Royal Hotel Kew

After setting off from South Grafton, several hours later we found ourselves in the small town of Kew, the home of our next stop on the Tour, the aptly named Royal Hotel Kew.

Kew is a bit of a small, unassuming town. While Kew doesn’t have a ton of businesses, those that are there lean heavily into town-name-based puns. The visitors information centre is called the I-Kew. There is accommodation called Far Kew. You get the idea. And I have to say after you hear a couple of Kew-based puns, they really start to get…even better. Let it never be said that we don’t appreciate a good pun or five on the Tour.

While the town is small and unassuming, the Royal Hotel Kew is not. It looks like the kind of Royal that once would have qualified for our ‘Grand Old Royal’ status. But the was it’s kept up and looks to have been fairly recently done up, ‘old’ is definitely not a fair description. The Royal Hotel Kew is a schmick looking pub. And as we were walking in a plaque informed us that Kew was in fact the home town of Australia’s greatest aviatrix Nancy Bird Walton. If there’s anything we love more than a pun on the Tour, it’s a good bit of trivia.

The front bar that greets you when you walk in through the slightly too narrow front doors, was bustling. And to be fair, it was a Saturday arvo so that shouldn’t be a surprise. Continuing on past the front bar area, there’s a huge combined bistro/lounge area complete with open fire place. A bit further beyond that is a great verandah with a big and perfectly kept grassy beer garden.

If we had been settling in for a longer stay, I would’ve loved to migrate around the pub having a beer in each of the areas. But as we were only there for one or two, we set up shop in the front bar where the most atmosphere seemed to be.

There was actually a huge array of taps to choose from, which, again, is something we’re not particularly used to on the Tour. Granted most of these were your usual suspects (XXXX, New, VB, Carlton Draught, etc). But they did have a local beer from just down the road in Dunbogan. So Wash House Brews’ Tidy Pale was the only way to go as far as I was concerned.

The beer and the vibe of the place were both enough to make you want to stay for the rest of the day. I may have said something similar about a number of the pubs we’ve hit on the tour, but that doesn’t make it any less true for Kew.

We did end up staying for two beers and a little bit longer than we had intended. But I don’t think any of us had any regrets about that. The Royal Hotel Kew is a great pub and one that is well worth a stop if you’re passing through. The town itself is pretty Kew-l too. Come for the puns, stay for the pub.

Royal Stats

• Town/Suburb: Kew, NSW
• Population: 1,089
• Date Visited: Saturday, July 6, 2024
• Visited By: Cory, John and Anthony
• Beer Sponsorship on Sign: None
• Beer Consumed at Pub: Wash House Brews Tidy Pale
• Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $9.30
• Unique Award: Royal That Gave Me a Chance to Use the Word ‘Aviatrix’
• Tour Progress: 44.5% (61/137)