Union Hotel

Bar staff are always rude and uninterested. Male Manger is probably the worst offender. Looked at me like a thief when I asked for a taste of a differennt beer when my normal wasn’t available.
Scowled under his breath and basically made it obvious he wasnt happy serving us.
Beer we for my friend was flat and refused to change it for another.

This is a review of the bottle shop attached to the pub only. And I can basically sum it up by saying what bottle shop in the world doesn’t sell bottle openers?
Instead the staff looked at me like I was the leper and said «don’t you smoke — just use your lighter». Nope don’t smoke and nope haven’t seen a botttlo that didn’t sell openers either.
Selection was great — lots of locally brewed beers. But staff and availability of anything other than grog lets it down.

The Union Hotel is a the very end of the King Street strip, away from the hustle and bustle that goes on closer to the Newtown train station.
The pub is made of of 3 parts, a proper bar area in front… nice pub vibe, pool tables, etc; something looks a bit more restaurant-​like in the middle; and a patio out back. Unfortunately, during my first visit, I got to experience all 3 as they closed the latter two one at a time and forced us to move to the noisy interior with its pub quiz in full swing.
They have a pretty good selection of craft beer. The bartenders generally know their stuff, and they even let me have a quick taste of a small beer once or twice. I definitely appreciate that. Prices are a bit on the high side.
Cleanliness tends to steadily decline as the night goes on. Perhaps wiping the tables between customers would help. It’s overall probably closer to a 3 star, but the friendly bar staff push it up a notch. There’s no presumption here.

Great selection of ever changing beers. Food is ok, if a little on the expensive side. Staff are always willing to help choose a beer for you. Live music is on regularly and usually quite good.

The Union has undergone a few changes in the past 5 years, and my old
local is now more akin to a local tap house.
The walls were plastered, post Australia day, with their own Hottest 100. The Hottest 100 Beers.
They gots Tap Beer, Craft Beer, Cider, Craft Cider, Imported beer, Local beer, Pump Ales and they gots Paddles!
Thats a wooden board with 6 – 8 different beers so you can try them all out. It’s like a Beer Candy store. This is an excellent concept. I think it amounted to around $ 19, but that’s less than a Jug of the Hog Hop Feral at the Princely sum of $ 22, which was on promotion at the time.
The Union loses 2 stars for the Bistro alone.
Service: Customer service is not the place for Door mice. Our Waitress/​cashier wouldnt even look at our faces. When she found she had run out of table numbers she ripped a piece of paper and drew a smiley face for our table number, and when we offered to help her put it into the holder, flat out ignored our suggestions we could assist. Flat out ignored.
The food wasn’t anything special. I recall it being much better in days gone by… (insert back in my day reference here) and for $ 22.50 for ‘Creamy Prawn and Chorizo Pasta’ I had food regrets almost immediately
We waited about 50 mins for that and a Haloumi burger, that was all bun and not much inside. A bit like the waitress.
Go for the Beersperience, but dont spend $ 20 on a main meal here.

I have had many a post show drink at the Union Hotel, usually the circumstances are that I am a member of the audience come to see a play with a friend and then after the excitement of the theatre, the New Theatre that is, we come down to the old Union for an after theatre drink.
The Union, thusly called because it doesn’t get a lot done but everyone knows that it’s important, is a mainstay of the Newtown area. It’s a large pub with a bistro area out back, which is much fancier than the pub front, which resembles your classic country town drinking hole. There’s a courtyard for the smokers and an attached bottle shop for people inclined to continue their merriment elsewhere.
I recall once I won a competition which was a part of Newtown Flicks. I had to do something, the details are a little hazy but that’s alcoholism for you. All I remember was that it was a game of skill and not of chance
The prize I won was a camera, a little JVC HD video camera, pretty cool. I bussed it in to Newtown and walked down to the Union Hotel to meet the head of Newtown Flicks and the prize dispenser of the day.
We took a seat out the back in the bistro and shared a beer. (One each, we didn’t get a schooner and two straws. There was no lady and the tramp action here.) We talked about the festival and about the films, we talked about the promotional materials and how great it would be if I stuck some posters up about the place.
Then our film didn’t even get a mention, just slipped into obscurity, kind of like a Union.

I don’t mind The Union Hotel in Newtown. It’s at the quieter end of King Street as you head away from the city and it’s a nice place to grab a quiet drink and meal from the bistro. I’ve enjoyed many of each there and it always suffices all too well!
There’s a nice lounge area and courtyard and trivia on Wednesday nights is always a bit of fun. If you stop by on a Friday be sure to grab a ticket in the meat tray raffle and if you do win, there is a bottle shop so you can stock yourself up and head back home. It’s a pretty nice place well worth a stop over at.

Formerly my absolute local, this pub still gets regular visits determined by the friendliness of the current staff. The big old front bar is homely and has sport on the TVs, as well as two pool tables and a juke box. The back is a bistro, with separate bar, pokie room and courtyard. There is also a bottle shop attached for takeaways.
The bistro changes hands all the time, with its current incantation being a little bit fancy but still having burgers for the no nonsense eater. «The Eatery» as it is known is open for lunch Wednesday to Sunday, and dinner seven days.
I hadn’t been there for a beer in ages, because I had a bad experience with the staff turning off the juke box midway through a song the minute it hit midnight, and telling us all to leave. The most recent visit was pleasant, however, with friendly bar staff who remembered the particulars of our drink order. There is also a large range of beers on tap now, boutique and the like.