Hope & Anchor — Restaurant in Hobart

We visited the Hope and Anchor on the evening of the Comedy Festival at the Theatre Royal, Sunday 1 May. We arrived at 5:35pm with the comedy festival commencing at 7:30pm sharp. We ordered an open steak sandwich and garlic prawns; two dishes that are relatively simple to prepare and hence very quick to get to the table. We ordered within 10 minutes of arriving and enjoyed our wine while we waited. During our wait time, groups of people were coming into the pub, obviously attending the same comedy festival; before we knew it, the hotel dining room was at capacity. As we arrived early and already had our order in the kitchen we knew we would have our meals within 20 minutes. At 6:30pm we still did not have our meals and when we enquired to the waitress, we were told "a lot of people had pre-booked so we're really busy". Having been a chef in my past life, I knew that this was a bogus excuse as the concept of 'a-la-carte' means that the diners arrive, order off the menu, with the order going into the kitchen and hence cooked by the chef's as per arrival of the order, in sequence, and in order, however when we enquired again at 6:45pm with a different waitress, we received exactly the same excuse; at this point we realised this was an excuse endorsed by management. Overall, we were not impressed at the service, but more so the arrogance and assumption that diners are stupid and don't know what's really going on. In the end we paid $68 for food which wasn't really fantastic, but the fact we waited 1 hour for 2 meals was beyond absurd and offensive. We will never recommend this...

We visited Hope and Anchor on 2 occassions whilst holidaying in Hobart between 13th and 21st Dec 2020. It declares it is the longest licensed hotel in Australua since 1807. On the first visit, we attended without a booking, but Jane was able to seat us without hesitation. The atmosphere is lovely, like a walk back in time. The meals were fabulous and well proportioned. The entree of cob loaf was oh so yummy. Having had a fabulous evening we went again. For the second visit we made a reservation and took a 3rd person with us who had a walker. They had taken note of the information when booking and gave us a table that was very suitable and kept the walker out of the way of other diners and staff. It was very busy with a large group of around 20 near us. To her credit Jane managed the evening very well. She suggested if we were ready to order, she would take it before the the large group were ready, so as not to be inconvenienced with a very long wait. Yes again the meals were sumptuous. Desserts were fabulous. Alas no Cob loaf that night. Meals 10/10, Service 10/10, Prices 10/10, Ambience 10/10. Will be our regular go to whenever in Hobart. Congratulations team...

Beautiful place with lots of cool history. Went here for dinner the other night as it had good reviews and was definitely not disappointed.

Though apparently they close food at 8 normally, they kept the dinning room open for us to eat at 8:30 (I let them know ahead of time by making a reservation though).

We were served very well by a great wait staff who were attentive but also good to chat to as well. The food was simply delicious, we had the flounder and the crispy skin salmon and the calamari. Paired it nicely with a great white wine and enjoyed the cute street view out the window by our table. After dinner the waitress offered to take out photo for memories and let us wander around the different rooms looking at al the cool old stuff even though everyone had left at this point.

All in all the meal cost us about $90 for both of us which I think is actually pretty good for what we got (2 drinks each, 2 mains and a starter). Would definitely recommend as a special meal in the dining room or just to grab a...