Surly’s American Tavern
182 Campbell St.
Surry Hills, Sydney
This American restaurant and tavern brings to Surrey Hills tasty food with those generous US style servings from Nashville. Their famous commercial fire-box smoker was flown in from Missouri and what a great ‘Smokin’ taste it makes. It really was worth bringing in! It’s a decent sized place here too with a big entry level area and a mezzanine level upstairs. It’s rustic and the walls are packed with memorabilia creating a great vibe. We sat upstairs in an atmospheric wood panelling area. To add to the ambience there are shuffleboards and free arcade games.
As it’s a tavern, there are plenty of beers available. It’s a great range. We decided to go rogue and started with a cocktail each. As Sir loves his rum, he had the very tasty Apple Rumball. It was spiced rum, apricot brandy, cloudy apple, lemon, muscovado syrup and cinnamon. Mlady had the colourful Macy’s Garden. This was made with fresh yuzu, gin, butterfly pea flower tea, lemon myrtle syrup, lemon and lavender.
The Cowboy Quesadillas are 18 hour brisket, onion, capsicum, smoked cheese with a cheese sauce dip. The 18 hour brisket was oh so good. Dipping these scrumptious quesadillas into the cheese sauce was divine. It all had such beautiful flavours with a nice gentle outside crunch.
Surly’s delicious buffalo wings had Surly’s BBQ, honey mustard Louisiana, lemon pepper dry rubbed smoked ranch. These too were cooked perfectly. They were wonderfully crisped outside with a nice moist centre and that sauce was so finger licking good.
The Loaded Fries we tried were called ‘Chick me out’. This was liquid cheese, smoked chicken chunks, jalapeños, crispy shallots and ranch dressing. We just loved that smoked chicken. It was a well-balanced combo that combined so well with the jalapeños, crispy shallots and ranch dressing.
The Ultimate BBQ Platter had a real wow factor. This incredibly delicious platter had 18 hr dry rubbed beef brisket, 12 hour pulled pork, smoked chicken thigh, Texas hot link sausage and chicken wings. Pickles, onion and cornbread were also on this with sides of tangy coleslaw, creamy mac and cheese, smooth mash with gravy and another single gravy.
Where to start? The meat was cooked perfectly. It was so soft with it all having amazing flavours and textures. Combining the various meats with the sides made for a mouthwatering taste sensation. Everything went so well together - right down to the oh so good mash and gravy. We loved it all.
We also had a burger - the BBB burger. It was big with a smashed patty with bacon, smoked BBQ brisket, cheese, pickles, chilli jam and mayo. Mlady loves burgers and this one ticked all the boxes. The bacon was nice and crispy and with all the other ingredients, made for one flavoursome burger. This was definitely one of the best burgers we have had.
We did manage to fit in dessert - just. We shared a house baked brownie with almond flakes with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Being a bit of a chocoholic, this was a winner with Mlady. It was not too chocolatey. It was just right with an amazing chocolate sauce and teamed with its perfect partner - vanilla ice cream. Yummo!
The feel within Surly’s American Tavern lives up to its name. It really has a homey warm and relaxed vibe and it’s somewhere to settle in for some great brews and great food.
The food at Surly’s American Tavern is very very good, with great flavours and combos. It’s also good that you can share it and that way you get to savour more of their appetising dishes.
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Surleys American Tavern. Big thank you to Lilly for looking after us. Thank you also to Tara and Sam.