Flying Duck Hotel

For my 1000^th review I thought I’d choose somewhere special, and the Flying Duck certainly is special. A couple of years ago I celebrated my 30^th birthday here and it was a totally fabulous night. I re-​visited about a month ago for a casual dinner with friends.
I have no idea how I first discovered this pub. I’m guessing one of my friends told me about it — and booking it for my 30^th was simple and straightforward. Inside it’s a very traditional looking pub which has had a bit of a renovation so it’s quite classy, and outside there’s a beer garden as well as a covered area which is what we used for my birthday. It was just perfect and made for a really fun night.
When we visited recently, we enjoyed some drinks in the beer garden before moving inside for dinner. The menu is gastropub style and there’s some really interesting sounded dishes on the menu but I went for the token chicken parma as it had been so long since I’d had one. While I wouldn’t say it was the best parma I’ve ever had it was pretty damn good.
Overall, this is a lovely little pub off the chaotic Chapel St which is well worth a visit if you’re looking for a quiet catch up with friends.

The Duck has reopened. A great renovation, excellent food, big selection of draught beer and very friendly staff all go to make this a great pub. In summer the beer garden will be very popular

It seems as if you wonder around a pub taking photos people automatically think you are a developer, or at least that is what one guy thought. It turned out he was the owner. Mind you he was a pretty decent bloke, but still, it makes me wonder why people don’t think ‘maybe he is taking photos so he can post them up on the internet to tell everybody what an awesome pub this is’. It is a pretty awesome pub, though how long it is going to remain that way is yet to be seen. Mind you, considering the number of reviews this place has suggests that many people think the same. It’s not just the beer garden that is cool about this place, but the glass house out the back. It’s sort of like being able to catch the sunshine but not being bothered by all of the other elements as well. Mind you, I’ve been meaning to check it out ever since my bookclub arranged a get together here, one that I wasn’t able to make, and the fact that it is hidden away in the back streets certainly makes this one pub to visit.

Very, very good meal. Great variety of indoor, semi-​outdoor, and outdoor seating options. Wish they’d have come and taken our order though rather than making our party of 5 come up to the counter to get it, and really detest that they allow smoking in the outdoor areas — gross! But the crispy skin pork belly dish was very, very good, and my partner loved his fettucine, and I liked the casual family-​friendly atmosphere (even though the kids menu looked like crap — why not offer half-​orders of regular food so kids aren’t stuck with pizza?). Very loud with all the men yelling at the cricket games so that with the smoking, I probably wouldn’t come back even though the food was quite delicious.

A great local pub. We come here Mondays because you can bring your dog. It’s a dog-​lovers heaven. Food is pretty good but a little pricey. I guess we come here for the dogs so we are a bit biased.