The Hero of Waterloo Hotel — Restaurant in Sydney

Terrible, terrible service, would not recommend this restaurant to anyone at all for dining. My husband booked a table for our anniversary, we arrived on time, staff could barely speak English they couldn't find our booking as they couldn't understand us. My husband had to write our surname down for the guy to look us up. After 25 minutes, he decided he would get another staff member to help him as he couldn't find our booking. Another foreign young ladly arrived, however we had the same issue as she couldn't find our booking either, her English was also limited. After 30 minutes, we were finally told to go upstairs to be seated, we walked up the stairs and again disappointed as there was no staff there to seat us. I had to go into the kitchen to ask the chef if there was any staff up here working. He apologised and rang down to the bar to ask someone to come up to see to us. We waited a further 10 minutes before the same young lady we dealt with downstairs came in to seat us. All we got in broken English was sorry we are very busy downstairs. We were seated with no menus given, other customers started coming in, and it appeared her priority was to see to this group over our service, so in saying that, we left. I have no issue with people visiting Australia from overseas working, as it's a wonderful experience for them, but please ensure they can speak English so we can, if nothing else, converse with them for our service. Will not be returning or recommending this facility for dining, Management needs to review their staff choices and not employ young visitors who can barely speak English. Sorry, they ruined our anniversary dinner, and we will never return to...

My daughter and I came for drinks and tapas last Thursday and we enjoyed it so much I went back for dinner and drinks on Saturday. I am not from Sydney but had been intending to visit The Hero for some time since discovering that my 2xgreat-grandfather Joe Stafford - a sailor from Co Wexford, Ireland - almost certainly drank at the pub in the early 1860s. Family lore states that he was dating one of the Irish barmaids from The Hero (Ellen Driscoll). In 1864 they had a daughter - Mary. The story goes that Joe was "lost at sea" when Mary was only 4 months old. In actual fact, Joe took off to Brisbane with my 2xgreat-grandmother Bridget O'Neill aka Cusack, where they had another 9 children. The rest as they say, is history... It was great to be able to sit at the bar looking much as it no doubt did 160 years ago and listen to the accents of the Irish guys dancing in the corner. Even managed to catch Valda and Co playing earlier in the night. Both times the food was great (especially the prawn and crab pasta on Saturday night), the staff were friendly and helpful (did I detect an Irish accent there too?). I will...

This is my olde favourite pub in The Rocks. It's also helpful that it's only up the steps from the theatres on Hickson Road so when I have been working in the Walsh Bay Theatre-land area this is my pub of choice. This is one of the (if not the) oldest pubs in Sydney. Georgian architecture, made out of local sandstone and rumoured to be built from convict labour, and the exposed beams are from the ballast of the early ships from England. Having been in here so often, I know the bar staff by name which adds to its cheery atmosphere. There are lots of beers on tap and a fine selection of whiskies too. The food is typical pub food but always great and not too expensive considering the pub's location. In the winter there is an open fire. The fireplace is next to the stage that has an upright piano and there is often a variety of live music. I have performed here once or twice myself. This is a local intimate pub, not one of those big city hipster ones. The intimacy and olde world charm is what makes this pub special, unique...