The Meringandan Hotel, Meringandan, Qld.

Twenty minutes north of Toowoomba, on a stretch of road that does not announce itself as a culinary destination, the Meringandan Hotel sits in a building that looks precisely like what it is. A country pub run by people who have been running it a long time. Heather and Geoff Murphy have owned the place for years and have made no effort whatsoever to reinvent it. In the current climate of destination dining and elevated pub grub, this is something of a relief.

The Meringandan does not have a chef's bar or a natural wine list or a seasonal tasting menu with a chef's note explaining the provenance of the soil. It has chicken parmigiana. It has bangers and mash. It has a one kilogram rump served with salad and chips that will make you quietly reconsider whether portions in the city have simply been getting smaller for years without anyone remarking on it. It has an ice cold beer and a beer garden that looks out onto a paddock containing chickens, goats, and two camels named Chips and Gravy.

You could argue, and I have, at length, the camels may be surplus to requirements. The pub would disagree, and frankly the camels seem settled in the matter.

The service has the warmth of a place where the staff know most of the room by name, and where they are genuinely pleased to see the ones they don't. The parma is large, properly crumbed, and arrives without ceremony. The chips are chips in the best possible sense of the word. Locals flock here and they are correct to do so, because the Meringandan is doing something increasingly rare. It is being exactly what it says it is, consistently enough that it doesn't need to be anything else. There is no pretension anywhere in the building. It is an honest regional pub, fully committed to the bit.

The one note of fair warning. On a busy Saturday the kitchen can slow down, and the bistro fills quickly with families whose children have varying levels of regard for the concept of an indoor voice. Neither of these things is a problem if you have calibrated your expectations correctly, which you should have done approximately three kilometres before you pulled into Meringandan. Come for an honest feed, a cold drink, and a look at the camels. Leave satisfied. That is the entire deal, and it is a good one.

Price Mains $22-$38. Very fair indeed.

Bookings Not usually required.

Good for families, road trippers and anyone serious about hunger.

Not for those seeking adventure in a bowl.

Parking on the street.

Felix Marrow eats on his own dime. No restaurant reviewed here was contacted in advance.

The Meringandan Pub is at 30 Main Street, Meringandan QLD (20 mins north of Toowoomba on the New England Highway

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Open from 10am - late 7 days a week. Dinner 6-8pm, 7 days