Tuesday, June 13, 2006

The Australian Hotel

On Sunday about 25 of us gathered together at The Australian Hotel to farewell Caroline who leaves us for Switzerland before settling down in London. I did bring my digital camera on this night, but as I whipped it out to take a picture of the hotel the screen flashed to let me know that I had forgotten to put the memory card in…great! Never fear I still had my trusty camera phone.

The Australian hotel is located just down from the front entrance of the Shangri-la at The Rocks. There is nothing extravagant or showy about the outside of this place, and I almost found the picture of the building on their website a little misleading.

On this night the sky was dark, the streets were wet and the winds freezing cold. The rain and cold weather possibly meant that there were fewer patrons hanging around outside than usual. Walking up to the entrance the pub seemed silent because the doors were all close to shield everyone from the winds.

Once inside, the place buzzed with activity and we realise that there really was something quite unique about it. The décor is old the rooms are sectioned off, each with a slightly different feel. Some walls were lined with portraits whilst others with foreign currency and drinking mugs. There is a lot of wooden furniture and the seats where we sat were possibly once church pews.


Smoked Salmon with capers, creme fraiche, Spanish onions and Baby Spinach $19.50

Queenslander - Crispy bacon, fire roasted tomatoes and chunky pineapple $19.00

Summer Rocket & Prosciutto with Fresh tomato, shaved prosciutto, rocket & parmesan dressed with extra virgin olive oil $19.00

The Australian Hotel is famous for their gourmet pizzas and their selection did not disappoint. Pepper Kangaroo or Salt water crocodile anyone? Not pictured was the Moroccan Lamb with Lemon & garlic, eggplant, goats cheese, roasted vegetable and cous cous which is a must try.

Overall the pizza's were ok, they lost points with me for being extremely salty (all of them!) but there are various salads and pies that you can choose from if you don't fancy a pizza. Drinks are pretty expensive here and not what you'd expect from a pub (but I shouldn't have been suprised because we were at The Rocks). However I'd score this place pretty highly if you are looking for a relaxed and unpretentious place to catch up with friends.

Have a great trip Caz! I'll miss you!
The Australian Hotel
100 Cumberland Street
The Rocks
Sydney 2000

Tel : 02 9247 2229

2 comments:

AteLate said...

ah they most famous for their Devils, Prawns and Smoked Salmon pizzas ! Half and half are the way to go just to taste a bit of everything. ^_^

PiCkLeS said...

James: We were pretty lucky because there were over 25 people so there was heaps of pizza's to sample. But all of them were really really salty. Jacky thinks that I was a little too nice in my review, but I think it was fair.