Dick's Hotel, Beattie Street, Balmain

Dick's Hotel, Beattie Street, Balmain
Saturday 12 November, 2006

Which Sydney hotel has the best looking Publican? Today, I discovered it is Dick's Hotel in Balmain. Located just opposite the Exchange Hotel on Beattie St, Dick's is a great, family friendly pub with an undercover bistro.

Dick's has a wonderful history - it was established in 1874 by John Dick. Briefly owned by Mr Lean in the mid to late 1880's and known as Lean's Hotel it soon reverted back to it's original name in 1889 - Dick's Hotel.

Today we were celebrating a friend's upcoming wedding. Sixteen of us gathered for lunch at 1pm in the undercover bistro. A long table had been set aside for us near the open kitchen. We were blessed with the weather - it was a stunning day and the covered bistro provided some relief from warm day.

The bistro menu was very accommodating - burgers, lamb shanks, salads, calarmari etc - there was something for everyone. The special of the day - smoked salmon salad was a big hit as were the skewered prawns, deluxe beef burger and salt & pepper calarmari.

You order and pay for your meals at the kitchen window and are provided with a table number. As you stand and wait to order you can watch the action in the small kitchen - it's so hot in there, I don't know how they do it.

I ordered the deluxe beef burger - it was well stocked with salad, beef pattie, cheese and a side of thick cut fries. The beef pattie was slightly overcooked but overall it was a good burger. It would have been great if they had provided a side of sweet chilli sauce for the fries but there were plenty of other condiments available - tomato sauce, BBQ sauce and mustard.

My lunch buddies thought the salt & pepper calamari was a little light on the salt but the calarmari was very tender; the smoked salmon salad was delicious with goat's cheese and the prawn skewers were BBQ'd to perfection.

Dick's is the kind of place you can stay for hours and we did. Another bottle of Spy Valley anyone?

Dick's Hotel - 89 Beattie Street, Balmain - (02) 9818 2828