The Bald Faced Stag

I popped in to this place just for a look around, but as you all know, sticky beaking is thirsty work so I ordered a beer. The bar was fully staffed by bearded and tattooed hipsters. Those guys have recently broken out of Surry Hills and are slowly marching west, sort of like cane toads.
The pub doesn’t sell Carlton ! AAAARRRGGGGHH ! Why are people so unkind? I settled for a VB which was both nice and cold AND served in a chilled glass and only cost $ 5. The interior is actually huge even though it doesn’t look it from the street. Beside the bar is the band room which is enormous and looks like it would hold around 300. The bar area is your basic 1970’s suburban pub complete with TVs, pool tables and a TAB. There is also a back yard furnished with umbrellas for those eager to commune with nature. The bar room was a little smelly and the culprit turned out to be the carpet which is getting threadbare and well past its use by. A few hundred spilled beers does that to the best of them.
The service and beer were both fine although one star off for not selling Carlton. The building is very tired and dimly lit, sort of 1975 RSL chic. I didn’t eat.

Came here for the Chicken & Sons pop-​up and holy mother of everything burger and chicken and truffle mac and cheese if you love all of those things I just mentioned this is the pop-​up for you my fine feathered friend.
The menu in the beer garden /​restaurant area out back is one page, but what a page it is. Our group was all over the Jerk Spiced Beef Shin burger with pineapple but for mine it was the Buttermilk Fried Chicken burger with crunchy slaw that won the day, biting into that crisp-​coated but amazingly juicy chicken had me at hello, goodbye, and everything in between.
You know what else is great about this place? They stock Stolen Rum, and the bartenders are friendly as your next-​door neighbour ought to be. It feels like hanging with mates, it’s the gold star for what bar service should be.

Don’t judge the stag by its… well don’t judge the stag okay, fun times can be had there! The restaurant out the back sells perfectly acceptable and rather delicious noodles, Thai curries and stir fries (the green curry is great). The performance room out the back is a great place to see a band and the bathrooms are always clean. The main bar might occasionally be filled with the local Derros, but you know what? When they get too annoying the bar staff have no hesitation on sending them on their way. Thursday night is karaōke night, and if you go down with a large group the bar staff and karaōke host are beyond accommodating. The drinks are cheap, the staff are friendly and everybody knows everyone’s name… but I’m pretty glad they don’t know mine!

The Bald Faced Stag is a back-​to-​basics pub in Leichhardt.
There’s nothing too fancy about it, but if you’re a local it’s a good spot to grab an afternoon drink. The food here isn’t bad (and includes $ 5 T-​Bones Tuesday) and is reasonably priced (especially on $ 5 T-​Bones Tuesday). The staff are friendly and the bar seems to host Happy Hour most hours of the day — no complaints here.
The Stag bangs on with live music a few nights of the week. With an open mic night (frequented by the same crew most weeks) and karaōke (same story here), the diversity comes in the plethora of metal bands that rock the stage on weekends, drowning out the sound of the races over the tvs and bringing in an alternate crowd to the usual mix of tradies and TAB patrons.
There’s a decent courtyard out the back which is nothing special but pretty nice on a sunny day, despite the fact that it backs on to/​is all but one with the Centrelink carpark. The cider situation? 5 seeds on tap, Strongbow in the fridge.

I’ve seen some pretty funky live music here. I’ve seen stand up comedy, I’ve been here at the start of a pub crawl, sat and eaten with friends and talked about dreams. Not in a «One day I’ll be» sense, but more of a «And then I fell through the floor into a giant mouth that was shaped like a vacant lot.»
I used to live in Lismore, a small town of about 45 000 people, and of all the bars I’ve been to in Sydney, this reminds me the most of a small town bar. This bar lacks the pretence that a lot of Sydney bars tend to have.
The dogs race on the televisions at the entrance, pool tables are available and there’s quite a good selection of beers. There’s something happening most nights, between live music, stand up comedy and your average run of the mill pub events like toss the boss and trivia.
The pub can seem a bit rough from time to time in terms of clientele and who’s hanging about outside. The courtyard out the back pretty much backs out onto the Centrelink building, but I’ve never had an issue here besides the odd dirty look.
But that’s how I like looks. Dirty. Filthy. Looks.

The Bald Faced Stag is one of the oldest pubs in Sydney and has a salt-​of-​the-​earth Aussie kind of flavour. There always seems to be stuff on here– there’s a separate back room for live bands and comedy, an outdoor kitchen and restaurant, TAB & pokies room if that’s your bag, and the main bar has everything from meat raffles to joker jackpot, karaōke etc. It seems mostly frequented by tradies, the usual kind of men that hang around TABs, and a few women, except on weekends and when bands are on and it gets a bit more rock!
Mr Thomson’s Kitchen has a good mix of trad Aussie Pub Grub and Malaysian/​Thai curries etc (I think Mr Thomson is Malaysian). It’s super-​cheap and good for pub food! I wouldn’t suggest you tak a special trip to The to The Stag just to check it out but it’s definitely a great place to go and be entertained.