PJ Gallager’s Irish Pub EQ

This pub is a handy spot to have a drink before heading to a game at either the SCG or SFS.
Beers are reasonably priced given the location and the food is pretty decent.
There’s a nice outdoor beer garden where you’ll grab a seat if the weather is fine. If it’s pouring rain you’ll probably stick to inside as there’s limited area outside where you won’t get wet.
Plenty of screens showing all kinds of sport will keep you entertained until kick off/​ball up/​the first ball being bowled.

I’m just going to come out with it: you’re a fool of you go here before a sporting event. Everyone goes here before a sporting event. Before a sporting event you should be doing a 150 lashes pub crawl through Surry Hills. Almost every pub will have Happy Hour going — $ 6 pints!
AFTER a sporting event, on the other hand, there is nowhere better than PJ’s. Being the sponsor of Bill’s rugby team, I have a real soft spot for the PJ’s group. Normally I have great distain for faux-​Irish pubs. It’s a concept you can’t transplant without bringing the entire population of Ireland with it (we’re getting there). PJs, however, I can forgive anything, even Jackson’s on George.
You can’t just throw a couple of hurling clubs and a Guinness sign into a cavernous building and call it an Irish pub. PJs at Fox Studio needs to be sectioned off into about 40 tiny snugs before it could really claim this concept. Nevertheless, filled with the Après-​rugby crowd it’s still a pretty good atmosphere. The bar tenders are unpretentious and if you pick your random patrons right there’s good banter.
The line moves quick and the beer garden is ok. This place would benefit from more live music but other than that it’s class.

The de-​facto go to place for pre-​concert and sporting events. So much effort has gone into the vibe of the venue. You’ve got Guinness on tap, wooden barrels and meaty stew on the menu. A court yard overlooks the many, lacking, sights of the local area.
This place is feast or famine though. I’ve gone in on a Monday with friends and seen nobody in the area with my meal coming out in about 5 minutes. Came back last night for a concert and i waited 10 minutes to get a order and another 20 for my food to arrive.
Prices are deadly here, but from looking around the area, it seems to be standard.

Oh PJ’s, you haven’t changed a bit.
It’s still all pretty much the same — regular pub inside. It’s all woods and stool seating. They have outside seating available too which overlooks Fox Studios.
And overpriced meals on the menu. I paid $ 23 for a lamb salad. Yes people, a lamb salad for over $ 20. And it wasn’t even that magical. Total disappointment.
Is it just me but do you find that paying $ 4 for a pre-​soda mix from a barrel a bit high? Come on guys, honestly. How much further could you mark up a crappy drink that’s not even alcoholic?
Suffice to say I left here feeling a bit underwhelmed.

I love this place, good food and perfect Guinness! I love to go over there! It is missing only one thing, no music!

This used to be the Fox & Lion, if memory serves, and it often doesn’t.
The première watering hole in the Entertainment Quarter is now a PJ Gallager’s, the reliably boozy Irish pub chain decked out in Gaelic memorabilia (like hurling paddles! And oblique Irish sayings!) where you can most deffo get a hard-​earned booze on.
Sure, it’s a bot of a cookie-​cutter approach to a pub, and sure, it’s big and a teensy bit impersonal, but I really like their big outdoor beer garden, and the bar staff are friendly as puppies which is all I want from a pub, really. Unless they’re giving out free back rubs. Because I love me a back rub.

Went there after Sydney FC game as was raining so we run to the nearest pub which was this one.
The beer was fine, the food was OK — very Irish and very heavy and just simple.
I only liked the Irish music in the background.
I have been to better Irish pubs.

Typical Irish pub feel like the other venues in this chain. Plenty of beers for selection, limited wine list and a mid sized menu for you to order meals and snacks from.
Shared a bottle of wine and had some dinner here on a quiet Tuesday night with two friends.
Service from bartender was OK. The female waitress — seemed as though she may have been the manager on duty — did however like to tell her customers off and point out what they’d done wrong in the ordering process.
The 2 men in front of us ordering food got told that their drinks weren’t ordered because she asked them if they wanted to order drinks and they ordered food instead. When our main meals were brought to us ahead of our garlic bread, I asked where the bread was and got told by her that «It’s coming! It’s because you all paid separately» despite the entire order being on the same table number.
Anyway, the wine we chose was nice — Sophia Sav Blanc — and our meals were all very tasty, the steak and Guinness pie coming out on top. we also had the crumbed lamb cutlets and the lamb shanks.
Overall, it was a nice enough place to grab a quick and inexpensive bite to eat before the movies or a show in the area.