The Grandview Hotel Fairfield: Menu, Reviews, and Restaurant Guide

The Grandview Hotel in Fairfield has added a new dining dimension: a modern Lebanese restaurant called Sama now operates inside the hotel, alongside the traditional Front Bar. This guide covers current menus, verified prices, and the story behind the transformation—drawn from the hotel’s official materials, professional reviews, and booking-platform listings.

Last checked: 2026-10-27

Address: 429 Heidelberg Road, Fairfield VIC 3078 · Phone: 03 9489 8061 · Hours: Mon–Sat 11:00 am–11:00 pm, Sun 11:00 am–9:00 pm · Restaurant: Sama (Lebanese / Middle Eastern)

Grandview Hotel Fairfield Menu

The hotel operates two distinct menus: the Front Bar serves Australian pub classics, while Sama offers modern Lebanese sharing plates. The most detailed pricing comes from the hotel’s official December 2025 PDF and the OpenTable listing (which may reflect slightly later adjustments).

Front Bar menu highlights

The December 2025 menu shows starters such as garlic bread at A$10 and duck spring rolls at A$19. Mains include salt-and-pepper squid (A$26, marked gluten-free), butter chicken (A$28), and a beef burger with chips at A$24. A steak sandwich with chips is listed at A$29, and chicken parmy burger at A$25. The menu also offers a vegan falafel burger (A$25) and a chicken-and-mushroom penne (A$26, A$2 surcharge for gluten-free pasta). Salad options include Caesar salad at A$22 and garden salad at A$16.

An OpenTable listing for the Front Bar broadly matches but shows a few higher prices—the Grandview beef burger is A$28, chicken schnitzel A$29, chicken parmigiana A$31, and a 300-gram scotch fillet A$47. Fish and chips is A$28 with a gluten-free option.

Cuisine type at Sama

Sama is described on the hotel’s website as a Lebanese restaurant. Secondary sources indicate it occupies the former bistro space and serves modern Middle Eastern sharing plates. However, a full Sama menu was not available in the sources reviewed.

Grandview Hotel Fairfield Reviews

Professional review (3AW)

Tony Leonard visited the Grandview Hotel for 3AW’s “Pub of the Week” segment in July 2018 and scored it 10.5 out of 20. He described the bar-food list as “fairly priced but basic” and noted that the steak in the steak sandwich was “minimal despite having a good char.” The barbecue chicken pizza he called “a standard commercial-base pizza that was typical for its price.” Leonard’s assessment reflects a period before Sama opened, when only the pub bistro operated.

The Grandview is a long time stayer in the shadows of the old paper mills in Fairfield.

Tony Leonard, 3AW restaurant reviewer, July 2018

Platform ratings

A secondary research site reported a TripAdvisor snapshot of approximately 3.8 out of 5 from 22 reviews, and an OpenTable rating for Sama of about 4.7 to 4.8 out of 5 from 33 reviews. These figures should be checked against live platforms, as sample sizes and ratings shift over time.

The pattern suggests that Sama has drawn stronger early reviews than the Front Bar, which is consistent with the novelty of the Lebanese concept in a traditional pub setting.

Grandview Hotel Fairfield Restaurant: Sama

About Sama

Sama opened in late 2025 in the space formerly occupied by the hotel’s bistro. The hotel’s website presents it as a separate Lebanese dining experience, with its own booking system on the same site. While the full menu was not retrieved, secondary sources describe it as serving modern Lebanese sharing plates—a departure from the pub-grub focus of the Front Bar.

Location and ambiance

The hotel sits on Heidelberg Road in Fairfield, a suburb of Melbourne’s inner north. The address is 429 Heidelberg Road, Fairfield VIC 3078. The venue’s split-dining setup means guests choose between the casual front bar or the more contemporary Sama space.