The Unicorn Hotel — Restaurant in Sydney

My mate Jason, who is a dog owner, thinks dogs in pubs are a terrible idea. Jason reckons being a good dog parent messes with his prime objective in a pub – knocking back a few beers and socialising with mates. For me, seeing puppies hanging out in the front bar in the Unicorn Hotel seemed like a great idea, but of course, I just have cats at home to worry about. We debated this back and forth over a (quite pricy) tinny of Yulli’s Amanda Mandarin ($12.50) that was easy to enjoy. Then we moved on to a pair of Penicillin ($14/each) cocktails, which were not, because they were mouth-blastingly sour.

Beyond the dogs, what impressed me about this Paddington pub was it was full of everyday Paddington people, including some who were swing dancing up a storm to live music and an appreciative crowd of onlookers. The old-world charm of this art deco era public house continues into a menu of retro-fantastic snacks like Jatz with French Onion Dip ($12), that eats well but feels kinda pricy for less than a packet of Jatz with a tub of dip.

There’s also a Potato Scallop ($14) served in a milk-bar style paper bag with slightly more hipster salt and vinegar powder and smoked tomato ketchup, though it doesn’t live up to the deliciousness I remember from being a kid. Spying a Mary’s Burger ($20) on the menu I hit it up only to find it’s curiously unsatisfying (and a far cry from the one I ate at their Pitt Street outlet when it first appeared). While the patty and the accompanying lettuce, tomato, mayo., cheese and Mary's special sauce felt similar, the toasted milk bun seemed a little stale, and the overall taste didn’t smack you in the burger sweet spot like the first one I tried.

While The Unicorn Hotel's food was just okay rather than great, the community-focused vibe was pretty nice. I only wish the place – particularly the amenities – were kept a little cleaner across the course of a...

Unfortunately not even a zero rating would do justice to our experience, more like -5! I grew up in the area albeit many years ago and have very fond memories of all the places around the hotel including the hotel. We had a business back then that provided produce to the pub and had a great relationship. We a.friend suggested we go their I was really looking forward to getting back to the area and reliving my early days. Unfortunately the experience was horrible. It started off well as my friends were already there with drinks on the table. An hour reminiscing went by quickly and time to order, that engage with staff. Now that didn't go well at all. Went to the bar to order their signature pie, mash and pies, 4 PEOPLE IN FRONT OF ME, and pent the next 51 minutes waiting to be served!!! Not sure about everyone else but this really isn't acceptable especially when staff made no effort to hurry when serving customers. They to serve all their local customers at other locations around there bar rather than the first customers. By the.ti.e we ordered, there we at least another 10 people behind us. I understand when a business favours its repeat local customers but since the place wasn't busy, thought they be interested in getting new customers but not to be. The food is for another post! Reliving this experience is enough for one day and.suffice to say I will never be going to the Unicorn Hotel in Paddington ever again. Such a shame because in the day, you had to queue for ages just to get in the place!!! Bring back...

The experience I had can be simply explained by what happens when an establishment is currently very popular, it then becomes even more complacent to match, this often happens without proper overarching management.

We were sitting in the back courtyard on a freezing night and had just the wrong number of people for one table or two.

Seeing as there was no one there, we just dragged another large table across.

A young girl with short hair working at the bar saw this and about 30 minutes after we had done this decided to walk up to the table. She also only did this when half of us had left to order and very passively aggressively asks "sorry, are you guys having a million people here tonight?". The few people still left on the table politely said "No just us, feel free to move the table back if you please."

This young girl waltzes back a few minutes later after having built some confidence up again and proceeds to aggressively pull the table apart, with the drinks on it from the people ordering at the bar (paying her wage), unsettling us sitting down at the time.

This is all that is wrong with hospitality, it doesn't matter if you have brilliant food, it can so easily be ruined by rude service, we all work very hard for our money and will not be spending here again, not from a bad food experience but from awful arrogant...