New Sydney Hotel, Hobart

Tonight we had tickets to see a show from one of my all time favourites authors, Ben Elton. I have read every one of his books at least 3 times.  My favourites are Two Brothers, The First Casualty and Blind Faith. Gudge is a huge fan of his scriptwriting including Blackadder and Upstart Crow. 

The show was at 7.30 at the casino so we had time to grab some dinner.  

There's not too much I love about Tasmania's State Government, but of the few good things they've done is they provided us residents with tourism vouchers to boost local businesses during the quiet winter off-season. 

We were talking our voucher to the New Sydney Hotel, THE quintessential Irish pub in Hobart City. 

Photo courtesy of New Sydney Hotel

We've had drinks there in their wonderful beer garden and have tried some small bites. But every time,  service and ambience is excellent, from their open fire to their perfectly poured Guinness pints. 

Arriving at 5.45 without a reservation,  we were snuck in on the proviso that we would clear the table by 7. I actually LOVE when this happens as it's almost a guarantee that service will be quick!

We start with a Coke for Gudge and a Swinging Gate Pet Nat for myself.  

We order the 300g Porterhouse, chips, salad and pepper sauce for myself.  

Chicken Parmigiana, chips for Gudge as well as Buttermilk fried Chicken to share. 

My steak was fantastic! Perfectly medium-rare, nice char, and THICK! Great crispy chips. Salad was a dressed lettuce mix as the salad (which I'm so-so about at a $2.50 extra charge) and a lovely and peppery gravy. I'm totally happy to give this 9 out of 10 for $42.50. 

Gudge really enjoyed his Parmy,  noting the delicious smokiness of the ham. 

The Buffalo Chicken was cooked and seasoned very well, delicious dip but didn't think $16 was very good value for essentially 3 small tenders. 

We left very full,  satisfied and happy.  Headed to the casino with time enough to throw $20 into the pokies and head to the auditorium for an excellent show, surpassing all of my expectations.  If you have a chance check out ANYTHING from Ben Elton, you should. He also seems like a lovely man. 

The hour drive home went smoothly and were blessed with an aurora viewing before bed.

Fantastic night all round!

If you're in Hobart, do stop in to the New Sydney Hotel.

Address: 87 Bathurst St, Hobart TAS 7000

Phone: (03) 6234 4516

Menu: newsydneyhotel.com.au

New Norfolk Hotel: Pub Lunch

It was cold today. Cold and rainy, 8 degrees in fact. In tow, my gorgeous best friend from hot and sunny Queensland. 

We had been exploring the wonderful antique and homewares stores of New Norfolk when lunch time made itself aware. 

Miss Arthur Home Goods, Drill Hall Emporium

Carly suggested she felt like hot and hearty pub food and I mentioned the New Norfolk always looked packed at lunchtime and should we give it a go? She said yes.

We step inside and back in time to before pubs became gentrified. Classic. Country. Pub.

THEN

photo courtesy of newnorfolknews.com

NOW

photo courtesy of newnorfolk.org

There's no mood lighting or stainless steel here.  Keno screens on the wall next to the food menu, patterned carpet instead of polished concrete floors.  I love it.

As I had previously noticed, at 1.30pm Friday, there is a score of people jovially sat around tables with huge plates of hearty food in front of them.

We are daunted by the vast menu, but Carly opts for the lamb shank and I, after an internal battle, go for the daily special of surf and turf over the BBQ pork ribs. Both at $25. I go rare with chips and salad. While waiting for our meals,  I notice a serve of the ribs being taken to another table: they look spectacular and hope I didn't make a mistake.

courtesy of New Norfolk Hotel facebook page

After a very short time, our meals are brought to the table and both look excellent.

don't be fooled, that steak under the chips takes up half the plate

Carly indicates with gasps how falling-off-the-bone her lamb is. Also mentions the gravy is delicious.

I am impressed with the amount of prawns and the size and texture of them.

The chips are cooked and seasoned to perfection.  And the steak (rump) is tender, delicious and cooked exactly how it should be.  I order steak rare when I eat out owing to the fact that I find more often than not a medium-rare (my preference) is over-cooked to a medium or beyond. I do like a rare steak very much but medium-rare is my favourite. It is a nice piece of meat as well, advertised at 250g but I feel it may have been a bit bigger, well rested and delicious flavour. The white sauce is lovely and with the meal being the size it is, I didn't even have the room for a salad.

This is exactly the kind of pub you need on those nights that you can't be bothered cooking or like us, when you are in need of a big hearty meal.

Thank you New Norfolk Hotel, you did a cracking job.

edit 10/11/21. I went back last night with a group of 6, 5 of the meals were very warmly received,  however I had to send my med-rare t-bone back.  It was not even a cm thick and was grey as in, cooked to leather well done.  The girls at the counter looked at the steak and happily replaced it, however the replacement was not much better.  At $36 I find this unacceptable. I will be returning, however will not be ordering steak again.  

New Norfolk Hotel

79 High St, New Norfolk TAS 7140

https://www.newnorfolkhotel.net.au/

Gretna Green Hotel: Our New Local

So, we moved to the country. 

Well in fact we bought a house in the country. I almost can't believe it myself. It's simply wonderful. It's peaceful and quiet, friendly and quirky.

We are quite a way away from, well anything, except the local shop, the local market I work at on Wednesdays and a lovely little pub. Quite a historic wee pub actually, built in 1849 that's EIGHTEEN FORTY NINE and licensed continually since 1862, holy smokes, that's 159 years, (thanks Microsoft calculator).

image courtesy of homely.com.au

The pub has recently been purchased by new owners, and we thought we'd go down and have a meal and support the new owners.

As we pull up to the carpark (90 second drive from home to be accurate) we are surprised by the amount of cars in the driveway, it looks packed. We pull in, wander past the utes full of fire wood and interestingly, deer carcasses, and make our way to the bar.

The place is indeed packed. We had only been once before and it was well, there may have been tumbleweeds, so it was a joy to see the place filled with jovial locals.

We are informed that food may have a little wait, but we are not bothered, but instead grab a couple of drinks (I have a Sav Blanc and a Cascade Draught for G $12) and a menu to decide. We mosey roadside which has recently been revamped with extra tables, chair and firepits and of course the beautiful surrounding countryside.

The menu reads like a classic pub menu with most of the things you'd expect but are never disappointed to see. 

We decide on a garlic bread to share $5.50, Parmigiana for G $23 and the seafood basket for myself $30.

Warning aside, the food didn't take too long to come out at all.

I believe it was an epic amount of garlic bread for the price. Great flavour on lovely crisply toasted bread.

It is really difficult to show the sheer size of Gudge's Parmi... it had some serious girth. He reckons it was one of "the better ones I have tried in his life" and that "the chicken was very juicy", he loved the tomato sauce.

My seafood basket was all perfectly cooked and came with I believe was flathead (?), calamari, scallop, prawn cutlet and seafood bite.

The chips were very very good. I am a chip snob and these were without fault (please feel free to click 'chips' in the labels to hear me whinge about or praise chips). I have to say it, the retro curry pasta and egg salad was awesome, I absolutely loved the nostalgia of it. The home made slaw and green salad were both super fresh.

Do you know what? This is honest, real, in no way pretentious pub grub. From a doozy of a country pub.

We'll absolutely be going back, and if we're ever allowed visitors back to Tassie we'll take them too. 

We didn't get a chance to meet the owners, but I hope to very soon, and I wish them all the best.

Hotel Maroochydore

The Maroochydore Hotel, previously the Grinning Dog, I'm not sure why my friends suggested it, but I'm glad they did.

I have to admit, the pub itself has never lured me, and I hadn't eaten here since I have been back on the coast but I suspect that will change.

The menu is incredibly diverse, covering pub usuals: steaks, seafood, pasta, risotto, and includes specialty items like confit pork belly, barbeque ribs, and lamb tzatziki pizza.

Myself and D decided on the BBLT Burger ($10) from the lunch specials menu and S opted for the Rump steak ($10) and we shared 3 sides for the table, battered onion rings, buffalo wings and Parmesan crusted calamari.

I suspect the burger patty was manufactured but dispite this, it was a very delicious burger, containing bacon, cheese, barbeque sauce tomato and lettuce. I think it could have used mayo, but I added some of the aioli from the sides. I also opted to not eat half the bun. The chips were cooked perfectly. Miss S's steak, she tells me was cooked perfectly, juicy and with lovely flavour.

 The Parmesan crusted calamari ($8) was also cooked beautifully. The Parmesan flavour was light but detectable. Delicious.

 The beer battered onion rings ($8) were light and crisp, served piping hot.

The buffalo wings ($8) had a lovely flavour and the smokey barbeque sauce was excellent. With our food S had a lemon lime and bitters and D and I had a schooner of Carlton Draught each.

Hotel Maroochydore has lunch specials daily and dinner specials most nights. I think it is really good value, and I will be sure to do a write up the next time I head there for pizza night.

Hotel Maroochydore
201 Main Road
Maroochydore
Queensland
Ph: 07 5479 5611

Email:
hotelmaroochydore@starhotels.com.au

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Queen's Arms

Saturday night a group of seven of us decided to Dine at The Queen's Arms on Frederick St in Edinburgh. I had been sent a link to the menu and was really surprised at what was available and how cheaply priced it was.

We arrived at the bar at 7 and were shown to our table. It was not in the designated dining area but in the lovely bookshelved corner of the bar (shown below), where 2 huge round tables had been pushed together. It was very spacious, but may have been a bit of overkill, as whole-table conversations were almost impossible, unless yelling.

We perused the menu (well those of us who hadn't spent all week deciding already) and made our choices. Our waitress took our orders, but I was rather surprised when she chose to take all 7 orders, of 2 courses each, without a pad by memory. As suspected, her eidetic memory wasn't as she had hoped, and returned 3 times to confirm orders.

For starter I chose the Orkney Crab Cakes. They were served golden, crispy and piping hot. It was lovely to have crab cakes that actually tasted like crab, and the spiced mayo was a perfect accompaniment. My fellow diners had the mussels, and a haggis tart. The tart looked amazing, and apparently tasted as such.

For the main I chose the Pork Loin. It was beautifully cooked and the sauce was divine. The others had the Haddock which was a HUGE serving and looked lovely, and the Brisket which fell apart with a fork. Both of which I would love to try at some stage.

Although full, I impulsively ordered a dessert of Creme Brulee, and after breaking through the crispy top, was delighted that I did. It was one of the most beautiful desserts I have ever tried: Thick, creamy as just perfectly sweet enough. The blueberries and shortbread were lovely with the custardy brulee.

The Queen's Arms is a beautifully atmospheric pub with a great menu. The waitress we had was fantasic to begin with, but as the meal went on and the pub filled up we did struggle to get her attention. The placement of our table was also of slight concern as the pub filled up, as us sitting on the outer side of the table were getting bumped by passer-bys continually. But these 2 small things were my only complaints.

Will happily return to try more of the menu items.