The Australian Heritage Hotel

With an illustrated menu depicting every tourist’s fantasy of Sydney – the golden sands of Bondi Beach parked right under the Sydney Harbour Bridge – this historic hotel is obviously keen to woo international visitors. They offer up the chance to eat Saltwater Crocodile Pizza ($19.50/$25.90) in an Australian locale where it’s unlikely to be trying to eat you first! I was sorely tempted; but couldn’t pass up the opportunity to eat the Coat of Arms ($19.90/$25.90) – a plump pizza bearing both emu and kangaroo, which leans more toward gourmet than Italian. In the drinks, you’ll find an all-Australian selection of wine and beer; and with craft brew fever gripping this city, that’s a wide selection indeed! You’d be best to explore them in the Aussie Beer Experience ($14), a paddle bearing five unique brews. My favourites were the Feral Hop Hog; Murray’s Angry Man Pale; and Byron Bay Pale Lager, which may become my light summer quaffing beer. To make selecting easier, every menu item – from the popular Roast Pork Belly Pizza ($17.90/$23.90) with crackling, to the hearty Beef and Bock Pot Pie ($18.90) with chips and salad – is matched to a beer. Actually, bugger leaving it to the tourists: this egalitarian, hundred-year-old hotel offers up something we’d all enjoy!

The Australian Heritage Hotel
100 Cumberland Street, The Rocks
Ph: (02) 9247 2229 australianheritagehotel.com
Pub Bistro, Pizza $$