Royal Hotel Kalbar

After leaving our new biker friends in Harrisville, we headed off on a short drive down the road to our next Royal, the Royal Hotel Kalbar.

After enduring the 20km trek from Harrisville we arrived at the Royal Hotel Kalbar. Kalbar is a nice little town, a fair bit bigger than Harrisville. Kalbar’s Royal wasn’t quite as classic as Harrisville or Leyburn. And the bar staff had nothing on Tunna from out in Meandarra. But that being said, it was a good solid pub.

The pub is surrounded by a ton of trees and backs onto a big parkland area. The inside of the pub has the requisite amount of corrugated metal, bar stools, and XXXX on tap. Throw in a couple of locals welded to those barstools and you have a pretty classic Royal.

The best part of the pub, though, was the back deck. It overlooked the aforementioned parkland area and it’s where we set up shop for our stay. It was April so it wasn’t overly hot at the time, but this would’ve still been a great place to hang out with several beers on a lazy summer’s afternoon.

We ordered up a bit of lunch and got busy relaxing over a few schooners. The food was alright, the vibe was relaxed, and it was an overall pleasant afternoon. But even as we sat there, we knew this was going to be a tricky one to give a unique award to. The food was ok. The vibe was decent. Scenery was nice. But it was just kind of middle of the road.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad or a boring pub. It’s just that the stuff that the Royal Hotel Kalbar did well, there are other Royals we’ve been to that just do better. So in the end we went with the biggest cop-out unique award so far on the Tour.

Again, it’s not a bad pub. Just reasonably middle of the road. We very much enjoyed our beers there. But we had a game to get to in Brisbane. So we piled back in the car and headed off to meet my mate Craig and see a Broncos game. But if I ever found myself back in Kalbar, I’d have no problem heading back to the Royal.

Royal Stats

• Town/Suburb: Kalbar, QLD
• Population: 1,246
• Date Visited: Saturday, April 5, 2025
• Visited By: Cory, John and Bert
• Beer Sponsorship on Sign: Great Northern
• Beer Consumed at Pub: XXXX
• Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $8.20
• Unique Award: Hardest Royal to Determine a Unique Award For
• Tour Progress: 65.9% (89/135)