Orange Grove Hotel

This is basically an old man’s pub, and a rather tacky looking one at that. Honestly, while it isn’t one that I’d be hurrying back to any time soon, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as some of the pubs that I have visited. Sure, their selection of tap beers was rather limited, but I found that the service I received was actually pretty good, so I’ll certainly give it points for that.

My boss suggested to come here for lunch and i was surprised how there is a chinese restaurant in the pub! It must've just opened for the day so we were the first customer to come in, so the food came out straight away after ordering. Considering it is in a pub i was pleasantly surprised with my wonton noodle soup. Great portion size and great value. The pub itself was quite dead and the smell of bleach was overpowering the entire place which was a bit annoying.

We didn't win the meat tray (even though we got a new ticket every time we bought a beer) - but the house red was a treat as was the Thai meal from the bistro (even though there was an over kill on the decorative lettuce). Crowd was a good mixture of tradies, the local Tigers rugby team, a few families (free lollipops for the kids) and some twentysomethings who played the jukebox loud and changed channels on the tv all night. So really - something for everyone!

Was once described to me as the pub where only people with two heads drink. It's been (somewhat) recently renovated though and is now a great place for drinks and food. There's plenty of beers on tap as well as an extensive wine list. Food wise it specialises in Thai cuisine as well as your standard pub grub. In terms of price it's better value then most of the pubs in the Balmain area. One room is set up with comfortable leather couches, there's a restaurant area and best of all most of the patrons have one head each.