Cross Keys Hotel

This pub is ok as a place to watch the footy or to have a beer with friends but I wouldnt recommend it as a place to eat. The prices are far too high for what are really quite small servings. The food tastes good and is of high quality, but if Im paying $ 19.90 for roast of the day Id like to get quite a lot of meat from that roast. The slices of roast beef were too thin and too few. The vegetables were done beautifully and the gravy was nice but there was not enough meat for a $ 19.90 roast (Im painfully refraining from calling it a $ 20 roast).
What was absolutely bizarre though, was that the childrens meals were as big as the adults roasts and also contained chilli! Who on earth thought that putting chilli into kids meals was a good idea???
That said, maybe the concept of putting chilli into the kids meals is well thought out — because with chilli in there most kids wont eat much of it and thus their parents get to finish off the meal for them — which makes up for the lack of quantity on the roast… Yes, its probably just a really well thought out plan to make sure that parents get enough food, kids dont get too much and nothing goes to waste…
Of the aesthetics, the pub is clean and light and has a TAB and a kids playroom which is a big hit for the little ones (the playroom that is, not the TAB). The playroom is actually great because it allows parents space to have a meal without their kids bothering them too much.
I couldnt help but notice that the mixed grill was $ 33… When I was a kid my father (a blue collar working class man) told me some advice: «When you dont know what to eat, get a mixed grill — then you get a bit of everything» (the best/​only sensible piece of advice he ever gave me). Well in his day, a mixed grill would certainly not have cost the 1975 equivelent of $ 33… its supposed to be a blue collar working mans meal — not a $ 33 dish!!! I simply refuse to pay $ 33 for a mixed grill. If it was cheaper I probably wouldve had it…
Anyway, the roast was nice, the kids chicken noodle stirfry type thing was also quite nice but the food was very expensive…
Might be the sort of place to go on a Friday night for the footy, but I probably wont eat there again with those prices…