Harrigan's Irish Pub - Hunter Valley

This is a story of how two clueless people naively thought that they could tackle a simple lunch. A classic tale of how the eyes are always bigger than your stomach. But from the beginning…

I have to say the food in Hunter Valley never fails to impress…even if it gets a little unimaginative after days of eating similar food - modern Australian, modern French, modern European, café fare. If you’re a little over it, then maybe getting down and dirty with the Irish might be the change you're looking for.

Restaurant to the right, pub to the left

In our case, after a couple of days we’re really hankering for some simple pub food and a cold pint. Harrigan’s Irish Pub is in the heart of Pokolbin just down the road from tourist favourite Hunter Valley Gardens. Mother Nature even co-operated on this day by giving us a perfect blue sky and a touch of warmth for a lazy alfresco lunch.

Looking into the al fresco dining area

The outdoor tables here are immensely sticky, obviously as a result of many nights of drunken shenanigans and inebriated grog spillage. I can’t imagine what was lurking beneath the booze veneer so with elbows off the table, we set about ordering from a sheet that you fill out yourself and take over to the register inside the restaurant.

If only these tables could talk…

We give the Harrigan’s own beer straight from the tap a try, which The Captain gives a resounding thumbs up to. He loved it so much that he trotted straight to the adjoining liquor store to see if they were selling cases of it. But sadly for him, Harrigan’s own brew is only available off the tap from the pub itself. The Captain even tried to persuade the barman to let him take a keg of it home to no avail!

Harrigan’s own brewed ale


Without a moment’s hesitation, I ticked the Beef and Guinness Pie with mash and steamed vegetables. My first sign of failure was my wide-eyed look as I faced off with a giant mound of mash and broccoli that resembled mini mausoleums. I consider myself to have a healthy appetite but never at lunch and daylight. My stomach works best at night.

Beef and Guiness Pie on Colcannon Mash and Steamed Garden Vegetables ($19.90). It looks bigger in real life, trust me!

The chunks of steak unfortunately, were a bit tough and chewy. No doubt Harrigan’s weren’t slow-cooking the stew long enough, which is essential for melt-in-your-mouth tender meat. The unmistakable bitterness of the Guiness was ragingly present but personally I would’ve preferred it a little sweeter such as the one I made for St. Patrick’s Day. Luckily food always tastes better with a mound of creamy potato mash.

The Captain’s Irish Bangers and Mash is much better and oh so comforting. This just screams perfect winter dish and when washed down with a pint of Irish brew, the world suddenly doesn’t seem so bad. At this point, my stomach was reaching its limit and failure was imminent. And I haven’t even got to our humble side of fries yet!

Irish Bangers and Mash - Irish pork sausages, mash potato, gravy and mushy peas ($18.90)

Yes, those damn never-ending plate of fries. We naively thought it’d be a nice side dish to complement our hearty mains and as an extra starchy implement to eat our mash. Little did we realise that the humble plate of fries was blown up to massive satellite-dish sized proportions. If I was a little scared of broccoli mausoleums, imagine my trepidation with this whole plate of fries! This was not a place for the carb conscious!

Fries served with your choice of gravy, tomato sauce or aioli ($9.90). They look so innocently small in photos!

Our beginning effort to plough through our lunch was valiant as we slowly ate through the fries that we ordered with gravy and aioli. We felt like we ate a months worth yet the plate still looked full! Our effort soon turned pitiful and embarrassingly we had to quietly push away the never-ending plate of fries along with my unfinished main before hotfooting out of there with our tails firmly between our legs. And before anybody saw our pitiful attempt. Our retreat saw us drowning our sorrows with a couple more pints of Harrigan's brew in the pub area.

Never underestimate the Irish. That was our lesson of the day.

Inside Harrigan’s pub

The wisdom of the Irish was literally written on the wall

Harrigan’s Irish Pub & Accommodation

Hunter Valley Gardens, Broke Road
Pokolbin, NSW, 2320

(02) 4998 4300

Breakfast from 7.30 to 10.00am
Lunch and dinner from 12 to 9.30pm
Pub opens from 10am to late every day