Great Northern Hotel

4.4 Below Average

Food  4      Drinks  4      Ambience  4      Service  5      Value  5     

The ground floor male toilets are absolutely disgusting, they smell rank and are not cleaned well or often. The food is ok if you stick to the cook your own steak and eat the salad bar. The blackboard food specials are very poor and are cooked by people with no interest or skill.

The place is an old fashioned sports bar with over priced drinks and a large poker lounge there is no imagination in its management and little or no respect for its clientele is shown.

Aug 31, 2011 

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  7      Drinks  7      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  10     

Tried the Northern again after a few years living in London, back on the north shore and pleasantly surprised by this pub. Looks really smart inside, warm and inviting but clean as a whistle (you can always judge by the toilets). We were watching a rugby game and atmosphere was great, big crowd but room to sit, good sound and huge plasmas (but still felt intimate).

Food was perfect for the occasion, try the parmigiana and the Herb and Garlic Prawn Spaghetti. The girls on the bar were chatty and fast. They looked like they actually enjoyed being at work! Happy hour was a nice surprise, and all in all we'll be back to watch the Tahs next week!

Mar 03, 2011 

7.2 Recommended

Food  7      Drinks  7      Ambience  8      Service  6      Value  8     

This is our local and as it's a bar not a restaurant the food is pretty darn good. We normally come for the Cook your own steak deal, $11.90 Sunday to Thursday. The quality of steak is great and the salad bar is ok. The drinks are cheap and the decor is typical English pub, nice warm wood accents and old photos linning the walls.

In summer and balmy nights the outside courtyard is great. Overall, a cosy place with great steak.

Feb 12, 2011 

7 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  9      Service  6      Value  6     

Great old style pub atmosphere, good place for a few quiet drinks, you always get table. Food is typical pub food, nothing fancy but an easy night out.

Aug 21, 2010 

6.8 Recommended

Food  7      Drinks  7      Ambience  7      Service  6      Value  7     

This place is a pub, not a restaurant or bar! Judging it based on the fact that it is in fact a pub, it's a pretty decent place for a local. For me, the best part is that it's big enough to know you can always get a table mid-week, without it being dead and depressing. In winter, the indoors area near the fire is nice and cosy, in summer, the eer garden is unpretentious and relaxing. Try the bbq your own steak/chicken with salad deal, it's good value mid week and let's face it, this is the type of food that pubs are good for!

Aug 17, 2010 

5.6 Average

Food  6      Drinks  6      Ambience  5      Service  5      Value  6     

Nice enough surroundings but no character or atmosphere to the place. Stock standard foods provided at a reasonable price. Perhaps, suits after work groups or maybe fams on the weekends. Nothing really special.

Apr 30, 2010 

7.2 Recommended

Food  7      Drinks  7      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  8     

Hadn't been here for about 25 years, and talk about going into a time warp, except theres a lot more families now then in my day! Enjoyed Anzac Day there yesterday and was pleasantly surprised that the $11 deal (steak or chicken for the barbie, and salad bar) was still applicable. This is a really good lunch deal, thanks to Masterchef advice, I grilled my sirloin for 8 minutes and it was perfect medium rare, tender and tasty.

I enjoyed the 8 choices on the salad bar - good mix between leafy and starchy salads - and was well pleased with my selection of greek salad, cous cous with sweet potato, spinach and a (non-creamy) coleslaw. It helped that I took my own homemade salad dressing (I will not eat bottled), though there was oil and vinegar on offer so I could have survived.

Anyway, it was really a pleasant experience, we could even book a table, this is the one that I would take the country rellies to!

Apr 26, 2010 

7.6 Recommended

Food  8      Drinks  8      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  8     

Went there on 4 Feb, with family and friends. They've done it up. Pool room, pokies room and outdoor area (they've blocked off Pacific Hwy entrance). Cosy little local with wood paneling. Has indoor and outdoor seating. Times I've been interesting menu. Our party ordered steak and lamb, etc., they got theirs but Mum's and mine (prawn cutlets and gnocchi) took about 40-45 minutes to come (also heard other gnocchi took 30 minutes).

Shouldn't have taken that long. In the end the manager gave my parents a free double dinner voucher. That's never happened before. Apart from that, it was a lovely night.

Feb 09, 2009 

5.4 Average

Food  5      Drinks  5      Ambience  5      Service  5      Value  7     

The Great Northern is conveniently located on the corner of Pacific Highway and Mowbray Road. The restaurant is a barn-like area, with old-timey photos on the wall. They've recently done some renovations, chiefly to the gaming areas. The prices have gone up recently as well, but the food has not improved.

The best thing about this place is the $11 steaks with unlimited salad bars. They don't have a whole lot of vegetarian options and the specials menu is pretty hit or miss. When I last visited I had a pretty bland pasta dish. Although we used to eat here almost weekly I was pretty disappointed.

Jun 16, 2008 

3.2 Below Average

Food  3      Drinks  3      Ambience  3      Service  4      Value  3     

The GNH is conveniently located, but the positives stop there. Portion sizes are small for the prices, the menu is average and has not changed for 5 years and the attitude of the staff fails to make up for any of these shortcomings. The surrounds are also very underwhelming and could do with a major overhaul, although like the menu this has been the case for the past 5 years.

Dec 12, 2007