The Torrens Arms

Went here last weekend with my Grandmother, Aunty & Brother and it was lovely — there was a good vibe, the wait staff were really friendly & helpful, the food was delicious and good value. I will be visiting again soon!

I hadn’t visited the TA since before their renovations, gotta say for a pub it’s looking pretty shmick!
This really is however — just a pub. The service is great, the lemon lime and bitters comes in a Coke glass and you desperately wish you didn’t order the pasta from the specials menu.
This place does a lot of things well, the restaurant is nice, the beer garden is awesome, the place is always clean — it’s just the food is nothing to write home about!
My pasta sauce was watered down and tasted like msg, my grandmas risotto was bland but the texture was good. Just a little more love that’s all the food needs. When cooking you must love what your cooking you must appreciate all your dishes from your risotto right down to the lowliest of chicken schnitzels, otherwise I can tell that there’s no heart in it.
Now you’re all thinking «it was just a pub tea» but I can tell you right now — I’ve had pub food before that’s been amazing, pub food that was thoughtful, and nurturing, and warm and all the things a good meal should be.
That might be a bit of a stretch for the poor guys at the TA, alas, I have high expectations

Nice atmosphere, but terrible food. Medium rare steak was well done and my friends schnitzels were dry. The standard has dropped greatly in the last year. If it’s a pub with good food you want in the area I recommend you drive the just round to the Ed, but if it’s just a pub for drinks with mates it’s a good spot.

The Torrens Arms Hotel (AKA the TA Hotel) has certainly taken a step up from the standard looking Pub of yore.
The Dining Area is a lovely spot. The menu is not huge, but there are more than enough selections for pretty much all tastes.
We had a mix of food from the standard Chicken Schnitzel (not huge but very tasty), to a Seafood Trio of Garfish, Calamari and Prawns all nicely cooked and I had a Venison Stew Pie.
It was a true Pie (sort of) with a pastry base and lid (not like many pies that are just in a bowl with pastry lid. The Venison Stew was very tasty and rich with large chunks of venison with mushrooms and carrots in a meaty sauce, the warm vegetable salad was also very tasty, warm baby root vegetables (carrots, beetroot, turnip) were served on a bed of rocket and drizzled with a bittter chocolate sauce. Very nice indeed

I’m in agreement with the Unilocalers who’ve already posted reviews — the revamped TA is a big improvement on the old TA. I was there with my family years ago and we were all somewhat distracted by the incessant jangliness of the ‘music’ and the coins from the machines from the adjacent pokies room. No such noisy distractions this time around — the background music was laid back and didn’t interfere with our conversation, the renos are very smart, and the presence of carpet really helps soak up the surrounding chatter. There’s too many big screen TVs for my liking, but the cricket lovers in the family seemed happy to be able to keep an eye on proceedings while we ate. It’s not super cheap (I had pumpkin risotto for $ 19) but the servings are generous, there is full table service and the hot (yum!) bread rolls with butter pats were included. My companions enjoyed their burgers (chicken and beef are both $ 14).and there were a good range of beers and ciders on tap. The proximity of the pokies is probably what stops this being a four star venue for me… I’m not a fan for a whole lot of reasons, and while I couldn’t hear them I could see the neon lights through the door of the bar. I also find it hard to completely enjoy renos that are so clearly pokie-​funded. But the risotto was delish, and the service was excellent, so I’ll put my pokie-​snobbery to one side and say that the new TA is a good spot for an enjoyable pub meal.

The TA was once the seedy pub of the Mitcham area, a ying to the Edinburgh’s yang but with a lick of paint, remodelling and an attitude change, the TA is trying to change it’s reputations and trying to change its clientèle. The restauraunt menu is select and well priced with the menu changing seasonally and the specials being ever so intriguing.
The wine list is of the great standard I expect at any South Australian eatery and the beers on tap form the SA classics plus the now mandatory Bulmer’s tap (I do wish more pubs would support the SA Cider companies, but alas) for the cider devotees on a budget. Wait staff in the restraunt were friendly and bright and having the restaurant in what would seem to be a front bar was a nice change.
The real Front Bar is down the stairs and has been refurbished to include the solid wood bars of yesteryears and it has retained a bit of old school charm.
I’ve only visited on weeknights and besides the obligatory Friday night work crowd, the pub is surprisingly quiet and talking to friends is actually practical due to muted sounds.

Oh, the TA. They have put such an effort into re-​branding the place, and I think they’ve actually done a pretty good job. It’s hard to turn public opinion around when you’ve been a dive for a very long time, but the renos and new menu are helping, not to mention their renewed efforts at doing a bit of marketing and holding some events.
The new dining area looks great, and the cocktail lounge section is lovely for a snack and cocktails (which are two for $ 20 and are potent; don’t pass up that deal!). The front bar is still in original (slightly dingy) condition, but as another reviewer mentioned, it is clean and well serviced. The new garden area is fantastic on a summer’s day, and on Sundays there is a lass with a guitar strumming well-​known tunes, which adds a nice ambience.
The new menu is a great improvement on the old. I attended the hotel’s 100^th (!) birthday party a few months back, and they had free wine and beer tastings as well as passed bites of the new menu items, so I had the opportunity to sample quite a few. The dishes were unique and piqued our interest enough that we have come back several times to sample new dishes.
My favourite feature of the new and improved TA, however, is the quiz night! Starting at 7pm every Tuesday night, the quiz is free to attend and includes food specials and two-​for-​one spirits specials. There are lots of prizes to be won, whether you come in first (bottle of wine and a $ 50 voucher) or last (branded swag and a $ 10 voucher). My team of three loves winning the baffler question, which gets you a bottle of wine plus $ 30 cash, plus there are the usual heads and tails games throughout the night. It really is a good time, is well-​run, and fills up the bar every week. Call ahead to book a table if you plan to quiz.

Despite the name change the «ta» is still a tad ordinary.
Despite the rave and block rockin’ beats pumping out over the stereo the place was still dead for a Saturday night.
Despite the disco ball in the pub it was still a pub and should be embraced as one.
Despite all these «despites» though it is not a dive, it has a great range of beers and ciders on tap and in bottles. The bottle’o and restaurant attached to the pub means a great range of wines also exist.
This sentence may also sound really old of me but… the place was also really clean and the service was really nice too! Plus who can go past a well priced beverage?
It’s a good place for a drink before (and/​or after) a movie at the Mitcham Shopping Centre and don’t let the despites turn you off for a quiet one before a night out.

I popped into the TA for a post-​cycle, pre movie beverage yesterday just to see what they had done to the place. I haven’t been there for several years and I was impressed by the rennos which have resulted in a couple of tasteful and comfortable spaces.
The pub is clearly pulling up its boot straps when it comes to food and drink offerings, but it remains clear that gambling remains the life blood of the place. Perhaps this is less evident on a friday/​saturday night but on a cruisey sunday the front bar was full of people betting on (and yelling at) the horse racing. Some of the blokes involved in the TAB action weren’t even drinking, they were simply there for the sport of it with coke in hand.
Our intention was to grab a bite, but at 5pm we were between service and reduced to the snacks menu, so even though they advertise «all day dining» friday to sunday, what they actually mean is we’ll do you a dips plate, or a bowl of wedges if you push the point.
All in all, a fairly conventional suburban pub with the usual smattering of locals and a nice shiny new fit out. Perfectly acceptable and great for gamblers, but certainly nothing to write home about.

I never liked the Torrens Arms, when it was the Torrens Arms. It is now the «ta», which I think is right wanky, but the pub itself has won me over. The new reovations are pretty funky, mixing a family vibe with some more ‘hip’ areas for groovy cats, like myself, to chillax and knock back a couple of cocktails.
The new courtyard has a very relaxed, summer feel about it, making me feel quite at ease as I sipped on my two Mohito’s similtaneously! The new menu is also right down my ally. I don’t want a pub to have restaurant dishes at restaurant prices, I want a burger, snitty, pie or battered fish for bugger all so I can spend the rest on getting sozzled!
The pub does lack a bit of ‘soul’, but for a suburban family watering hole it aint that bad!

The Torrens Arms hotel (or the TA as its known) at Kingswood is directly opposite the Mitcham Shopping Centre. They are down the Wallis Cinema end near Belair Road for the uninitiated.
Having recently undergone extensive refurbishment the TA now offers a choice of bars and dining areas and has also opened a new courtyard area — once upon a time I think this would have been called a beer garden. Like all pubs these days they’ve also upgraded their gaming area — won’t Nick Xenophon be oh so pleased!
I ate there recently and while the renovations looked fantastic, the food and the service was just ok. I was a little disappointed because I expected to be blown away given the ritzy new renos. Oh well, maybe we just went there on a bad night. I will give them another try.
While I didn’t partake I noticed their cocktail menu with drinks priced at $ 15 each or 2 for $ 20. I love a good cocktail but drink more than a couple and you’re broke for the rest of the week so the 2 for $ 20 offer seemed good. Maybe I’ll add a couple of cocktails to the to do list on my next visit and see how they fare making a Caprioska.