Anybody here drink in the Cock and Bull, Bondi Jct?

Peregrinus

Your traditional Aussie country hotel is basically a men's toilet which also serves beer - right down to the tiled floor and walls, for easy hosing-down after closing time.

But you do have better choices in Sydney. There are certainly better options than a faux-Irish pub that has only become so because it faled to make the grade as a faux-English pub.

surpy

bmwguy wrote: »

I cant think of a single pub in Ireland with a name that sounds similar

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cock-and-Bull-Coolock/610496085643642

maybe got its name from the aussie place tho, so not sure if it counts?

josip

If my memory serves me correctly it operated as a local for most people rather than the be all and end all, 7 nights a week. In its favour,

• It was close to the bus and train station
• It was centrally located for most of the Irish living in the Bondi Junction Area
• It was unpretentious
• It had a few pool tables
• It didn't have all the rules associated with the League Clubs
• It wasn't full of wall to wall pokies
• It usually had some life about it regardless of the time of day or day of the week

It was good for

• midweek drinking
• after work drinks
• a meet up place on Friday/Saturday nights before heading on somewhere else

It wasn't good for

• Hooking up with some classy bloke/girl
• Impressing others
• Remaining sober/staying on the dry
• Fine dining
• Discussing Goethe/Nietsche

NYC2013

I know lots of people who used to go to the Tea Gardens and Cock n Bull in 2008 when I first went to Australia and they're still going there, how anyone doesn't get sick of that scene I don't know. I remember there being 5 fights in the Tea Gardens one Sunday in the space of about 4 hours and my friends tell me there's way more Irish sumbags around the Junction now then back then

pete4130

Back home, you can choose what pub you want to go to depending on what people you want to mingle with, the scene, music, decor to suit your tastes.

Being here, you don't get that choice and its a lot of Irish people going to the Irish bar and spending time with, drinking with and socialising with people they may not normally would given the choice back home. IT's everyone bunched in together, good and bad.

Mellor

pete4130 wrote: »

Back home, you can choose what pub you want to go to depending on what people you want to mingle with, the scene, music, decor to suit your tastes.

Being here, you don't get that choice and its a lot of Irish people going to the Irish bar and spending time with, drinking with and socialising with people they may not normally would given the choice back home. IT's everyone bunched in together, good and bad.

How do you not have the choice to go to any bar you want to over here?

pete4130

Mellor wrote: »

How do you not have the choice to go to any bar you want to over here?

Either you missed the point I was trying to make or you're being pedantic.

I'll try to explain it to you again, if I must.

You do have the choice to go to any bar you want to. I didn't say otherwise. I specified Irish bars in particular if you re-read my post and Irish people choosing to go to these Irish bars. If that wasn't implied in my original post, I've just spelled it out for you here.

Irish people choose to go to Irish bars. Unlike back in Ireland, you don't have that range of choice to go to a bar that suits your lifestyle choices, decor, peers etc. It's every walk of life from every corner of Ireland going to a commonly known bar where other Irish people will tend to venture to. It's everyone bunched in together, comfortable in their familiarity of Irish-ness whether they like those surroundings or not.

AngryHippie

pete4130 wrote: »

Either you missed the point I was trying to make or you're being pedantic.

I'll try to explain it to you again, if I must.

You do have the choice to go to any bar you want to. I didn't say otherwise. I specified Irish bars in particular if you re-read my post and Irish people choosing to go to these Irish bars. If that wasn't implied in my original post, I've just spelled it out for you here.

Irish people choose to go to Irish bars. Unlike back in Ireland, you don't have that range of choice to go to a bar that suits your lifestyle choices, decor, peers etc. It's every walk of life from every corner of Ireland going to a commonly known bar where other Irish people will tend to venture to. It's everyone bunched in together, comfortable in their familiarity of Irish-ness whether they like those surroundings or not.

Hmmmm...I think you might be stereotyping there Pete, I'm still Irish, and for the most part, I will only drink in an Irish bar if they have an outstanding pint of Guinness, A friend is having some sort of occasion there, or it's Paddys day. The rest of the time, I drink in my local Aussie bars, and most of my Irish friends do likewise.
Granted, most of them have been out her 4 or 5 years now, so they are a little bit over the whole " let's get wnakered in the same pub with the same people all the time" scene. Or maybe we're getting old, I'm not sure.

Either way, I wouldn't be arsed going to most of them anymore except for the reasons above, and definitely not on a routine basis:rolleyes:

statina

Used to go there alot when I first moved to Sydney. Had some very messy thursday nights in it where we'd go for the free steak and forget to go home! Thankfully i got abit of sense, moved away from that scene and am rarely in bondi now but have funny memories of the place.

Dfmnoc

Remember seeing this about 3 4 years ago

robertxxx

I was in oz about 13 years ago on a work visa and it was exactly the same back then, cock and bull had nasty nasty fights, and the pool table at the back didn't help.

The tea gardens wasn't as bad IMO.

And what's the crack with all the county jerseys? And we talk about the English!

NiallSORo

Cn'B is what it is - the only pub in which I've seen 3 full-scale brawls (including 1 all-female) in one day. The people who live in B.J. seem to love it though (including half of my football team).

Better alternatives (imo) with varying degrees of Irishness:

Welcome Hotel, Rozelle
Cat and Fiddle, Balmain
Wild Rover, Surry Hills

top madra

This thread took off....

Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally against the place and may go back to get a second opinion but last Sat eve didn't do it any justice imo and that why I started the thread to see if it was always the same.

It just felt like one of those chit-holes at home that i wouldn't want to spend too much time in, maybe second time round it may be different.

Or maybe not lol..