The Rose Hotel — Restaurant in Sydney

Like seeing a big present at Christmas only to find out it’s socks inside, The Rose Hotel looked and felt great, and seeing the food come out for other tables, we had high hopes of a wonderful experience! Sadly, we left a bit disappointed.

The service was lovely and the atmosphere created inside was great. Little features like the candles they’ve let drip and accumulate all the wax is a nice touch. The drinks looked great and those in our party who got cocktails were fairly satisfied with their creations.

Where the Rose loses marks though was with the food. The dishes looked amazing and were wonderfully presented. Some of the dishes lived up to expectations, but most were tragic disappointments though. The stuffed chicken was great, yet by contrast a pub staple like the Schnitzels were awful. They were exceedingly bland, with a mushy, moist layer between the meat and breading that would suggest they’d been frozen and reheated poorly. For the money you pay, it was a bitter disappointment. Those in our party that order the schnitzel all remarked at how our usual local pub that does $21 schnitzel and schooner deals was significantly better. Others also reported the pizzas were mediocre, and they appeared slightly underdone in our batch too. One of us ordered the ragu pasta and remarked that was lovely though. So, very hit and miss, but the misses were quite poor.

I’d happily come back to this pub to enjoy the nice atmosphere, but I’d hope they either fix up their food quality, or I’d just avoid...

We have visited this place multiple times over the years.

The atmosphere is always nice with a mix of students, locals, and people droping in for post work drinks. There is often cool music playing.

The food has been consistently good with an excellent range of pub favourites.

They certainly get extra points for being dog friendly.

More bonus points for having a pool table, a fish tank, and an awesome outdoor area.

The extensive range of beers is something that brings me back and is definitely a unique selling point when compared to some of the other local boozers in the area.

The only small gripe I have is that I wish all the staff had better knowledge of the beers they serve. It makes a real difference when bar staff know basic things such as what beers are from Sydney breweries, what beers are from independent breweries, the different flavour profiles, etc.

I would imagine having more clued up staff helps with quicker sales for the pub and demonstrates a commitment to excellence. To be fair, some of the bar staff do demonstrate excellent knowledge, so this issue is not across the board. This is the only reason I gave an average score for "Service."

Having said that, I recommend you visit The Rose if you love beer, want a large and interesting pub with good food and a...

I've been a patron of the Rose for over ten years now, being part of a theatre company who performs at the Seymour regularly. Today I found out that the management decided to stop hosting a Catholic event at the pub (Theology on Tap), because a handful of customers complained (as they were "offended" by the content of the event and basically had anti-Catholic sentiments). This was a real "line in the sand" moment for this pub, who could have shown courage, justice, integrity and fairness to all. Instead they decided to crumble, probably out of fear, but nevertheless have chosen the path of discrimination, discriminating against Catholics because it "offends" a handful of customers. I was proud of the pub to host the event in the first place - and thus show true diversity by being a space open to all, but am so very disappointed at this cowardly and ultimately discriminatory decision. I will be encouraging the theatre company I am with, as well as our patrons who come to the Seymour, not to go to The Rose, but to visit The Two Wolves, just 5 minutes more...