The Old Manly Boatshed

Place is located right on the corso and has lots of character. Food is good, staff is nice, prices are right. You can get a nice sirloin steak dinner, which includes salad and chips for $ 10 ($ 7 usd). Order it rare with peper sauce. There are also some $ 15 (about $ 10 USD) options. The only reason I did not give it 5 stars is because opening hours seem to be haphazard, and it’s hard to find out what they are. But they always seem to be open for dinner, though not sure about lunch.

Poor place. If you are not 18 with a mini skirt, getting in will be tough. The bouncers think they work at the most famous new York Paris or London club. Get over it. Basically a place to avoid.

The music is hit or miss. But apparently the key to being at this fine basement establishment is dressing like its 1995 and acting like a smug, wannabe hipster. The crowd ranges from 50 somethings with combovers to 20 somethings with gangsta’ pants and faux hawks. Actually those attributes make the place interesting — but the bartenders and staff make the place intolerable. After I paid $ 8.50 for a beer I had to be lectured about how poor American manners are by the bartendress (regardless of the fact that I DID say please when ordering) then she wouldn’t give me my over priced beer until I said please again — and then she had the nerve to criticize me to the other bartender as a «rude American» after I paid for my beer and put an additional $ 1.50 in the tip jar.
Overall — the Boatshed is overpriced ($ 10 cover to see a so-​so local cover band and $ 8.50 for a beer), full of tacky posers and incredibly rude staffers, dirty and just plain not worth the visit. As one of the only places in Manly to see live music I had high hopes. But those high hopes were dashed by the attitudes and prices.

Neither classy or a total dive, The Boatshed recently underwent some cosmetic maintenance in the hope of retaining some of its loyal customers. It’s usually a place where you end the night– drunken and disorderly having been rejected from numerous other clubs due to the copious amounts of alcohol downed at another nearby bar. It can get quite loud later on in the evening, but earlier on in the night you can dine at The Boatshed and order a meal which is fantastic value for money. You basically need to be a bit drunk to go to the Boatshed, mainly because of the sticky floor and the overall seediness of the venue. The place reeks of beer– definitely not a place to impress or be impressed by!

The Manly Boatshed could bottle its own fragrance. The fragrance notes could be described as ‘musty carpet soaked with years of stale beer’. In a former time the Boatshed used to own the space now taken by the café three beans where you could walk up the old wooden stairs to the tables of the restaurant and order good seafood such as Oysters Kilpatrick.
That part did not last long and it became the late venue that you go to when nothing else would let you in due to capacity and you contemplated facing those stairs descending into the Boatshed. There were many amazing nights had listening to the classic jazz bands such as The Oz Brothers and Percy Owens who use to play the saxophone in the Corso.
I miss the mural that you would giggle at on the way down stairs with cartoon version of familar Manly characters. The Boatshed still plays the best live music and its usually the place that you find yourself in the mornings… very early mornings.
Worth the experience to say you have at least done it.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be declaring that I’ve actually had a night out here… It’s something ever so slightly looked down upon by central Sydneyers!
The grottiness?
The sweaty old leery men?
The aging rock bands headlining there?
The underage and wasted teenagers?
What’s not to love?! No, I did actually have a great night here as I love a good grotty night, you know? The ones where no-​one is posing or taking themselves too seriously and are just out to have a good time and make a lot of noise.
It’s a tiny little place but the prime watering hole for anyone that’s ever spent a night in Manly. Worth a visit just for the comedy of the whole thing!

Full disclosure: I only ever go to The Old Manly Boatshed for Monday night comedy. They actually have awesome bands on there too and I always think, «I’d love to see *whoever* over here for a change», but it’s a ferry across the harbour for me so I generally stick to my side of the water when I’m going to music gigs. I love the venue though, it’s cosy and friendly and it’s been going strong for around 20 years from what I can gather — I have been infrequently frequenting it for about 7.
I always get a pizza of course (what can I say, I LOVE PIZZA!) and the pizza is really good but the chef’s home made crushed chilli paste/​sauce is to die for. I discovered this by accident and he’s not even famous for it but he totally should be. I always ask for chilli on my pizza and just expected the usual flakes or if I was lucky fresh chopped chilli. What I received was chillis grown in a fairy grotto, delicately stomped on by angels and spread over my pizza via the surface of a rainbow. Go there and order anything and ask for chilli, that’s all I’m saying.
The comedy’s always fun, the crowd wander in a bit late sometimes which can be disruptive but the acts always manage to settle things down and the venue has a really friendly, cosy basement vibe that I often find lacking in snobby Sydney.
You know what to do!

I love the Boatshed in Manly!
There are a few fancy bars in Manly & they attract fancy looking ‘young ones’ but for me, The Manly Boatshed is the bar to go to.
It’s downstairs off the corso so you don’t know what your getting into until your down there. Often its packed (but not overly packed) full of locals, either playing pool, dancing to the band of the night, chatting at the bar or sitting at tables.
Everyone is friendly, no one is pretentious & its open till late.
Love it!