Royal (Inn) Hotel Waratah

After departing Kew and its many punnily named businesses, we continued south to Newcastle and our last stop for the day, the Royal (Inn) Hotel Waratah.

Firstly I’ll address the bit of an elephant in the room. Yes, the sign on the outside does say the Royal INN Hotel. And yes, I do know the conditions we set ourselves for this tour: only pubs called the Royal Hotel. No additional words except potentially the name of the town. However, every reference I can find online to the pub calls it the Royal Hotel Waratah. The pub’s website is royalhotelwaratah.com.au. The signage inside the pub says Royal Hotel or just RH. So we’re counting it.

Now that we have that out of the way, the other notable thing about our visit to the Royal Hotel Waratah was the number of companions we had in tow. First up we had my mate (and Anthony’s mate) Mick who made the journey up from the Central Coast for the evening. We also had Matty J one of John’s mates from back in our Wollongong days. And finally there was Big Al, another of John’s mates and, by the end of the night, everyone else’s as well.

As for the pub itself it had a bit of a mixed vibe going on, from the outside at least. It kind of occupied the centre space of the Venn diagram consisting of nondescript suburban pub, boarded up bunker, and semi-ornate classic pub. Walking in, the pub was pretty much none of those three Venn diagram circles. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but there was a very clear locals vibe to parts of the pub. However, a lot of the rest of it was a somewhat surprisingly good solid, comfortable pub.

Again, I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting. But we had thought that this might be the kind of Royal where we stop in, have a beer, tick it off the list, and then roll on to a nicer establishment nearby. But we ended up hanging out at the Royal Hotel Waratah for hours.

With six of us in attendance there were always about three different conversations going on around the table at any given time. On one notable occasion, all three of these conversations were simultaneously interrupted by a particularly inebriated elderly gentleman. Upon commandeering the floor, he proceeded to educate us about one Ron Munro. As it turns out, Ron Munro was the best fullback never to play for Australia. And he had a framed photo on the wall behind us declaring as much so who am I to argue.

We ended up having dinner at the pub as well which was, in general, pretty damn good as well. I was a little disappointed that none of our group (myself included) ended up being game to try to tackle one of the eating challenges. Because if there’s one thing we love in a Royal (along with bespoke signage, merch, character, etc) it’s eating challenges!

While there was nothing overtly special or overly unique about the Royal Hotel Waratah, we all had a really good time there. Granted that was probably largely down to the company. But for a pub where we thought we might only spend half an hour, it ended up being a really good night. And while we did eventually move on to a brewery for the remainder of the night, it was definitely a solid and enjoyable Royal session.

Royal Stats

• Town/Suburb: Waratah (Newcastle), NSW
• Population: 4,927
• Date Visited: Saturday, July 6, 2024
• Visited By: Cory, John, Anthony, Mick, Matty J, and Big Al
• Beer Sponsorship on Sign: Tooheys New
• Beer Consumed at Pub: Tooheys Old
• Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $7.90
• Unique Award: Royal That Was Home to the Greatest Fullback Never to Play for Australia
• Tour Progress: 45.3% (62/137)