Paragon Hotel
Hard to get a shot of the hotel without also having the MacDonald's that is the front corner of it in frame
In the city, right opposite Circular Quay and across the road from Custom's House is the Paragon Hotel. About half of it's ground floor is now a MacDonald's, but the rear half of the ground floor, and I assume all of the upstairs is still the hotel. I've been there twice, but never seen upstairs as it seems to be popular for private functions, and this evening it entertained us with fancy dress costumes wandering through the bar on their way to their party.
Not the easiest interior to photograph with the pillars, but shows that there is a back area as well as the front bar area
I was there to meet up with a couple of friends for dinner before we headed off to see Welcome to Nightvale's Live show at the Opera House (I'll write about that another time). We ordered food, grabbed some drinks and found a table to chat at while we waited for our food to come. It would have been a good 10 minutes, and possibly 15 when the first dish arrived, and a couple more before the other 2 arrived, but when they did, we all had quite decent meals.
First to arrive was the splurge order. Crispy Skin Atlantic Salmon, served with a salad consisting of rocket, baby spinach, peas, feta and pine nuts. My companion that ordered it was very happy at the limited amount of rocket in the mixture, providing it as a balancing flavour, rather than overpowering everything else, and the Salmon was very well cooked and did indeed have crispy skin.
While I hate stuff served on the chips, serving the fish on a salad doesn't bother me nearly as much
On my advice my other companion went with the Chicken Schnitzel, which came with chips, house slaw, and gravy. After moving things around to make it possible to eat, she was very happy with the choice and before it seemed possible her plate was completely empty. Decent chips with a good schnitzel are hard to beat.
I can't wait for this idea that serving meat on top of chips is a good thing goes away
Finally we have my dinner. I went with their Fried Chicken Burger, which contained the house slaw, fried chicken and a chipotle mayo in a nicely toasted brioche bun. The amount of heat from the mayo surprised me at first, as I'd forgotten if it said it had a spicy sauce on the menu (and it isn't on their online menu at all) but it was certainly the right sauce for the burger as it paired very well with the slaw on the other side of the chicken. The side of chips were nice too, and good for cleaning up the dripped sauces.
Not quite sure how they got the sauce on the outside of the bun lid though
It's not the cheapest place, but compared to other nearby locations it's reasonably priced, and the food is certainly good. I was disappointed to see on my credit card though that they seem to charge a card fee that wasn't mentioned or advertised clearly anywhere. It was also more than the allowable 1.5% and I'll be paying them a visit in the near future to talk to someone about it.
Other than the credit card fee issue, it was a nice place to meet and a good meal had by all three of us. And the show afterwards was enjoyed by us all also.
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