A lot of Sydney’s pubs play a single trump – tender steak, good times trivia, clean beer, golden schnitzel – but it’s a truly special boozer that can show a full and winning hand. Dove and Olive is that place. It’s been a couple of years since it set up inside the shell of the old Clarendon on Devonshire Street and tapped the biggest craft beer collection in Surry Hills. Suddenly we had a pub for all occasions where the beers, food and vibe are were ace and the mounted deer horns came with googly eyes.
Need a quick meal before a Belvoir production? The hefty parmigiana could see you through a performance of Cloudstreet without needing a snack at interval. A thick chicken breast cloaked in a crunchy, crumbed armour comes topped with tomato puree, eggplant, double smoked ham and mozzarella, plus they chuck some grated parmesan on for good measure. The board – it would never all fit on a single plate – is then laden with fries and a hillock of coleslaw.
If you’ve eaten your fill of steak and pepper sauce, order the tender rump with blue cheese and asparagus on top. As the cheese melts you get a bitey, savoury sauce that can be mopped up with another generous pile of fries. Gigiddy!
Sure, the Shakey up the road is cheaper, but this is the place for something you didn’t overdo in your student days, and they do budget-friendly $9.90 specials from Monday to Thursday. Their pub food may not be what you'd call game-changing, but it is tasty, fast and fun.
Where they really flex their hospitality muscles is in that beer list. On any given day you’ll have to make hard choices between double hop ales, American pale wheat ales, kellerbiers, IPAs and imperial pilsners. If the constant influx of local beers is to be believed we must have breweries on every corner in the Inner West, and these guys pride themselves on being early adopters.
If you’re a bit lost it’s worth coming along to the craft beer fight clubs where brewers can tackle your queries face to face. They keep things traditional with trivia Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and get experimental and weird with the odd opera performance. It’s a pub for all tastes, all seasons and all people. And that’s why we love it.
