All I have to say is that I absolutely love this place. Despite the fact that it is what I call a…read more'Railway Pub' (namely a pub that is really close to a railway station that you can jump off the train on the way home from work, grab a beer, and then jump back on the next train) I never went here all that often, despite living on the railway line that went past it. However, as I have suggested, this is an awesome pub, if only because of the Colonial India theme that literally permeates the place. It is more of a restaurant than a pub, though it does have a front bar. One of the great things about this pub though is that there are lots of little rooms which you can book for your dinner party, meaning that you can dine in private. Certainly a place to check out, especially if you are looking for a place to have a dinner party (I've done it and it was great).

I haven't been here for years.. Now I'm kicking myself…read more What got me there? Watching a new outdoor area being built, that had a sign out the front saying $7.00 Curries in Mondays* in the RajaBar. How could I NOT give that a go as it's just up the road from me. I am really glad I did. There are plenty of choices from the mildest Butter Chicken up to a 'Fire in a Bowl' Fish Vindaloo (well, they were the options tonight) Although the pricing is bargain basement, the flavours and serving size is anything but. All are served with Rice, Raita and Naan (Garlic or plain). *One stipulation is that a drink must be purchased per meal. Of course there are other options from full A La Carte (with plenty of curries) and even Brazilian Churrasco spit in the Backyard Beer Garden Available Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Public holidays. 12 noon - 10pm

This place really kicks some ass!…read more No really... it's pretty obvious that Royal Croquet Club were designing this city Fringe hub and thought, "how on earth are we going to kick more ass than The Garden?" And some brainiac said "let's bring donkeys to the party!" And so it was. Standing out like a sore croquet thumb in the centre of Vic Square, the Royal Croquet Club has turned this cement block into 3 worlds of Fringe madness. From a pirate shanty town to Asian fusion bar and the obligatory pommy croquet club, this place is a mish mash of side shows, food trucks, live bands and DJs, roaming artists and $5-10 shows in one of their 5 performance spaces. You can come in here and spend nothing or a pretty penny and I love that. With the fountain going off in the middle of the day for kids, live bands and family friendly acts roaming the venue, you could bring the kids in, have a few drinks of Pimms and not leave with a hole in your pocket. My one complaint would be the lack of vego and gf options for us special people. I know I sound like a hemp wearing hippy but it would be good to have that under consideration next year. I also couldn't for the life of me find any croquet, but I guess when you have a hairdressing salon, photo booth, animal farm and fountain in your venue croquet is probably the last thing on your mind at the Royal Croquet Club.

Even though this venue has disappeared now I still find it worthy of a review, in the hope that it…read morewill return for festival season next year! I ventured into this lovely little area early on a Friday night before a Fringe show. I was very happy to avoid the $5 cover charge and I didn't have to line up either. The atmosphere inside was casual, happy and fun with just a touch of hipster ;) To me there were three distinct areas here - the main/entrance area (with 2 large bars and one small one, food trucks, the large performance tent and the croquet field), the Japanese garden area (with its own bar and 'Japanese tapas' food) and the Jamaican/Hatian/'pirate' shanty town (offering Jamaican food, another bar and an eclectic decorating scheme). There was certainly no shortage of choices for bars and food - I had to do two laps of the whole place before I could decide on what I wanted to eat! Apart from food and bars there were plenty of other things to hold your interest - street performers, a main stage with live music and DJs, croquet games, a fountain for the kids to play in, $5 shows in smaller tents and plenty of areas to just sit and chat. I especially liked the croquet area with a quieter bar and high referee chairs so short people like me could feel like the king of the world!! If you had a show to go to the cycle taxis would take you down to the Garden in exchange for a fiver and some good conversation. I loved the fact that you could spend no money, or all of it, and still have a fabulous time. My only sadness is that I didn't get to meet the donkeys I have read about in the other reviews!! Please come back next year Royal Croquet Club!

I was very impressed with the revamped Hotel Royal. The atmosphere was great and everyone there was…read moreenjoying themselves. The staff were very friendly and efficient and the service very good. We were in a group of 6. The food was of high quality and there were only positive remarks about size of the meals and quality from the rest of our group. The problem was with one of the shared meals that my friend and I had. We decided to have the "Barramundi and prawns" at a cost of $70.00. After waiting over an hour (all the others in our group already had their main courses), the meal finally came out on one plate which we had to divide up on our individual plates. It looked lovey! The issue with both of us, was the size of the shared meal we had to split up! There were ONLY 4 prawns! We had 2 each!! Mine were over cooked and tough. The barramundi was delicious, but certainly not enough for 2 people! One person could have eaten the whole lot easily. We certainly didn't get value for our $70.

There is an air of regal at the Hotel Royal Bar and Bistro…read more.. It's Saturday night and there is no one in sight, like the dining room was cleared especially for you. Very pleasant crowd. You can sit at formally set dining tables (wine glasses and all) or with in the bistro (which is just as pleasant). The atmosphere is lovely and well decorated. The menu has enough schmancy words on it to make it sound like the meals are going to be gour-met enough so that they can justify asking for $25 for a salmon main in a pub. The mains aren't bad. Food is above average pub fare and they even fry their mash potato into balls. Only complaint? Not enough salad/chips for the price of the mains that you are paying for. After all, we aren't in the Queen's dining hall... I had a very well cooked Atlantic Salmon dish on a bed of beetroot risotto (that my friends delightfully described to look like "kittens insides" before I ate it). But unfortunately that was it. Aside from a few bits of fennel and orange it was basically fish and rice. Would have loved a heavier garnish to make the most of the dish. Not sure what the bar is like in this place but when we went to check it out at 11pm on a Saturday night after a show at the Thebbie it was closed! Maybe people don't go out in Torrensville on a Saturday...

Not impressed at all with the chiefs attitude, Bar staff very nice, but the chief just won't budge,…read moreI wanted a nice steak with a salad, but no if I wanted a steak I had to have it with mash potato and veggies. Well Mr chief I'm on a strict diet and no carbs as per instructions from my doctor, so if I wanted a salad I had to have a Schnitzel or something else. Not what I wanted, if it wasn't for the fact it was getting close to 7 pm and didn't really want to go looking elsewhere I would have left, and to add insult to injury no salad dressing. In fairness the Schnitzel was very nice.

It is probably one of the few remaining pubs to get with the program and actually dazzle the eyes…read morewith some new fittings and a flash dance floor. Even a new lick of paint wouldn't hurt. I've only ever come here for the karaoke, and after my last visit I don't think I'll be rushing back soon. Don't get me wrong I love karaoke but it felt like fright night for the freaks and geeks. I'm surprised Quintin didn't rock in. Nothing to bring you here but you may stop in if you're thirsty enough. Drinks aren't deal and meals are cheap and passable. Have fun!

This place is a dive. Woeful service, they pride themselves with employing numpties. A normal…read moreperson on any level would be more competent with a better customer focus than I received there. Its my local, I don't frequent there because customer service is abysmal. Food is overpriced and below average. Save yourself a trip. Don't. There are a lot of hotels in the area. Avoid

This is one of those pubs that if I were in Adelaide I would be more than happy to go out of my way…read moreto visit, especially on a sunny day. The beer garden is nothing short of fantastic, and it certainly has had a huge facelift since the time it was your standard corner pub. The atmosphere has changed dramatically and it is much more of a trendy inner city pub that your local suburban watering hole. Okay, it is not the cheapest place to go for a meal, but it has this really great atmosphere and it is certainly quite a relaxing place to enjoy a beer. In fact when I was doing some night course as the Bible college around the corner I would regularly stop here for a drink, and sometimes even drag my friends here afterwards for a bit of a night cap. This is certainly a place that I would recommend.

This is one of those pubs that feel like it has been here forever, and it is also one of those pubs…read morethat if feels like it has pretty much never changed. Mind you, despite the fact that this pub has been around for ages, I have rarely been inside, but that is probably because it does happen to be an old man's pub with a rather limited beer selection. Honestly, it isn't one that I would be making an effort to visit again.

Been here once and really enjoyed the dining experience. Ended up here because realised a favourite…read morenearby was closed for renovations, but in the end glad they were!! They've obviously undergone their own transformation and revamps recently as a lot of the fittings seemed fresh, clean and up to date. The dining room layout was good and flowed quite well. Coming into the main bistro entrance theres a "to be seated" point where a waiter hands you menus and points you to the right direction on where to find yourself a table. The meal ordering counter was right next to this. So it's very easy to find your way once walking in. The menu I didn't find was very vast. They're huge on their Steaks as it seems. A section of the menu was devoted to them. Aside from that- usual pub fare with Schnitzels, Seafood, starters etc. Some key favourites I feel were missing off the menu, or perhaps I feel they could've got a little further with menu options. The salad bar I was quite impressed with. They had a good selection of colds along with the hot choices. Colds included things like pasta and potato salads, coleslaw, a corn salad. That's all I'm remembering. The hot side had things like roasted potatoes and carrots, potato bake, veggie bake, steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Couple things they also had for choice which I hadn't seen anywhere else was a stir fry noodles and fried rice, which was quite delicious- full of flavour!! My group ordered a cheesy garlic bread and plain garlic bread for starters. They were quite impressive for the small price we paid. Plain garlic bread was $3 and seemed like a full generous serving at that price. The cheesy version was a couple dollars more but just as impressive. In the end my group went with pub favourites- Schnitzels with gravies. They were also quite impressive I found, especially after the entree and salad bar bites. The chicken was nicely crumbed, breast not too thin and not too thick, and is probably one of the best ones I've had! The Porterhouse Schnitzel was huge, which is usually no surprise really, but this one seemed to go the extra mile!! Only tiff was perhaps the sauce could've been a more generous serving, but I feel these small ramicans are usually a thing in pubs. The Hampstead Hotel was well received by us. Felt very comfortable and welcomed by the friendly bar and waiting staff. Will definitely be returning and would highly recommend for a cozy, casual, easy and filling pub meal.

This is by far, Adelaide's best kept secret right now. Small bars are popping all around town, but…read morethis one stands true to the whole hole-in-the-wall hidden bar concept. GENIUS. It is so refreshing. If you're not looking hard enough you would easily miss it. Walk in and it's like the prohibition era, from the grungy shelves to the dark, moody decor and booths to the sad music. It is easily one of the best themed cocktail bars in Adelaide. Drinks are fantastic. Some bars have expensive drinks for not much and they don't taste great. Not at Baddog, they are top notch and the barman does it right in front of you on the bar so you don't miss a thing. Brilliant. Best find of the year for me so far.

Zack has built an amazing speak easy style bar that makes you feel like you've ducked back in time…read moreto a prohibition era. The waist coats, crystal glasses and twisted stainless steel and silver spoons all work to make this a top spot for a cocktail or cheeky beer. A maestro of the common and rare cocktails and a range of spirits you wont find in many bars Zack makes this bar. Sitting at the bar is mandatory for the first drink in my opinion then sneak off to the lux booths for quiet and intimate drinks. Its dark, has very cool décor and edgy clean bathrooms. Bad Dog Bar doesn't have tvs, doesn't have pokies and doesn't have tap beer and for goodness sakes never order an apple-tini :) and that's the way we like it. Top Tip: order the pickleback - rye bourbon shot followed by some freshly made pickle juice. The SMoking Joint cocktail is also a fav!