Wynyard Hotel, Sydney

107 Clarence Street, Sydney
Reviewers present: Burger Bot, Joe Blogs.
Review Time: Monday Lunch

"Grab a spot up front, avoid Toilet Tunnel"

As the name suggests, the Wynyard Hotel is located in the Wynyard area of the CBD - ie, the area nearby Wynyard Station. This corner pub, on the Erskine and Clarence intersection, was founded in the later half of the 19th century and currently operates under the Merivale umbrella.

Stopped into the Wynyard a few times over the last twelve months and have walked away with varying opinions. On our first couple of visits we only managed a seat in the dining area (a claustrophobic area wedged between a pokie room divider wall, the limited-space front bar and the entry to the toilets) with limited view of the outside world. It wasn't a great experience. This was pretty on par with another visit to the Wynnie.

On a more recent and satisfactory visit, we managed to score a seat in the front part of the bar, between the entrance and front bar, soaking up some natural light from the windows and front door. Happily away from the entrance to the basement toilet dungeon where the occasional waft of goodies takes you by surprise and spoils your meal, drink, whatever.

Front bar. Nice retainment of overhead mirrors.

As far as beer goes, the range is neither incredible or abundant but it's not so bad that you wont find something to get into. It's fine. The price is about the same - not fantastic but not bad - we were happy to pay a fairly average CBD beer price. The beer of the month at the time was One Fifty Lashes at $5, which is a decent price.

Over to food... Have to say, again, not fantastic but fine. Fairly standard pub fare here including schnitzels, steaks, burgers (beef & chicken), battered fish, seafood basket, lasagna, and steak sanga. In the earlier visits, we had some real misses with the food when ordering bangers & mash and schnitzels. The order was wrong, it was late, it was disappointing. But you can only be as good as your last meal, which fortunately for the us and the Wynyard on this last occasion, is a good thing. With our last visit, we went with the obvious burger orders and there were no major complaints.

Burgers. Yes, that's what they are.

The burgers that we ordered under the $9.50 Lunch Special (*with drink purchase) were, as you can see, towering with no hidden surprise filling; Everything in plain sight and threatening to fall out as you pick up the bundle.  For the price, it really is hard to complain too much. Chips were okay. They did the job.

Overall, the Wynyard is a fairly typical easy-going traditional Sydney CBD pub. You get pretty much what you expect and that's not a bad thing. The fact that the place is often busy at lunch and after work with the workers of the area speaks for itself. To be honest, we didn't like it at first when we sat in the dining area but we've changed our mind since being able to enjoy the front bar area. As we say, everyone is different and enjoy different things from their public house so make up your own mind and/or feel free to share your thoughts on the place. It's not a number one choice destination for us but it does make a good backup bar or "one for the road" detour, especially for these reviewers who work nearby.

Wynnie Web: merivale.com.au/wynyardhotel/