Verandah Bar, Sydney

55 Elizabeth St, Sydney
Reviewers present: Southy and work friends (Kurt/D-resh)
Time of review: Friday Night drinks till Memory blank / Friday pub lunch / last straw Friday.

Elizabeth Street entrance

"Where one person knows my name"

Sydney Pub List checks out CBD establishment, Verandah Bar, and reports back on the vibe, beer, food and rates accordingly.


Initially, I would have started by saing that Verandah Bar is good for Friday after work drinks but subsequent visits have changed my mind - will get to that shortly. On this first visit, we found the crowds steadily increasing 'til about 8pm then slowly drop off as the workers get full of alcohol. If you're going here it’s very easy to only see the gamblers section and just keep walking to the Martin Place Bar. You actually have to walk into an arcade-type entrance past the gamblers den to get to the bar itself.

Few things noted this time around was the very loud music and it only forced us to move outside in the cold rather than going deaf in the bar. I could understand the loudness of the bar if it was a nightclub but this is clearly a place where people are going to wind down after a hard weeks work in the corporate jungle of Sydney CBD. It helped a lot that the week before, I was there for '$5 all drinks' and the bartender remembered my name and my order so I wasn't left yelling at the bartender over the music.
The food is half decent, with the wedges serving being a good size plate, which I had when we were out on the Friday night. We went back for a pub lunch where the quality of the menu was far more apparent and far better than some other pubs/bars around. As Kurt my mate from work has pointed out, we have experienced various aspects of the bar through a few visits in diferent times of the day, which gives us a more rounded opinion/review. Kurt digs the Parmigiansas, although Dino from my work place has noted that "the meat in the salad is on the dry side".

Also, on a good note, they have 10 dollar specials from Monday to Thursday:

• Monday = $10 Rumps
• Tuesday = $10 Schnitzels
• Wednesday = $10 Parmigiansas
• Thursday = $10 burgers (lunch) $10 pizzas (dinner)

On the range of the menu, Verandah has $8 chips/wedges on the lower end up to $21 for fish and chips (slight rip off I feel) at the higher end. The unlimited condiments is good, we drowned the wedges on the first night there.


Verandah seen from Castlereagh Street


There is a good selection of beers and liquor. The price for a Carlton is 6 dollars, which is on the higher side than I would normally pay, yet there is a special membership card where you get about 80 cents off a Carlton Draught. When I asked the bartender about this card she replied very rudely 'you need to be more regular', which negates the friendly bar tender from the previous nights out. When asked how many times I need to come to get the membership she then scoffed at me and replied with 'you won't get one'.
Special note though, jug of Carlton was 15 dollars, easy to do when out with a few friends. Not the cheapest jug but not bad for a city bar and split between mates.

There are a few medium sized plasma's about the place to watch some of the sport but you would be better off in the standalone gamblers den. I do like how they are completely separate from each other, yet I felt slightly desperate sitting there watching the NRL away from my friends and with group of hard core gamblers on the punt.

Visit 3: So this will be the most comprehensive review in a while... I was ready to post this and went back to get photo's and have a cool beverage with some work mates after a long week. How stupid were we to go back after the previous instances of bad service.

So as it happened, on the third time 'round, myself and a few work mates sat/stood at a table near a roped-off area having a beer. After a third beer a manager said that we were encroaching on a private function area. We were fine with this and asked permission to stand on one side of the table, outside of this function area, which the manager agreed to. 20 minutes later another very rude manager then told us we had to move. When the girls went to point out that the first manager had let us move there, he said "You just have to move". We asked him where to and he said, "over there",  pointing to an already-occupied table.

The night pretty much ended from there with all parties involved in this last visit not wanting to return.

Overall the bar has some really good points - food and the bartender guy from Bondi - but then some negatives - the LOUD MUSIC and some female staff should consider working in a different industry with no people, maybe an admin job where you just don't talk to anyone.

I would have rated this higher initially at about 2.5 but after a few more visits, based on the staff it loses a schooner. I rate this place 1.5 schooners out of 5.

Website: http://www.verandah.com.au/index.html

Until next time, Sydney Pub List out.