Royal Hotel Bungendore

After another short break we’re back with an international guest and a one-off Royal: the Royal Hotel Bungendore.

When we first hatched this ambitious (or foolish depending on your point of view) Royal Tour endeavour a couple years ago, the Royal Hotel Bungendore was non-operational. It was shut down, but there were signs of life. There was occasional Facebook chatter about new owners. And then, scaffolding appeared on the outside of the pub. And finally, it was confirmed: Bungendore had an active Royal once more.

This Royal was a little unique in that it wasn’t part of a wider trip. This one was a one-off. And it was a one-off due to special guest and friend of the blog: Tim. Tim was visiting for a few weeks from the Isle of Man and he had a single request for his visit: to join us at a Royal. And who are we to begrudge him such a simple request.

So John and I jumped in the car, grabbed Tim, and, before long, we were sitting down to schooners in Bungendore. Anthony made the significantly shorter drive from Canberra and joined us as well.

The Royal Hotel Bungendore has been very nicely restored. Everything seems shiny and new, but without completely surrendering the character of the place. Sandstone and exposed wood featured heavily. There’s plenty of space as well. Between the front veranda, obligatory front bar, sports bar, dining area, and massive beer garden, there was plenty of places to set up shop.

We opted for the beer garden as there was still a bit of sunlight left in the day. While we were definitely impressed by the place, there was one thing that was less than impressive: the beer prices. A schooner of Balter XPA went for $12.20 a piece! After a couple of beers outside (and after mentally re-calculating how much the evening was actually going to set us back) we headed inside to stake out a good spot for dinner and sport viewing.

The food was actually really good. My burger was excellent as was the dinner as was everyone else’s meals by all reports. The food, in general, was a bit on the pricey side. But it wasn’t beer-price ridiculous.

As we were watching whatever sport was on, representatives from the local rugby club (go the Mudchooks!) came around selling tickets for a meat raffle. As we were going to be there all night, we figured, why not and all invested in some tickets. Tim, in particular, splashed the cash and went all in buying an entire book’s worth of tickets. There were something like 15 prizes on off so we figured our (particularly Tim’s) odds were pretty good. However, once the draw got started, it became pretty clear we’d been identified as the ‘out-of-towner suckers’ for the evening. Not only were the tickets being called out a different colour to the ones we had, but the numbers on those tickets had a different number of digits to the ones we had. We never had a chance.

So still grumbling slightly about the injustice perpetrated on us by the Mudchooks, we filed out into the night and Anthony headed back to Canberra. While bidding him good-bye we did the classic guy thing of awkwardly pausing to debate a hand-shake or hug. The dilemma was thankfully solved for us by a drunk patron on the darkened pub veranda shouting out “Yeah, give him a cuddle!”. So with that quandary solved by the inebriated voice from the dark, Anthony was off.

After that, there was a bit of an eventful kick-on at the pub down the road, but that one wasn’t a Royal. So if you want to hear that story, you’ll have to buy me, John, or Tim a beer. We’ll likely be at a Royal if you’re looking for us.

Royal Stats

• Town/Suburb: Bungendore, NSW
• Population: 4,745
• Date Visited: Saturday, April 12, 2024
• Visited By: Cory, John, Anthony and Tim
• Beer Sponsorship on Sign: Carlton Draught
• Beer Consumed at Pub: Balter XPA
• Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $12.20
• Unique Award: Royal with the Dodgiest Meat Raffle
• Tour Progress: 42.3% (58/137)