QA Hotel
Editorial
The Queen's Arms has taken the same road as many urban Australian pubs of the last decade, morphing from a beer-stained, rock-infused roughhouse into a polished, lightly-beer-scented, roomy house of casual entertainment. Located a short walk from the Palace Cinemas and within the James Street entertainment precinct, the QA yields a balanced blend of affordable food and drink among the pricier restaurants, cafes and wine bars on the same street.
Inside, the space is huge and the square metres once dedicated to amps and crowds have been smoothly sectioned into separate areas for drinking, playing pool, pub entertainment or spectator vantage tables to view the whole affair. There's also limited outside seating - best be in early if you're after some real sun as opposed to a nightclub tan.
The menu is perfect nouveau pub: a small but high-quality wine list features some of Australia's best labels, with reasonably priced wines by the glass. The cocktail list is surprisingly comprehensive and the food menu caters for the simple-and-starchy (fries, wedges, streak sandwiches), the antipodean experimental (kangaroo) and the exotic casual (roasted pumpkin in laksa sauce).
There are also special events for each night of the week that gain party flavour towards the weekend, with Australian Poker League on Mondays, trivia on Wednesdays and $10 cocktails on Saturdays. By Sunday the green-felted gambling tables make way for a bit of history, as live bands take the floor once again.
Siobhan Thakur, May 2008
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