The Crown Hotel

The interior is newly renovated; it’s modern and spacious with shiny timber floors, low mood lighting and plain white washed walls. There are plenty of seating options, both indoors and out, including in the beer garden downstairs, as you enter off the car park. But no matter where you sit, you’ll find a cool, relaxed and casual vibe, in a stylish and modern setting. The night we dined, being the night before the Australia Day holiday, the place had a decent turnout, with both inside and outside fairly full. We chose to sit in the Pavilion dining area which had only a smattering of other diners, but we were super comfy there, with good acoustics, sturdy wicker chairs and a table that was large enough to fit all the drinks and the dishes. The Pavilion has been very tastefully decorated with plants hanging from the ceiling, and exposed wooden beams giving it a trendy and chic look and feel. Four of us dined. For main meals, my wife and I ordered the Tuesday night specials: the steak and beer at a reasonable 25 pesos. Our friends chose a medley of other dishes including calamari, cauliflower salad and pumpkin salad plus a side of chips at 7 pesos and a glass of sparkling white wine at a hefty 12 pesos. We were impressed with the food and full marks to the chefs, because everything was nicely prepared and presented to the table on smart white crockery. My steak was well done, just the way I like it and served with crispy potatoes and crunchy asparagus. The calamari was soft and chewy, while the salad dishes were fresh and tasty. Everyone enjoyed their meals. Service was helpful, friendly and polite, but I was a bit disappointed at the length of time it took, from ordering, until the meals arrived at the table, which was approx 25 mins. I suspect the problem is that there are multiple dining spaces spread out over a large area, which requires staff to be running up and down including to the beer garden downstairs. But the manager especially deserves a pat on the back for all his hard work, especially as the venue was busy and he had a fair bit of ground to cover to keep all the customers happy. Despite being under pressure, he was patient and attentive. There are two lots of toilets. The male one just behind the bar counter had only one cubicle, which given the size of the venue, would seem a bit inadequate especially when the place is full. The other one, in another part of the venue, had two cubicles. The venue has its own car park, which it shares with the popular First Choice liquor store. Overall, we had a pleasant night here. The food was excellent, there are clean and well stocked toilets and plenty of free parking right outside. Staff are pleasant and friendly. On the negative side, service was a tad slow and we were disappointed that the A.V.C. vouchers, which we used to make our payment, did not qualify for rewards. Despite that, it merits a return visit.

Initially hesitant after the refurb and earlier reviews, I was plenty surprised at the new surroundings, very clean, staff were friendly. Parmi and chips was fantastic with seasoning. Minus one star as delivery was slow despite it being quiet and it was served on a flat plate which made it tricky to keep together.

Edit: I have reduced my rating to one star! Simply due to the complete lack of a response to my two emails (which they requested!!) The Mister and I grabbed a friend, and took her to dinner at this newly-refurbed (140 year old) hotel. We’d never been here before so it was a new experience for us all. Considering it was Monday night, there were quite a few families out and about, which was great to see. We sat out in the open courtyard, which was lovely with the old bricks showing on the walls. We ordered via our phones – so quick and easy. I chose fish of the day, the friend had chicken schnitzel and the Mister had ricotta gnocchi. He said his gnocchi with mushrooms was ‘adequate’, sadly nothing special. And really sad to say, I chose the worst dish of the night (and it looked ugly). Fish of the day was tuna, which was surprising to me. For some reason, I expected barra or snapper or salmon, etc. My bad, but it was so overcooked that I left most of it on the plate. There was no sauce or relish with it, so it was dry and tasteless. The mussel ‘cream’ was a few tiny, wrinkled mussels – that’s it! No cream or sauce. And it came with a few scrawny, overdone broad beans. I swear they were old geezers, left to die in the freezer. The polenta side was a sad, tasteless lump. I had thought it was dried out potato till the waiter said in passing this was a new side with the fish. I ended up helping to eat the Friend’s chicken as it was huge and delicious. Great fried coating, moist chicken and very tasty. I will give them another chance, as I really want to try the steak but on this particular occasion, I was left hungry and sad. Not so sure about this new seasonal menu, but perhaps I caught them on a bad night. Anyway, the atmosphere was good, staff were okay, and I’d like to try again, as the steak at another table smelt great.