The town pub
The Torquay Hotel sits at 36 Bell Street, right in the middle of town. It's a proper big pub with a few different rooms under one roof. There's the public bar, which the pub itself calls the home of the regulars. There's the restaurant and bar, built around a South American wood-fired grill. And out the back there's the beer garden, which was rebuilt over 2025 and now has its own stage and pizza kitchen.
It's open seven days. RACV's RoyalAuto summed it up in its February 2025 Torquay guide as classic counter meals with a contemporary twist, plus live music and events. That's about right from the menu. You can have a parma, or you can have a dry-aged steak off the coals. Groups tend to land here because it's big enough and the menu doesn't make anyone nervous.
This is an independent guide; menus, prices and hours change, so check the Torquay Hotel's website before you go.
What's on the menu
The restaurant menu on the pub's site when we checked in October 2026 was its Winter 2026 menu. Prices below come from that, and they'll move, so treat them as a rough guide only.
The parrilla
This is the pub's centrepiece. The menu describes it as an Argentinian parrilla imported from South America, cooking over hot coals and red-gum smoke. Steaks come with chips, salad and a sauce (chimichurri's one of the options): a 250g grass-fed porterhouse was $49, a 250g eye fillet $62 and a 300g grain-fed scotch fillet $65. There are also chef-selected cuts dry aged in-house for up to 21 days, listed as a daily special. Off the same grill you'll find Humpty Doo barramundi, a 300g pork cutlet and a ras el hanout lamb rump.
Pub classics
The familiar stuff is all there. Chicken parmigiana ($33), beer-battered fish and chips ($36), lemon pepper squid, a Caesar salad, and a seafood spaghetti with Portarlington mussels, prawns and scallops ($42). There's a confit duck leg if you're after something a bit richer.
Share plates and pizza
Smaller plates include wood-fired flatbread, pumpkin and goat's cheese arancini, Coffin Bay oysters by the half dozen and chermoula lamb ribs. The bar menu adds 12-inch Neapolitan-style pizzas from the alfresco pizza kitchen, from a margherita at $25 up to prosciutto di Parma at $35, plus burgers. The menu warns that pizza-kitchen dishes may not arrive at the same time as everything else. Fair enough.
Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free
The menu marks dishes as vegetarian, vegan, gluten friendly or with those options available. Vegetarians get a potato gnocchi with wild mushroom ragout and an eggplant parmigiana, among others. The menu also notes that gluten-friendly steaks come with herbed potatoes instead of chips.
Surcharges
The winter menu listed a 20% surcharge on public holidays and 1.5% on card payments. Worth knowing if you're planning a long-weekend dinner.
The new beer garden
The beer garden is the big change. Forte Magazine reported it as a $5 million redevelopment backed by the Victorian Government's Regional Tourism Investment Fund. The Surf Coast Times covered the finished first stage on 22 December 2025: a built-in stage for live music, three bars each about 50% bigger than before, a wood-fired pizza kitchen, a new sound system, and toilets going from six to 16 (two of them fully accessible). There's also a separate entrance and ticket booth for gigs, so the restaurant crowd and the concert crowd don't trip over each other.
Owner Joel Taylor told the paper a second stage would start after Easter 2026. That's a curved roof over the new freestanding building, with heating along the sides (not fully weatherproof), aimed at opening in late winter or spring 2026. We couldn't confirm whether that's finished yet. If you're counting on sitting out there on a cold night, ring ahead and ask.
When to go and booking
Hours
The pub says it's open seven days but doesn't publish kitchen times on its site. Check the website or call (03) 5261 2001 before you go, especially late in the evening or out of season.
Bookings
You can book the restaurant online from the pub's website or by phone. In summer and on long weekends, booking's the safer bet, particularly for a group or the kids' dinner hour.
Gigs
The pub runs a "Feature Gigs" program, with ticketed shows in the beer garden. Some of the shows listed for late 2026 were 18+, so check the age limit on the listing before you buy tickets for the family.
Kids and dogs
The pub pitches the restaurant at families, dates and mates alike. We didn't find a separate kids' menu on the winter menu, and we couldn't find a published dog policy for the beer garden, so ask when you book.
Getting there from Holyday House
From the house in north Torquay it's about 5 minutes' drive to Bell Street. Parking in the town centre is mostly on the street and in nearby car parks, and on a summer Saturday night it gets tight. If anyone's having a few, sort out a lift home before you head out. Our getting around without a car guide has the options.
Nearby
Bell Street runs down to the foreshore, so a walk along Front Beach before or after dinner is easy. If the pub's a bit loud for the night you had in mind, Samesyn is on Bell Street too and is a much quieter, special-occasion kind of dinner. For something casual on the beachfront, Fisho's does fish and chips on The Esplanade, and Mule cooks Mexican over an outdoor fire. More of a beer person? See our Torquay breweries guide.
Torquay Hotel FAQ
Where is the Torquay Hotel?
36 Bell Street, Torquay, in the middle of the town centre. It's about 5 minutes' drive from Holyday House.
What's a parrilla?
An Argentinian-style grill. The pub's menu says theirs was imported from South America and cooks over hot coals and red-gum wood smoke. Steaks, barramundi, pork and lamb all come off it.
Do I need to book?
Not always, but it's a good idea in summer, on long weekends and for groups. Book online through the pub's website or call (03) 5261 2001.
Is the beer garden covered?
The first stage of the rebuild opened in December 2025. A second stage adding a curved roof and side heating was meant to open in late winter or spring 2026, but we couldn't confirm it's done. Call ahead if the weather matters.
Is there anything for vegetarians?
Yes. The menu marks vegetarian and vegan dishes and options, including a mushroom gnocchi, an eggplant parmigiana, arancini and a few pizzas.
Are the gigs all ages?
Not always. Some ticketed shows are 18+. Check each listing on the pub's website.
For the rest of the town's dining, start with our Torquay restaurants guide. Travelling with kids? The family holiday guide has ideas for the daytime, and the winter getaway guide covers the colder months. For the town's other pubs and bars, see our pubs and bars guide. Staying in north Torquay? Check dates at Holyday House.
Sources
Facts on this page were checked against these sources on 14 October 2026. Opening hours, patrols, rules and closures change — check with the source before you go.
- Restaurant & Bar — Torquay Hotel
- Winter 2026 Restaurant menu (PDF) — Torquay Hotel
- Winter 2026 Bar menu (PDF) — Torquay Hotel
- Torquay Hotel — Torquay Hotel
- Torquay Hotel completes summer-ready overhaul — Surf Coast Times
- Stage one of $5m beer garden redevelopment now open at Torquay Hotel — Forte Magazine
- Torquay guide: where to eat, drink and play — RACV RoyalAuto