I'm not sure if I can actually call this place a standard suburban pub, particularly since not only…read moredo they have some decent beers on tap, but it actually isn't all that far from the city. Okay, it was pretty packed when I was here, but considering that there happened to be a State of Origin match on down the road, that isn't all that surprising. Still, despite the crowds, there was still enough space for my to find a place to sit, even though it did happen to be pretty loud.

I joined a group of 7 for dinner at Broncos Leagues Club today it was fantastic! The cheeseburgers…read morewere a huge hit with my group. Although they also have amazing steaks! Highly recommend for a great dinner with TVs for watching sports.

I had my first legal drink at the Broncos Leagues Club. My friends and I decided to have a laugh…read moreand go hunt down some buff footy tail at Alfie's Bar. (The hunt didn't go down so well). I returned 9 years later to have lunch with my parents. Although I'm not a footy fan, I quite enjoyed myself. When you walk in, you can turn right into the pokies room and lose yourself in a wash of rainbow, neon machines begging to take your dollars, one by one. Beyond the pokies is the Halfway Cafe, where you'll find a fine pub lunch. My mother and I are suckers for buffet, so we went downstairs and got the smorgasboard ($20 each excluding drinks). The buffet stations are huge. It's the standard soup- salad- vegetables- carved meat- pasta options with some surprising added extras. The cheese kransky is delicious, the spring rolls are more-ish if nothing else, and the grilled octopus salad is succulent and juicy. There is also quite a large assortment of asian cuisine including honey king prawns and sweet and sour pork. The only inconvenience is having to go to the bar and pay for your drinks separately.You've got a wealth of tables to choose from- booths, or window seats, so you can watch the Broncos train while you dine. While you're there, go have a gander at all the old jerseys and trophies. My favourite area is the wall just outside of Alfie's Bar that has old photos of big beefy footballers who were snapped while getting tackled, and getting their junk yoinked up to their armpits. There's some corkers in there, let me tell you. Even if you're not into footy, Broncos Leagues Club isn't a bad place to have a beer or to have a sit down meal. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

This pub really isn't all that particularly great, which is a shame because it is actually the…read morefirst pub that I visited in Brisbane's west end. Okay, it is rather large, but it appears to have come about due to apartments being put up everywhere, so basically it takes the place on the ground floor. However, I still found this place rather bland and am unlikely to visit it again.

The Melbourne Hotel is one of those places which tries to be all things to many and pulls it off…read morepretty well. Just off the main drag of West End's Boundary St, it has more of a corporate, white (& sometimes blue) collared vibe than the more bohemian bars on the main strip. Physically it's a massive space with pool tables, cavernous booth seating and a stack of flat screen TVs for watching the game on (someone once told me the place is a tax write-off for WOW Sight & Sound, but in West End people son't always let the truth get in the way of a good story...). In addition to being a solid pub where you can get a cold beer or cocktail if you're feeling refined, they also boast a respectable modern Australian menu. The emphasis on quality food is evidenced by the quote emblazoned on their signage (and I'm paraphrasing) "One of life's true pleasures is that we sit down to eat three times a day". Not being one to be able to resist a call to action rationalised by a quotation, I recently went on a Tuesday with a couple of friends to take advantage of their $15 steak special. It was quite busy but the service was impressive, with a waitress showing us to a table promptly and being generally quite helpful. She recommended the 'Confit garlic & buffalo mozzarella bread' for starters, citing its popularity. I enjoyed the 'confit garlic' part of it (they used whole cloves which become deliciously mushy with slow-roasting) but overall thought it could have benefited from a sauce of some kind, perhaps a pizza sugo. My chosen steak was a hefty 300g rib fillet -- definitely good value for the $15 -- and I was happy with their approximation of 'rare', with there being a noticible core of pink flesh in the centre of the cut. The presentation was very good too, with a balsamic reduction drizzled in orbit around the centrepiece. My only gripe with that though is that it interfered with the taste of my chosen 'pepper jus' sauce, causing a discordant clash of flavours. But it was a minor issue; overall, I left satisfied and happy with paying about half the price as you would for such a serious steak at most fine dining establishments.

Service was slow but the food was good. We had to go up to the bar 3 times to determine is our…read moreorder was ready. Four staff members standing around and yet we had gather it ourselves. That's the definition of poor service.

Always great food. Better than great.. you yeah nag, better…read morethan that. Bloody great tucker.

It doesn't matter how much chrome and wood you use to try and renovate a pub, it'll still be a pub…read more The Newmarket Hotel would be better off embracing its existence as a typical, suburban Aussie pub instead of trying to be something it's not. It's okay for a pub to be a bit grimy and dingy, in fact, it only makes them seem more authentic. The renovations on the Newmarket Hotel are aiming for contemporary sophistication but the pokies, smell of stale beer, and TVs showing sports give it away. This puts the Newmarket Hotel in the position of no longer being a traditional pub, but not cutting it as anything else either. The food is still pub food, the drinks are still pub drinks, but the place has lost its gritty soul which is what attracts a lot of people to pubs in the first place. Sure, the space looks big, and spacious, and modern, but it feels to manufactured and sterile for a pub. If you're after a nice meal in a classy venue, despite its efforts the Newmarket Hotel won't fulfill your needs. And if you feel like a traditional night at the pub, the Newmarket Hotel can no longer provide that either. Some things are best kept as they were, and the Newmarket Hotel is one of them.

The Newmarket Hotel used to be scary, dingy, and full of old men and cigarette smoke. When I saw…read moreit had had a serious facelift I thought I should pop in and test it out. There is a LOT of space here now, with a new restaurant area out the back that has plenty of glass and an open kitchen. Serious money has been spent on this renovation and even though pokies are evident it feels like a comfortable place for a drink or a bite to eat. Lunch specials are a draw card, with most lunch items under $17, however dinner is a bit pricer with $30+ steaks and other mains averaging out at $25. My problem is that it's just not that good. The menu looks great, the pub looks great, but the food is a pretty serious let down. My husband couldn't get a medium rare steak after sending back the first blue one (second one was well done) and I had a duck salad that was pretty crap to be honest. The management needs to really look at their kitchen staff and consider investing a bit of money into getting and keeping good chefs, as a pub that can't cook a steak to order is not winning any favours. It's a real disconnect to visit an establishment that throws oodles of money at the renovation but skimps on the food. It's like opening a beautifully gift wrapped present only to find tea towels. Sure, they're serviceable, but who the hell wants to unwrap something exciting to get something mundane?

This place is perfect if you want to quietly snazzy up your pool skills for the next time you're…read morechallenged to a game by your mates. Q Masters is hidden behind Suncorp Stadium. Blink, and you'll miss it. There's nothing flash about the place, but it serves the purpose it was built for. You'll meet some characters here. There's some blokes who will tell you how you're doing it wrong, there's the guys who will watch you from their own game and scoff at how badly you're lining things up, and occasionally, you'll get someone who wants to help you and teach you a thing or two about playing angles. Some people who come here really know what they're doing with a pool cue, I tell you what. It's a thing of beauty to behold someone smashing three balls into three different sockets on the one hit. Pool table hire is $11.20 per hour before 5pm. It goes up to $16 per hour at night. Snooker tables are a bit more pricey- $13 per hour during the day, to $18 at night. One thing you should know is that these guys will only charge for the time you use. Play for half an hour, cut the hourly rate in half. Yes! The best day to come down is on a Sunday- you play for half price if you're a member.

Whenever I lean over a pool table and line up my cue, I get this thrilling sense of empowerment…read moreshoot up my arm. Moments later, I take the shot and miss and the feeling is gone but it was good while it lasted. The only other time I get this feeling is when I imagine myself loading a cross bow to dust vampires and as Brisbane's kind of short on archery ranges, I inevitably find myself going back to Q-masters. This place isn't slick nor is it aspiring to be but it's a practical pool hall with plenty of pool tables and about six billiard ones as well. You can order basic pizzas, burgers, chips and beers if you get peckish but there's no formal dining area. All food and drinks are consumed on benches around the pool tables. For serious players, you can join a team and play competitively. The inter-club competition run on Monday to Wednesday nights and there are different levels from beginner to expert. I personally would like to see the expert level players play in tuxedos, drawing back the good ole days when billiard was a gentlemen's sport.

This place is perfect for what you should expect: A bar/grill in the middle of the city…read more Firstly and probably its main attraction - it's got crazy good location! But the layout of the place is even better! It is a basement bar, half of it outside and the other half kind-of-inside. Very spacious, clean and with good selection of beer (albeit mostly mainstream beers, but a lot of them). Very comfortable, with some big TVs and also music. Good people watching too. The food is good, not amazing, but you can't expect amazing in such a central, tourist-y area. I had the wings and they're a solid 8/10, at least. Service was great too. Shout out to Elise behind the bar.

I have to say that I really like basement bars, and the Criterion is not exception. I have been…read morehere a few times, at least when I was previously in Brisbane, namely because I thought that their beer garden was really cool. However, like most of the pubs in the CBD, this one does close quite early (though late enough that I was able to slip in here for a drink one night). There is nothing fancy or flash about this pub - expect the standard beers on tap - no craft beers. It also has a pokies area and a bistro, though there is a pool table tucked away in one corner. The beer garden is pretty cool as well, but unfortunately for the smokers it is not the designated smoking area. During the day it does get fairly crowded (though I have never noticed anybody out in the beer garden, despite it being a pretty nice day), but it was fairly quiet when I was there.

Great steak. Great choice of sides and sauces. The oyster…read moreshots are phenomenal! Spicy and good! An absolute must!

I won't necessarily say that this is a great pub, but the thing is that it is located in what is…read moreessentially a gorgeous building. In fact as a pub it is quite large, has a number of bars, and an awesome beer garden. Yet, despite all of this, if really didn't have a huge range of beers on tap. In fact the selection was rather limited, and generally the ones that I really don't like all that much. Still, it is a decent pub, if only for the beer garden.

As it was my first time, I didn't know what to expect. The location is great and easy to get to in…read morethe Valley. When we first walked in, the place wasn't too crowded. A few minutes later, the band got on stage and the place started filling up! The music was pretty good and everyone was dancing. Great place for groups to grab some drinks and dance without feeling that you need to dress up or anything. I didn't make it to the outdoor area so I would definitely be open to going back to check that out. A good place to stop on a pub crawl or start the night off. It's casual and everyone is welcome!

The staff were rude and unprofessional, their security pinned a tiny woman to the wall for…read morebasically no reason. They turned away people from their empty bat because their security didn't even know how to work the security machine. Gross bar with even grosser staff.