Grand Hotel, Sydney

30 Hunter Street, Sydney
Reviewers: Burger Bot and Blogs
Review time: Pub lunch

"Grand Ahoy!"

Sail on into yet another Merivale establishment, The Grand Hotel, and enjoy some beers, food and sail away to the sounds of Enya.

Fortunately, we lied about Enya, but there is definitely something nautical going on here. The ground floor bar is your fairly standard wood panelled affair and is a nice enough spot if you can't be arsed making the trip up a few flights of stairs.

Bot rocking out with his cog out...top level cleared!

However, for the those that like a bit of stairy-stairy, make your way up to the 30 Knots Bar, level 1, or the Pool Room, level 2. This place gets busy though so get in early if you're after a seat.

We noticed a very strong leaning towards James Squires beers, which are fine, however some variety would be nice. The whole beer-matched-to-food thing is a bit gimmicky when it's only Squires. Not exactly dining at Squires brewery. Anyway, $6.40 for these beers, $5.20 for Boags Draught at the lower end.

Rookie burger

On the food front, standard pub food such as steaks, schnitzels, burgers, chips and a couple of others, as well as some cheap share type stuff. $11.80 for steak or schnitzel (with a drink purchase) Monday - Wednesday. We ordered burgers, no surprise, at $16. On a previous visit the burgers were good however this time, we were a bit disappointed. Kind of felt that the kitchen was staffed by rookies Monday - Wednesday, and hence the specials on those days. On a positive, all under $20.

Generally, a good experience. We pulled up for drinks and a feed at the bar (level 1) on both lunchtime occasions and have sunk a few in the ground floor bar in the arvo. Be warned, it does get busy over lunchtime, especially on a Friday. Either get in early for quality food on a Friday or settle for a quieter mid-weeker but prepare for lower quality food (in our experiences at least). It was hard to decide on a fitting schooner-rating, somewhere between a 2.5 and 3, so we'll forgive the last meal we had there and go with a 3.