The Forest Lodge Hotel

Ever been peckish at the pub but not hungry enough for parma? Haven't been able to decide between spag bol and pizza? Found yourself in the mood for a mini-buffet and a knees up?

Next time, consider ordering from the kids' menu. Pro: It's cheap for an adult to eat lots of dishes. Con: You look like the world's creepiest weirdo in the process.

I used to think the term "kid-friendly pub" had no right existing. Like "permanent pop-up" or "low-fat milk". A pub should not be kid-friendly by virtue of the fact it's a pub. For adults. For drinking. It is not a place to be paranoid about stepping on a two-year-old.

The Forest Lodge (which I refuse to call "The Flodge" for no other reason except that it is an ugly-sounding word) has made me re-evaluate this. It's a beaut pub in Glebe's sleepy sister suburb where a mix of families, footyheads, young professionals, local vagrants and students happily click together each night. It's family friendly, but not to point where I can't enjoy a jug of Reschs in the beer garden with decent pizza and half-decent mates.

It's a pub that should also be commended for an all-NSW wine list, supporting local craft breweries and winning the 2012 Best Named Bruce Springsteen Tribute Night trophy (an award of my own invention) for "Darkness on the Edge of Newtown".

Sunday nights are something of a neighbourhood meet-and-greet, and on a recent visit I feel like I've walked into a birthday party at a bowling alley. There's a bunch of 10-year-old boys in plaid shirts and track pants hanging out at the pool table, chalking cues and trying to look tough, while girls watch Edward Scissorhands on a projector. A toddler wearing a Dora the Explorer jumper tries to smush a chip into a Street Fighter II coin slot and I can't sit at the table I want because a printed slip tells me "Tom" has reserved it for six people and a pram.

I know the grown-ups' menu is a winner, particularly the cheeseburger ($15.50) and house-made gnocchi ($17), but what about the $10 kids' options?

A fresh and fleshy white bream fillet comes grilled or fried with chips and a lightly dressed salad of cucumber, cherry tomato and lettuce. Good stuff. It's exciting to see the pork sausage in the bangers, mash and steamed greens option is coiled up Cumberland-style and disappointing when it tastes like any bog-standard backyard barbie snag. Meanwhile, the spaghetti with pork and veal is a winner, heavy with the kind of acidic tomato sauce best consumed with a litre of cheap chianti or schooner of red cordial.

The moppet meals are better than the deep-fried processed rubbish other pubs like to feed growing bodies. I'm actually surprised I can order any of them since The Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon in Newcastle once refused to serve a friend chicken nuggets because he was too old and I have since assumed this is common policy everywhere.

It probably is common policy. Have you ever seen a bearded bloke alone with a table full of kids' meals, surrounded by children that aren't his? It's an odd sight. I'm expecting to see comfits of my mug plastered along Ross Street any day now and I fear it's too awkward to visit the pub again.

Thanks for the memories, Forest Lodge. You were a brilliant local while it lasted.

THE LOW-DOWN
Go for… family dinner.
Stay for… pool and pinball.
Drink… a Tertini pinot noir 2013 (or a fire engine).
And… please don't beat my high score on Pac-Man.