The Rose and Crown Hotel, on leafy Swan Street in Guildford, is a stunning heritage building. It is the second oldest operating pub in Australia. The grand old building, which is over 175 years old, has been restored beautifully.
We’ve visited the historic hotel many times over the years. It’s somewhere we like to have long lunches, drinks with friends and take overseas guests to. We just love any excuse for a bite to eat in the shady beer garden.
The Rose and Crown is also lovely on a cold winter’s day. We’ve often stopped by on a chilly day and eaten indoors, by the roaring fire. I cannot rave enough about the beer garden. If you’ve never been, do yourself a favour and go and have a lazy afternoon in the sun dappled garden.
On this day I was meeting my parents on my birthday. We wanted to meet somewhere near the Swan Valley that had good food, but was casual enough for kids. We sat in the beer garden with a glass of wine, while Little Chef busily chatted and coloured in.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch. My Dad loved his masterstock pork belly ($36). A generous slab of flavoursome pork belly is served with tender grilled Freo octopus, a herb salad, crispy pork scratching and an apple gel.
I relished the Indian lamb shank ($34). I’d not had shanks for a while and this was a really flavoursome change from the regular shanks n mash type of dish. These slow cooked shanks are smothered in an hyderabadi spice, served with delicious Bombay potatoes and charred baby zucchini. I loved it!
My Mum commented that the crispy skinned barramundi ($36), from WA’s north west, was really moist. It was served with chargrilled seasonal vegetables and a lemon butter sauce.
As well as our main dishes we shared some super chunky hand cut chips, with smoked aioli, which were very tasty and well seasoned.
There’s a decent choice on the kids menu. Little Chef picks the fish and chips, $10. The fish is really good quality and there’s plenty of fries to dunk in the tomato sauce.
He finished his lunch with a yummy “Frog in a pond” ($5), a freddo frog in lime jelly. Little Chef discovered every child’s favourite dessert here, many years ago and always has to order it. For kids there’s free kids colouring packs to keep them amused.
Each part of the hotel oozes with history, especially in The Cellar, where you’ll find the hotel’s old well.
Little Chef and I had a peek down the steep staircase, where we found a little bar. The unique space is hired out for private functions.
The Rose and Crown’s menu is more than your standard pub fare, it’s executed very well and is well and truly in gastro pub territory. The food is consistently good, which is why I’ll be back again and again.
Find the Rose and Crown at 105 Swan Street, Guildford.