Kilted Kangaroo

A group of friends of mine get together once a month and this is the venue of their choosing as you can reserve the big room upstairs. I’m not a fan.
Being able to reserve the room is about the only thing I like about this place… oh and street parking.
It is a completely over the top «Aussie» themed bar. Themed as in it has all the terribly tacky, tourist ideas of Australia. The toilets are named Blokes and Sheilas, there is swamp/​beach style décor, and not a single aussie accent on the staff, which I’m actually quite pleased they weren’t required to imitate an Australian accent.
It’s fairly priced, and the food, although I didn’t get any this time, is… adequate. The upstairs room has it’s own bar, but they have never had it staffed when we’ve been. It gets quite busy and loud in the main bar area, and is honestly somewhere I’d rather avoid.

A taste of the outback in good old Scotland was understandably a very exciting prospect. However, I found this Aussie attraction a bit tacky and loud for my liking.
The painted scenery of animals and bright colors seems more fitting for a children’s church group. The cocktail pitchers we ordered were outrageously weak to the point that it tasted like watered down juice. The menu actually had a lot of promise — with Kangaroo Fajitas, Enchiladas, Kangaroo Bush Burger and huge nacho plates. Always refreshing to see some Mexican-​Australian mixes. However, despite us coming on Christmas bank holiday weekend, they were out of Enchiladas and the 8oz steaks. They also said that there was only one portion of kangaroo left (what?! that’s the main novelty of this place!) so the 3 of us (out of a total table of 9) had to decide between us who was going to get to try it. We were told of the latter part once we had already ordered and had been waiting for 10 minutes. They eventually found a way to squeeze two portions out of it. Once I got my sizzling kangaroo platter I realized they had forgotten salsa, sour cream, or guacamole and the tortillas. I had to go and ask for it. The meat was good but a bit tough and slightly charred on the edges. The other lucky person who got the kangaroo steak also said he had eaten a more tender, juicy cut.
Overall, a bit loud and a bit overpriced for Scotland with not much to say about their alcohol or the availability of food.

A fairly decent place for a drink on a sunny afternoon.
The Kilted Kangaroo isn’t a pub that you’re likely to stumble across, being down a slightly suspect alley-​way and across a dingy car park. This benefits the pub in as far as you’re unlikely to find any tourists here and the prices are very reasonable.
It’s an Australian-​themed pub! Like all Australian-​themed pubs, it’s a little tacky, quite cheap looking and very rough around the edges (I’m told that this is an accurate representation of real Australian pubs, but I wouldn’t know!).
There’s a very decent-​sized beer garden with plenty of empty space for us on a very warm Saturday afternoon. Coming from Edinburgh, it’s basically a miracle to find a single outdoors seat on such a day, let alone room to spare.
The bar seems well-​stocked with a decent variety of booze. The prices were decent and the staff were friendly. I didn’t eat here, but from what I saw the portions were generous and the food seemed decent.
The Kilted Kangaroo is not a bad bet if you’re looking for a chilled-​out drink or a cheap bit of pub-​grub, but don’t expect paradise.

There weren’t too many options for barbecue around Scotland, but there was one spot in Stirling that was definitely on my radar. Who could resist a place called The Kilted Kangaroo? This is a fun joint with a lively atmosphere. They have a great bar, which plays host to nightly entertainment that includes console gaming, musical bingo, karaōke, and trivia.
Naturally, I started things off with a pint of Fosters. I also decided on an appetizer order of Breaded Haggis Balls, which come coated in breadcrumbs and served with a whisky (their spelling) sauce. My wife was too timid to try more than a tiny bite of this organ meat delicacy, but I dug right in. The breading was a significant improvement on traditional haggis in my humble opinion. The breading kept it from being as crumbly as other haggis I’ve tried, and the creamy whiskey sauce added a nice flavor to the mix.
Aussies seem to use the term «BBQ» more loosely than we do in the States, so I played things safe and stuck to the ribs. I ordered a rack of baby back ribs, which comes with salad and fries.
The salad which accompanies their entrees is the Aussie House Salad: mixed peppers, red onion, carrot, cherry tomatoes, spring onions, croutons, and honey mustard dressing. I’m not big on veggies in general, so I passed. The fries also looked pretty basic and came buried under my slab of ribs. The sweet barbecue sauce gave them a nice taste at least.
I wish I could have gotten my ribs without sauce, but it’s hard to be picky this far from Texas. The ribs came smothered in a pool of The Kilted Kangaroo’s homemade barbecue sauce. The very red sauce was obviously tomato based and was quite sweet. The meat was tender, but had kind of a boiled texture to it. There was no smoke that I could find. In fact, the only flavors were mostly just from the over-​abundant sauce. These were not the ribs I’d hoped for.
The Kilted Kangaroo seems like a better place to grab a drink after dinner than anything else.

I like Kilted Kangaroo, Stirling’s Australian themed bar and restaurant. What I don’t like is the name. Kilted Kangaroo used to be called Outback. In fact, it’s still called Outback, in a sense, because I’ve never once heard anyone call it by it’s new name. I find Kilted Kangaroo to be a little bit tacky and gimmicky. — Outback had a real ring to it! They have a nice little open mic night on a Tuesday night, which my band sometimes play and they do have some good events on like summer musical festivals, a weekly pub quiz and they even had flights to Australia to be won not too long ago and also a weekend where all drinks were half price! They have a large outdoor area so it’s great for summer days at the pub with friends. Kilted Kangaroo is popular with students. I’m not a huge fan of themed bars and it’s all a little gimmicky. (They have a themed truck at the back of the bar!) I did once have food here in the form of a barbecue platter with workmates and the food was all very fresh and tasty. I’ve had no bad experience with staff, they all seem friendly and helpful. I would go to Kilted Kangaroo with friends as I have before, and I am desperate to try their burgers, but it’s not top choice for me.