Eucalypt Bay — Best Restaurant with a Casino Hall
Always start with the front room first: we cook a short, regional dinner most evenings before the cards ever come out. Then turn down the hallway to the card room, where four tables run five hundred, euchre and a friendly poker game with no buy-in. Nobody wagers cash here and nobody wins one — chips carry no value beyond the table, there's no poker machine on the property, and nothing we run is played online or through an app. It all happens in person, in this building, among people who've booked a table for one room or the other. Book dinner separately from a seat at the felt — the kitchen keeps its own hours, and so does the card room.
A saleyards worker who liked a straight table
We were opened by a man who spent thirty years working the Colac saleyards before he bought the building on Murray Street and turned the front room into a dining room.
He'd played cards after work for most of his life, first in sheds and kitchens around town, and he wanted somewhere with a proper felt table and a dealer who kept things fair.
The dining room came first, cooking plain food for saleyards workers finishing late, and the card room followed a few years after, fitted into the old storeroom out the back. We've kept both rooms much as he left them, right down to the counter he built himself from the old shop fittings next door.
The Founder
A saleyards worker who bought the building outright in his fifties
First Room
The dining room, cooking for late-finishing saleyards workers
Second Room
The card room, fitted into the old storeroom out the back
The Counter
Built by hand from fittings taken from the shop next door
A short menu we change often
We keep the menu short and change it most weeks with whatever the Otway district and the district around Colac send our way.
There's no bar in either room — we pour tea, coffee and lemonade instead, and we keep a jug of cold water on every table without being asked.
We book the dining room apart from the card room, and the kitchen closes well before the felt does most nights.
Otway Lamb
Slow-roasted shoulder with roasted district potatoes
Barongarook Soup
Pumpkin and leek soup named for the creek nearby
Colac Apple Pie
Baked with orchard apples and a short pastry crust
Getting to Eucalypt Bay
Address
91 Murray Street, Colac VIC 3250
Telephone
+61 3 5231 2758 · evenings@eucalyptbay.com
We open Thursday to Sunday, from six in the evening until one, and stay dark the rest of the week.
What we ask of everyone who comes
- We ask for ID from anyone who looks under eighteen, in the dining room and in the card room alike.
- We don't run anything online, and we don't have an app — every meal and every hand happens in person.
- Our chips carry no cash value and we don't buy them back, sell them, or let them leave the building.
- There's no poker machine here and we never take a cash bet, at any table, on any night we're open.
- We keep dinner and the card room as separate bookings, so a table for one doesn't include the other.
- We ask for quiet at the smaller tables after ten, out of respect for the players still concentrating.
- Our house dealer has the final word on a hand, and we settle any dispute at the counter, not the table.
- We're usually happy to fit in a walk-in for the card room, though dinner is best booked a day ahead.
Both rooms, in pictures
What's running on which night
Casino Hall: Four Tables and a House Dealer
We run four tables most open nights, spaced out under low light in what used to be the building's storeroom before the felt went down.
Euchre and five hundred take the two front tables, crib and a slower table of rummy fill the back of the room, and a friendly no-buy-in poker game usually starts once the dining room quietens.
A house dealer works the busier tables from around eight, and chips are handed out at the counter for points only — we don't pay anyone out in cash for a hand won here.
Euchre & Five Hundred
Our two busiest tables most Thursday and Friday nights
Crib & Rummy
Slower tables toward the back of the room
Friendly Poker
No buy-in, chips only, from around nine most nights
Common questions
Do we need to book both rooms together?
No, we treat dinner and the card room as two separate bookings, and you're welcome to book just one.
How do we get a table if we've never been before?
Just call ahead or walk in on a quieter night — we're happy to explain the rules before you sit down.
What happens to our chips at the end of the night?
We count them back in at the counter — they mark points only and were never worth cash to begin with.
Is there anywhere to sit that isn't a card table?
Yes, the side room off the main card room is a quieter spot for anyone not playing.
Do you take bookings for larger groups?
We can usually fit a group of six to a table; larger groups are best discussed with us by phone first.
Take these as read before you sit down
We keep the house rules short and post them here so nobody's caught out on their first evening.
We'll hold a table either way
Give us a call to book dinner, a seat at the felt, or both as separate bookings — we're easiest to reach in the afternoon before the evening rush.
Give Us a Call