Hampshire Hotel

Don’t bother, this pub has closed.

Ahhhhhh the Hampy. You wouldn’t know how awesome it is inside unless you went in off the busy street that is Parramatta Road.
This is the local haunt for a lot of Dykes on Bikes events, which means that I tend to end up here a lot. Or at least have been known to.
They have a great outdoor area where the pub let us make use of their huge projector screen.
The kitchen does some amazing food, again, great pub grub. It’s not fine dining but it hits the spot and will have your taste buds singing — which can’t be said for a lot of pub food.
Inside there’s a front room which has dancing sometimes, a seated dinning area and outside. There’s also an upstairs but I’ve never had time to go up and sticky beak yet.
They have a range of drinks although not very many ciders apart from Dirty Granny’s Apple. I’ve gotten a few funny looks asking for a Dirty Granny. In pear. I’m not sold on the Apple though, however that isn’t about the pub but the drink itself.
The staff are always attentive and happy to have a chat with you as well.

I was getting some printing done at Office Works and my family was meeting me at the Hampshire Hotel for lunch. Mother, father and a brother. I didn’t realise how far away Office Works was from Hampshire Hotel and didn’t leave enough time to get there at an appropriately slow pace and thus arrived for lunch a sweaty mess.
I was in a funny mood and feeling a bit down about myself, so ordered the chicken burger with a salad instead of chips and I didn’t eat the bread, which seems counter intuitive, as oily food is supposed to lift the spirit.
A bit of acne and a tight pair of pants made me think otherwise. I was a big picture player, a plate of deep fried chips would make me feel momentarily better, a swift shift in my temperament, but I knew it wasn’t the cure.
I sat in the classic «English style» pub in a small room halfway between the front room, where they have their live music and trivia nights and the back room. The décor more similar to an old house rather than a pub.
The man at the bar was friendly and replying to emails on his laptop for most of the lunch period, the food was good and despite the lack of grease in my food, it did make me feel better.
In my health quest days I knew what was up and what was down and I had the will power to stop myself from indulging in such greasy foods. I knew that wouldn’t make me feel better, I had the education for that. What I needed was a nice cool bag of wine.