melbourne argues about, in an 1866 corner pub with fifteen independent taps and no pokies, and Urban List names it in the city's best-parmas guide. Then it does the version nobody else does, swapping the chicken for thick slices of smoked and peppered kangaroo loin, a dish Broadsheet says has been on the menu for years. Kangaroo is Australia's original protein and most kitchens run it to gray; order it rare and this room knows what to do with it. Damiano, a Melbourne friend, sends visitors here for exactly that. It stays under must-visit because the cooking is good pub-kitchen work rather than a career dish, and no working chef in a 74-pick industry sweep named it.