Captain Cook Hotel

If Cook had landed here instead of Botany Bay he probably would have turned the damn boat around and sailed back home!
The Captain Cook is a dive, and not in a good way. The pokie area is one of the seediest in Sydney. Whilst recent renos have attempted to breathe new life into the CC it just hasn’t worked. There is a soulless vibe at work here, like a black hole that sucks the atmosphere into itself.
And what exactly is that bust of Cook doing on the bar. Is it a reminder that the bar is named after him because nothing else about the place remotely is?
If you’re doing The Rocks pub crawl, skip this one and make The Lord Nelson your final stop.

I think this is the first place in Australia to serve me pre-​made frozen fish fillets.
I was wandering around on a 35′ day when I saw the Captain Cook Hotel. It looks plain. It wasn’t crowded. It was a bit run down, and I stepped in for a beer. I looked over the menu and decided that the fish and chips would be fantastic. In slightly run down pubs with an older crowd, they usually are. So imagine my surprise when my plate of pre-​formed, pre-​made frozen fish fillets arrives. Utter confusion. I still don’t understand. Fish batter isn’t hard to make and keep around to fry up as needed, but they didn’t even try. They didn’t even spring for the good frozen fish. In a country with such an English history, I found this astonishing. There may be more out there, it’s not a regular dish of mine, but if they’re slacking on the fish, I don’t want to know what else they don’t cook.
Beer selection is decent with Fat Yak and Peroni on tap — and some Tooheys for the aforementioned older crowd. But with only the beer going for this place, and so many other watering holes around, I won’t be back.

The Captain Cook Hotel is located at the end of Kent Street heading towards Walsh Bay. It is a great local place that serves traditional pub food and a good variety of beers and wines. Go here a few times and you will get to know the staff and you couldn’t ask for more accommodating and friendly people. The venue is a local pub filled with mostly local people. You will also find patrons enjoying after work drinks, catch ups to watch sporting events, tradesman and fun corporate functions. The pub is reasonably priced and caters to a friendly crowd that enjoy a drink or two. For a real pub that is cheap and cheerful, the Captain Cook Hotel should not be overlooked.