The Wild Rover

Address: 75 Campbell St, Sydney, NSW, 2010, Australia
Tel: +61 (0)2 9280 2235
Website: view The Wild Rover’s website
Hours: Mon Closed, Tue-Sat 16:00-00:00, Sun Closed
Door: Open door
Style: Cocktail bar
Food: Bar Snacks

Review

Enter through the big wooden door with the red light on Campbell St in Sydney's Surry Hills and you will discover a world of fun and whiskey.

Living up to the name, The Wild Rover serves up fun friendly banter, good drinks and whiskey. With a focus on Irish Whiskey and cocktails, guests are welcomed with a house shot concoction of Irish Whiskey and Stone's Ginger Wine. The Irish connection is apt, with three tap beers and one always having Guinness. Sausage and vegetarian rolls are a solid choice to line the belly, with corn on the cob, freshly shucked oysters and ploughman's boards rounding out the food.

The split-level venue has an open and warm feel to it, either perch at the bar or find a seat on one of the round tables or booths. The upstairs venue is a more rectangular shape and features a dart board on one side, with leather banquette seating opposite the bar. Downstairs has the bar against the back wall as the centrepiece with a striking jungle feature wall and beautiful copper bar top, two booths are near the front near the door and tables all around. Offering table service for drinks, a Ned Kelly statue guards the front door from hooligans and a menu written on old train timetables, there's something a little thrown together but all a little planned that works perfectly for The Wild Rover. The music here is fittingly up-tempo folk with some blues thrown in for good measure.

The cocktails here are approachable and delicious, and whilst a majority are whiskey-based, there's are some throwback classics and guilty pleasures, with Aussie craft beers also being a focus.

For those into whisky, and I mean really into whisky, you can opt to join the Rover's Whiskey Co-op, where members are invited to free monthly tastings with various whiskey brand ambassadors. Members receive a passport and can learn about 100 whiskeys, which can be checked off as they complete their journey of the dram.

Sure things might get wild, but hey that's all a part of it. Once you know where the door is, it's hard to resist.