cnr Darling and Montague st
Reviewers: Miller & Blogs
Time: Friday night
"Frown Hall"
The final stop of this evening's little Balmain pub crawl, The Town Hall Hotel, is a bit of a fizza. The 1879-established pub may have been "favoured by the locals for some 130 years", according to their website, maybe even a happening place 5-10 years ago, but the impression we got was that right now this place is a dried up soul-sucking dead waste land. Too harsh? Read on.
 |
| Vombies trying to entertain themselves in the front bar. Boring. |
If there's anything good about this place, we didn't see it. First thing we noted was that the whole bar smelled like a toilet. Not that crawl instigator and Sydney Pub List member, Mr Miller, would have noticed given his downward spiral state of intoxication. He has however been to the pub before and his thoughts of the place then were exactly the same - "The place is lacking atmosphere, character, a soul, and most importantly, people. Why would you drink here with options like Dick's, the London and many other pubs with better music and more interesting people?" Who the hell does this pub cater to?
 |
| Level 1 bar shut up shop, 10pm Friday night. Buzz bar. |
The two-man cover band in the corner tried to win people over with their own style of cover-song mash-ups with horrible key changes for no reason. I guess it didn't matter as there was no one there to hear it. The Crowded House-Incubus mash-up acoustic number was probably the highlight that drove Joe Blogs out of the room and upstairs to check out level 1. With the ground floor bar so dead at 10pm maybe the party was upstairs? No. Cue the sound of crickets. There were a few cockroaches up there too.
 |
| Dead lands. Some lights on, nobody home. |
This place sucks and the cheap chrome, shiny wood and flashing lights don't help a bit. Sorry, Town Hall, you've lost us. Quarter schooner for the fact the place sold beer and another quarter for the toilets that existed and weren't too disgraceful. Half a schooner.
The second best thing about Town Hall Hotel was leaving. The first was watching a drunk Mr Miller dancing with a bin outside.
 |
| Miller bin dance. Loads up for hurl but saved it for out front of Balmain Hotel |
Our little Balmain tour: [Exchange Hotel, Dick's Hotel, Town Hall Hotel]
Frown Hall web: http://www.townhallhotel.com.au/
You are right, Its the worst pub in Balmain. Even with cheap happy hour that runs from 12pm to 6 5 days a week ,only 2 people drink in there. Bar service is crap, they would rather read the newspaper or sms their friends than serve beer. During the afternoon there is an old bloke who dictates to the staff who should be served and who should be cut off. He thinks that he runs the place , sad old man with a barmaid fetish.
ReplyDeleteA pub to be avoided at all costs.
This pub changed hands recently and was refurbished. At least the got rid of the hideous chandelier over the bar. Who was the idiot that thought that it would be a good idea to put all the taps on the far side of the bar. Same sad old bloke with the barmaid fetish is still here, put on a few stone since my last visit.
ReplyDeleteThe clientele is improving since the new owners but still a bar best avoided if you want a lively place. Some night the security outnumber the patrons in the main bar.