It was my local for years and I like the beer garden and the pizzas. Outside of that this place does not have much else that attracts me to it. read more

Having lived in the area most of my life I could be slightly bias. This bar is a gem amongst the North Shore. The food is ok but quite pricey for the quality. The real reason I'm drawn to this place is its huge Oak tree in the middle, which is a great area to sit under while having a beer and decent meal. So in short it's a good all rounder albeit slightly expensive. read more

Unfortunately a pretty overrated place. For the price, it's pretty OTT for getting standard Sydney pub fare. Given that you have to order at the counter and get your own food, there's no reason it should be as expensive as a table service fancy af place. My steak (sirloin) was tough and cold and all our gravies were pretty average. The mashed potatoes were cold. They were so busy that a waitstaff person came past and dumped a bunch of used cutlery on our half-full salad plate and took it away. It was sitting next to us on a ledge because the tables are tiny but we weren't done. They refunded us for the salad. But honestly, this is a loud, average pub that takes for ever and is hella expensive. read more

The Oaks is about the best pub eating around and it does have pretty good steaks. As an American I find Aussie steaks cut too thin and hence you can't get that perfect combination of crust on the outside and pink red centers in the middle. The Oaks comes closer to this ideal than most any other place I've been since getting here a year ago. That includes some lofty places in Sydney. As for cooking it yourself, I'm as good as the next guy, but why challenge a professional? Ambience is upgraded pub, and with the bar ordering for food and drinks, it all moves along pretty quickly - a plus for me and my family of 7! read more

Had lunch at The Oaks on Saturday 30th May . This iconic hotel is one of the most efficiently operated and stylish hotels in Sydney. I ordered a medium- rare Scoth Fillet Steak with Salad and chips at $26. A quarter of the steak was raw hence it had to be sent back and recooked. My partner's Chicken Fillet Hamburger at $18 was average but the meat was perfectly cooked. The place was packed with dinners and the chefs were under pressure. This was very average pub food. But the staff are helpful and quick plus the friendly atmosphere still made this an enjoyable experience. read more

Great food, and all the classics with a twist. There's nothing like a dinner in the garden with fam & friends. One thing I love about eating at The Oaks is their BBQ Sauce...great fires with seriously the best best BBQ Sauce in Sydney or anywhere for that matter! read more

This is a review of the bar and grill only. I think my experience was a little tainted by the food experience but I will do a bit of a sandwich review and start and end with the good. The outdoor patio is beautifully lit up with glowing white lights wrapped around the trees. It really sets a magical scene for a night out or a date. People were walking around and clearing empty glasses and dirty ashtrays very frequently which I haven't seen much of in Sydney....here is where it turns for us though. We ordered food and were told it would take about 20 minutes. After about 40 minutes of waiting we started to panic as we were going to see Magic Mike XXL and time was becoming of the essence because who wants to miss even one scene with Channing Tatum? Our pager said low battery so I went up and got a new one. Approaching the hour mark, when the movie was about to begin, panic set in. Fight or flight mode was upon us but what does one choose? Food that has been paid for or Topless men? We decided to go up and enquire about our food and it was sitting at the pass through but our pager had never gone off. As a former server who had to take orders, run food and clear tables I sort of expected that for a place where you get paged and collect your own food, they would get the whole see food come up, page customer thing down since they don't have to do the other things. It was quite busy so I will give them that but instead of apologizing they just said that they quote 20-45 minutes which A) still is less than how long it took and B) was not what was quoted so C) is kind of irrelevant. There is this great thing I have noticed in Australia whereby no one apologizes or admits fault but just says something back to you like a random fact about quote times. We start eating and decide it is flight time and we are going to make this movie no matter what. I go up and request take away containers, the girl says okay but proceeds to help other customers. She then looks at my not so happy face and turns to the kitchen guy to ask for them but he doesn't hear her so as she turns away to help other people I just ask him directly. He takes a few minutes to look around and then tells me there are no lids and that it will be a few more minutes. At this stage I am mad and tell him we've probably missed the beginning of the movie so never mind. I get to the table and my friend is not happy that I did not complete the take away container mission and decides to take matters into her own hands. She finds a wooden bowl thing somehow and starts to put the food into it when all of a sudden our Knight in shining armour, aka kitchen whites, comes out with take away containers with lids. He went to the trouble of coming to find us which I thought was great. Good work kitchen guy, good work! We run to the car, I swerve in and out of traffic - in a safe and controlled manner of course, and we find rockstar parking. We run in heels (because you obviously wear heels for Channing, he is quite tall and it would be awkward otherwise) to the theatre and when we get there the girl tells us there are 20 minutes of previews and we haven't missed it yet. We sit down having missed possibly only the first 2 seconds and the girls behind us comment on our amazing timing to which we reply "amazing, we had to get our food for take away but we made it." We open our take away containers and enjoy some pretty tasty food. We ordered the Fried Chicken Burger which was nothing special but the Mac n Cheese and Brussels Sprouts were delicious. I would go here for drinks for sure and maybe for food at a less busy time. Even if we hadn't been trying to make a movie I was starving by the time we got our food and would have been Hangry either way. read more

Great bar in neutral bay. Had lunch with family at the beer garden. We enjoyed it and we will be back

Located in Neutral Bay, The Oaks Hotel is certainly a pub for all types. Any given week night features a cast of thousands - predominantly business people heading back to their lower North Shore homes after a day at work, but there are also students, backpackers and other degenerates. But be warned - the security is TIGHT and if you're a mess or a potential problem, then you ain't getting in. The Oaks does pretty standard pub food choices at slightly expensive prices, and standard drinks choices too. Upstairs, it has a heap of little room that have pool tables and feel like private function rooms - ideal if you don't want to face the rest of Sydney on a crowded Friday night. The huge beer garden is also a winner in summer - it doesn't face Military Road, and is an oasis of calm and quiet (sort of). The Oaks often does itself up for various events - Melbourne Cup, Rugby Finals, etc - and does a good job of it, too. If you're looking for a watering hole in the area, The Oaks Hotel is a pretty solid choice. read more

An institution among Sydney pubs. It's massive, and has several areas for whatever you need: lounge bar, sports bar, dining room, huge outdoor tree-covered beer garden with barbecue, and bottle shop. It's got a spot to suit all moods and crowd sizes. Doesn't look like much from the outside, but then Aussie pubs often don't. If you get one of their pizzas or pots of mussels they'll cook it and bring it to you. If you're after steak or prawns or anything more meaty, though, you select it from the inside counter, take it out to the courtyard, and grill it yourself on the barbecue! Fun, communal, no complaining about how it's done, and it's cheaper than the equivalent steak most other places. What a pub! read more

HORRIBLE restaurant service. No service at all. Servers never come to your table. Drinks need to be ordered at a bar. Then You have to order your food out of your table, at a different spot from the bar, and later get your food when called out of a "pager" they give you after ordering. And the famous Tomahawk steak, they're always out of stock. Paying a lot to have a fast food chain service. read more

Really nice food and the tree is amazing! You there and you'll see what im talking about

This place is ok on a Saturday, as long as you don't go inside. More on that in a moment. Jugs of delicious adult beverages wash down probably the most decent pizza I've had at a bar in Australia - true story (although it must be said that said pizza was consumed post drinks at another establishment). The outside has that college bar cafeteria feel to it - everyone is pretty much seated at their own little tables, so not much opportunity to mingle with strangers of the opposite gender unless you resort to passing notes. But, if you think the solution to this problem is to venture inside the room adjacent to the main bar where it sounds like someone is playing some music? Um, think again. I felt like I stumbled into Utah (no offense to Utah) - much older men (think late 40's, early 50's) mingling with much younger women (think early 20's) to the subtle soundtrack of Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." Seriously, nightmare inducing - so many mistakes waiting to happen in there, ladies. So stay outside. That's all I'm saying. read more

It's an institution. Great outdoor beer garden and simple but good menu - traditional pub fair. Pizzas, butter milk chicken and mussels are the highlight. read more

Love this place I remember first going here with my now Husband 10 years agao. Still brings butterflys to my stomach I absolutely love the atmosphere. No where to park but thats okay, I wouldn't want to drive after a few vinos anyway! read more

Nice place, good food. Most interesting is you can BBQ your steak by your own at the garden. Both food and price are good. Will visit again. read more

After pre booking for a 30th Birthday and warning the venue that we had a disabled person with us, which they said was not a problem. We were denied access because there wasn't enough room for a wheel chair.....which is absolutely ridiculous because they were letting in people who were fully able and we had a room booked upstairs. read more

My initial impression before entering was very positive. The posh lights on the tree out the back looked quite nice. The toilet was not up to scratch purely because it had a grid on it, but the swiftness of our drink delivery made up for the bathroom shortcoming. We went to order food but were told to cross the courtyard to order at another bar. After crossing the courtyard we went inside to the bar and asked to order and once again were told that we were in the wrong place and to "go over there". We kept walking past the end of the bar in search of this mythical ordering point and almost walked past a small area with some steaks in a display window. The woman that served us horrendously sour. Her tone and snappiness was not acceptable. One of the individuals in our party asked for a T-bone to which she answered "what you see is what you get". I felt this was inappropriate and could of been handled in a much more pleasant manor. Overall we enjoyed our meals and will come come back in the future although the cranky lady did the establishment no favours. read more