Pub Lunch: All Bar Nun

We like O'Connor. If we had been born ten years earlier, we might have even been able to buy a nice little cottage there. Alas, the baby boomers with their property speculation, dreaming up of the HECS program, and other little schemes to more or less squeeze Generation X, have made sure that plan is not likely to happen anytime soon. We can still occasionally, though, seek comfort from a glass of beer and a pub lunch.

One place we have done this a couple times recently is All Bar Nun (ABN hereafter), a sprawling complex that seems to be possibly, if slowly, taking over the O'Connor shops. We're not quite sure what the appropriate label for ABN is - pub, cafe, restaurant - it's kinda none and all of the above. Luckily, the place is so well known, we needn't bother...

So, what are its most appealing features? Well, first and foremost, at least (and somewhat paradoxically) for the Always Hungry team, it's Little Creatures (Bright Ale) ON TAP! We absolutely love this beer - a choice that recently receved the stamp of approval from one of the Braddon Cellars staff (see earlier post about Braddon booze shopping alternatives). ABN seems to be one of the few places that has it on tap - ON TAP! Anyway...

ABN has a few other things going for it - namely the food and the space. The food is really good pub grub I guess - some of our favourites include the fungi pizza (with blue cheese and red onion - yum!), bean tortilla, and possibly the best beer battered fries in town (served, predictably, with garlic aioli and sweet chilli sour cream). The falafel burger is also good. As you can perhaps tell from our choices, we've stuck to the vegetarian options - we like to share - so can't really say much about the meat stuff.

Finally, the space then. It's handy to our key haunts (home and work) and has lots of seating (inside and out) and much of it rather satisfactory - unless you're determined to have your spot in the sun on a Sunday afternoon. The outside seating is a little cramped - something that becomes particularly salient when you find yourself next to a tableful of 18-22 year olds discussing their inevitably thoughtless, inconsiderate, disloyal, etc. significant others.

All in all, All Bar Nun - a job well done!