Royal Hotel Inverell
Just 20 minutes up the road from Tingha was our next stop for the day, the Royal Hotel Inverell.
I must admit, first impressions were not amazing. Big generic Toohey’s New signage was everywhere. It wasn’t a facade that screamed ‘character’. It felt like the kind of pub that was going to be standard and nothing more.
But we misjudged the Royal Hotel Inverell. The interior of the pub was definitely not the dry soulless space the exterior suggested. There was a good sized main bar area with a fair bit of character (and local characters) with some decent beers on tap as well. There was a bunch of brick and corrugated metal decor and a healthy dose of neon signage. Most importantly it avoided the feel that some done-up pubs have the that the decor was just picked out of a catalogue.
The best part of the pub though was easily the pool area. There were a couple brand new looking tables complete with bespoke Royal felt branding. The whole area also subscribed to the ‘put random crap on the wall’ school of pub decoration. But it honestly worked.
We grabbed a round of beers from the surprisingly respectable selection of taps and got stuck into some pool. We don’t really need to say too much about the pool results except that I won. Repeatedly.
Bert didn’t seem to mind all that much though as he was happily grooving to the heavily countrified playlist the Royal Hotel Inverell had on offer. I didn’t recognise many of the songs but there were definitely more that a couple ‘yee haws’, ‘y’alls’, and ‘chicken-frieds’ peppering the lyrics. And a lot of the songs did seem to sound pretty similar and were quite twang-heavy.
Not my genre of music, but I didn’t really mind. And Bert was happy.
John was not.
His anger at being repeatedly beaten at pool was eclipsed only his anger at the music. It was an anger that I suspect Bert enjoyed almost as much as the music itself. But this was easily John’s least favourite soundtrack at a Royal. And that includes Taree where we were treated to 3 separate versions of Cotton-Eye Joe.
But John’s fury aside, this was a really good Royal. And one we weren’t really expecting. We ended up staying for a fair bit longer than we had expected. It was just a great place to hang out, play pool, and drink a beer. It’s definitely one of those ‘hang out all day’ type of Royals.
The restaurant wasn’t open yet when we arrived, but it probably deserves a mention as well as it looked like a good classic pub bistro. But we had a different dinner venue booked in. So we piled back into the car and headed for our accommodation for the night in the town of Deepwater.
Royal Stats
- Town/Suburb: Inverell, NSW
- Population: 12,057
- Date Visited: Friday, August 8, 2025
- Visited By: Cory, John, and Bert
- Beer Sponsorship on Sign: Toohey’s New
- Beer Consumed at Pub: Stone & Wood Pacific Ale
- Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $9.90
- Unique Award: Royal with the Playlist that John Hated Most
- Tour Progress: 69.6% (94/135)