Dry Dock Hotel

There are a fair few pubs in Balmain and they all do their own thing to stand out. The Dry Dock on the other hand doesn’t really do much to stand out, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.
This is a locals pub, but it is still friendly enough not to put visitors off. Beer prices are definitely good compared to some of the more up-​market neighbours and the bar staff are friendly and generally pretty attentive. There are also TAB facilities, which prove very popular and often make this pub a standard stop for weekend pub-​crawls.
The Dock used to do good traditional pub grub, unfortunately this has declined over the past few years with quality remaining basic at best and prices surpassing some of it’s better quality neighbours (such as the Royal Oak up the block).
The Dry Dock is still a great pub and if your meeting a mate for a sneaky beer, catching up with a gang for a session, or looking to have a pint and a punt, it is a great venue.
Worth a visit if you are in the neighbourhood? Definitely.

Dry Dock Hotel has a Tapas style restaurant attached to the bar, in a very large open plan room with large windows and flooding natural light into the restaurant.
The Tapas is a set menu of $ 50 per person:
Olives — basic kalamata
Marinated mushrooms — not my favourite, tasted like they were pickled
Fresh bread sticks with olive oil.
Spanish style prawns — very spicy
Salt & Pepper squid — great, not overcooked, and well spiced
Chorizo Sausages
Meat balls — very homely feel & taste, yummy.
The choice of desert:
Toblerone ice cream — bought in, as I saw the paper from the tray accidentally left on the bottom of the ice cream pyramid.
Stick date pudding — assuming it’s bought it, looked ok.
Chocolate mousse — didn’t try this.
The tapas restaurant also puts on a dance and live music show, so you’re paying for entertainment as well (included in the price of the meals) It’s alright, but no crowd involvement, and it becomes a headache after a while.