Entertainment in Pacific
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Dux de Lux
Closed until further notice.
Quality micro-brewed beers underpin this Christchurch icon. There’s good food too, especially seafood and vegetarian, and live music features at least four nights a week. On weekend afternoons the garden bar is the place to be after exploring the Arts Centre market.
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Cookie
Stylish and cheeky, this bar tiles its high walls with kitschy books and vinyl, and pours fine European, Asian and Oz beers. The wine list is commendable, the Thai-inspired tapas is classy, and jeans and a T-shirt are just as welcome as designer duds.
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Darwin Ski Club
Leave Mitchell St behind and head for a sublime sunset at this laid-back waterski club on Vestey’s Beach. The view through the palm trees from the beer garden is sublime and there are often live bands.
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Deckchair Cinema
During the Dry, the Darwin Film Society runs this fabulous outdoor cinema below the southern end of the Esplanade. Watch a movie under the stars while reclining in a deckchair − bring a cushion for extra comfort. There's a licensed bar serving food (teriyaki noodles, pasta bolognese etc) or you can bring a picnic (no BYO alcohol). There are usually double features on Friday and Saturday nights (adult/child $20/9).
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Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel
Built in 1841, this boutique sandstone pub has its own brewery (try a pint of Nelson’s Blood), and is just far enough from The Rocks’ tourist throng. Rooms are elegantly colonial, with stripy sheets, stone walls and dormer windows – the owners have resisted the urge to spew flowers and lace all over the place. Most of the nine rooms are spacious and have en suites; there are also cheaper, smaller rooms with shared facilities.
reviewed
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Carlisle Wine Bar
Dark and inviting, this is the kind of place that makes you wish you were a regular. In summer, pavement tables are perfect for a beer and a long segue into a rustic Italian dinner. The wine list is top notch, including reasonably priced old and rare bottles. But it's not all about wine. A handsome barman will whip you up a fine cocktail, in between flipping over the vinyl. Friday and Saturday can get rowdy.
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Orbit
Shoot up to this murderously cool revolving Goldfinger-esque bar, offering killer cocktails and views to die for. Sink into an Eero Saarinen tulip chair and sip a kung fu mojito while all of Sydney is paraded before you.
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Breakfast Creek Hotel
In a great rambling building dating from 1889, this historic pub is a Brisbane institution. Built in French Renaissance style, the pub encompasses various bars (including a beer garden and an art-deco 'private bar' where you can still drink draft beer tapped from a wooden keg). The stylish, modern Substation No 41 bar serves boutique beers and cocktails.
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Subiaco Hotel
The Subi’s a local favourite and the institution of choice for a morning coffee with the papers or a pre-footy beer. It’s popular, too, for a Sunday sundowner or an afternoon of quiet beverages and people-watching.
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Pheasant Plucker
A place for a proper pint, the pleasant Pheasant proffers locally brewed and Brit beers, along with pub food and open-mic, blues, rock, roots and singer-songwriter acts.
reviewed
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Theatre Royal
In the evening, catch a live band or film at the historic Theatre Royal.
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South Bank Cinema
The cheapest for mainstream flicks.
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O'Reillys
- Suva, Fiji
- Entertainment › Pub
O'Reillys kicks the evening off in relatively subdued fashion - relaxed punters playing pool or watching sport on the numerous TVs. But it brews quite a party as the hours tick by and come 11ish the place is generally throbbing with a gleeful crowd of locals and travellers. There's no distinct age code, and backpackers, foreign contractors, locals and expats fill the dance floor, shaking their bits to Europop, soft metal, techno, peppy country and western…basically anything that keeps the crowd moving.
Forget warm pints of Guinness; the only Irish quality about O'Reillys (aside from the name) is that it's enough fun to knock your socks off.
reviewed
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Royal Papua Yacht Club
This large airy place is the last bastion of post-colonial white elitism - you won't see any grassroots here. Pity because it's a nice place with a pleasant deck for sitting, drinking cold beer and watching the harbour. The food is good and reasonably priced, and the club is decorated with lots of interesting WWII photos and maritime memorabilia.
There's sometimes live music, but otherwise it's a steady diet of easy-listening 'yacht rock' through the speakers, such as Eagles, Toto, Christopher Cross. You're supposed to have a member sign you in, but a little charm (and white skin) should see you in.
reviewed
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Gabba
Brisbanites are fanatical about sport, particularly the variety that involves ‘wielding the willow’ and ‘bowling a bouncer’. At the start of every summer, the first international test cricket match of the season is always played at the famous Gabba ground. The drama unfolds over five days, or there are shorter versions of the game to check out. One-day internationals and the slog-fest Twenty20 matches (lasting about three hours) are usually played between January and March.
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Deco
Why is it that journalists always open the best bars? Here the adventurous and considered wine list is well respected by connoisseurs, but still Deco manages to avoid any inkling of pretension. In the darkness you'll find locals ensconced in couches drinking red wines and eating delicious cheeses, while sports writers nurse Belgian beers and talk football at the bar.
On Friday and Saturday nights the cocktail crowds descend for the driest martinis this side of the Yarra.
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Builders Arms Hotel
A completely re-imagined bad old boozer that’s retained its charm despite theatrical new threads. Come for a pot by all means, but there’s also decent wine by the glass, a blackboard cocktail list and big Middle-Eastern flavours at the bar or in the dining room. Picnic style tables on the footpath outside are perfect for taking in Gertrude St.
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Skycity Darwin
On Mindil Beach, this is Darwin’s flashy casino complex, with accommodation and three restaurants and all the card tables, roulette wheels and pokie machines you need – all the tools to help you lose your shirt (or win your fortune). To ensure you have a shirt to lose there’s a dress code, which means no singlets, thongs or scruffy clothing.
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Exeter
The best pub in the city, this legendary boozer attracts a kooky mix of post-work, punk and uni drinkers, shaking the day off their backs. Pull up a stool or a table in the grungy beer garden ( sooo much better without the smokers) and settle in for the evening. Music most nights; curry nights Wednesday and Thursday.
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Deck Bar
Wash down delicious Asian, Moroccan and European offerings with a selection from the excellent range of wines, many available by the glass, or the 20-odd ales on tap. The lubricated chatter out on the expansive wooden deck is about the latest mobile phones, the boss, the property market or the Deck's first-rate coffee.
reviewed
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Belgian Beer Café
Closed until further notice.
Are Belgian beer cafés the new Irish pub? They seem to be springing up everywhere, with the cosy wood-heavy interiors, pots of mussels and fabulous array of beers. This is a fine example of the genre, with a suitably old-world exterior and a good-looking beer menu you'd be happy to work through.
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Matterhorn
We're still gettin' the Horn, despite a change of ownership and some stiff competition. A perennially popular joint with three distinct but equally pleasing areas (long bar, dining room and garden bar), the Matterhorn still honours its patrons with reputable food (tapas from mid-arvo, dinner daily, brunch weekends), solid service and regular live music.
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Tillermans Music Lounge
Tillerman’s is an alternative live-music/DJ venue, with live music ranging from local thrash bands to visiting rock or reggae talents. DJs spin mostly dub and house. Decrepit black couches and a battered old dance floor prove its credentials.
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Sandwiches
Get yourself a slice of NZ’s electronic artists and DJs, regular multiflavoured international acts and a great sound system. Gritty club run by a dedicated team that isn’t just in it for the bread.
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Malthouse
Beervana. An immense array of beers (both local and international) that would make even the most fervent of hopheads quiver at the knees. New Zealand does brew great beer, and this is the place to quaff them. Check out the Forty Licks–style toilets in the gents.
reviewed