Foreign Correspondent: Duke of York Hotel, Adelaide

Adelaide, South Australia
Reviewer: Joe Blogs
January 2013

Front bar, Exeter Hotel, Rundle St

The mini-tour begins; Adelaide pubs Pt 1

Having spent most of my pub years in Adelaide, I was keen to get back and check out how some of the establishments were doing since my migration to the east coast over 18 months ago. My trip back to the South Australian capital was brief so there was little time to dive into each establishment with the gusto I would have when I was a local. The resulting Adelaide reviews here are based on my brief yet enjoyable January visits, as well as my memories from years gone by.

Part 1

My mostly-solo Adelaide pub tour starts at Duke of York Hotel on a hot & sunny Thursday, during a 40+ degree Adelaide heatwave. Here I meet a friend for lunch and a drink catch up.

Duke of York Hotel
82 Currie Street, Adelaide
Thursday 3 January, 12:30pm

Duke of York. Snapped later that night walking home from Hindley Street

The Duke was a pub that I saw the inside of mostly at lunch on weekdays or after work, as I was working just up the road at the time. There was a period of time where a work lunch for a colleague's birthday or farewell would often be organised here because it was convenient. It got old fairly quickly.

Although it was the first time coming back in such a long time, I wasn't surprised that the place seemed exactly the same. The front room and bar is fairly open, with a reasonable variety of beers on tap. I had a pear cider, which went down a treat in the hot heat. Hidden behind this is a small loungier dining area and further back, past the kitchen and comic-book covered walls of the toilets, a decent sized beergarden with its own bar and plenty of bench seating, beer hall style.

My friend and I pulled up at "the kitchen table" (you know those lino-top kitchen tables from the 50's with matching chairs?) in the front room and ordered up some burgers. With 6 different burger flavours to choose from, it's hard not to find something you'll like. My problem with the options is that they not only offer different styles, but also different sizes - "lady size" (single pattie), "man size" (double pattie), and "biggest loser" (triple pattie). Excuse me? "Biggest Loser"? Not exactly a responsible eating message. I frowned at reading this. Anyway, I ordered up the lady size Cheese Burger for $13.10, which was plenty of burger for a lunch sitting, and it wasn't awesome but it wasn't too bad. Chips were a little ho-hum. Oh, and sauce was $1 extra. Meh. Rip.

My visit at lunch and walk-by later that night (when I took the photo above) brought back some memories. I recall it getting pretty feral on Thursday nights in particular, with one particular night sticking in my mind when I had to dodge a swamp of human faeces, which had been smeared all over the toilet floor. Charming.

Duke on the net: www.dukeofyork.com.au

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Up next: Ed Castle

Pt 1: Duke | Pt 2: Ed Castle | Pt 3: Austral | Pt 4: Exeter | Pt 5: 10 Pubs | Pt 6: Cranka