Just open: The Annandale Hotel

It was heartbreaking to walk past the Annandale Hotel in recent months, peek in the window and watch the high court of Sydney rock'n'roll crumble. When that stage was torn down - oh, man.

The pub's former owners, brothers Matt and Dan Rule, were forced to place the site into receivership in early 2013 after the combined pressures of rival music venues, bank loans and issues with the local council took their toll.

Now, after much speculation about its future, the 'Dale is back. It reopened on August 7 under the ownership of Oscars Group, whose fleet of Sydney pubs includes the Lansdowne, the Camperdown Hotel and Hotel Sweeney's.

The new Annandale still has a stage but it's more of a raised corner than anything. Regardless, the new management has committed to putting on live music, although expect to see more blues-and-roots than two-finger-salutin' rock.

But the Annandale isn't trying to replicate the testament to filth and fury that once went on within its walls. It's trying to be a place you can wheel your nan to for a morning coffee as well as somewhere you can catch up with mates in. There are Sesame Street characters more threatening than the new 'Dale.

Attention Camperdown and Annandale 30-somethings who take kids to the pub: you have found your new mothership. The children's menu is heavy with brown things next to yellow things: beef schnitzel and chips, cheeseburger and chips and fish and chips - that sort of thing. Why are kids' meals always the least nutritional component of menus everywhere?

The adults' menu is more encompassing, perhaps too much so. Every pub standard of the past decade has been rolled out with the exception of tacos. This is like a covers band refusing to play Kings of Leon.

The list includes toasties, empanadas, steamed buns, nachos, lamb shoulder, half chicken, burgers and thrice-cooked chips. Pancakes and waffles are the stars of the breakfast menu and I'm half-tempted to return and grab one with maple syrup, walnuts and back-fat bacon.

Extra points for the Yorkshire puddings. What fantastic vessels for stodge. Here they ferry hunks of pork hock with apple kim chi, radish and carrot or roast beef with horseradish, eschalot, mushroom and gravy. And at $2.50 each, give me eight of the beef short-rib empanadas and a schooner of Reschs and I'll be happy.

I'm not quite as sold on the fried chicken burger. Why there's a need for carrot relish is beyond me. The dish was also overcooked and the bun was drier than a teetotaller.

The staff are friendlier than some of the old Annandale crew, and the room is comfortable, with cosy booths and plenty of nice, big wooden tables. An outdoor area promises to be a fine place to spend summer afternoons, although coffee cup ashtrays are better suited to share-house accommodation.

Framed LPs decorate the walls in a nod to the Annandale's rock history. Unfortunately it's not Hard-Ons, Beasts of Bourbon or even Grinspoon vinyl. Rather it's records from Duran Duran, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Cliff Richard, and The Police. Rock on.

17 Parramatta Road, Annandale, 02 9550 1078, annandalehotel.com

Callan Boys's top five Annandale memories

1. Any SixFtHick gig.
2. Wagging school and catching the train from Newcastle with a fake ID to marvel at whatever NME magazine was telling me to marvel at that week.
3. Playing on the actual stage for the first time with my actual band and thinking it was the best thing ever.
4. Finding a burnt copy of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on the floor in 2002, listening to it when I got home and having my mind blown.
5. Pashing a girl who looked like Winona Ryder at a gig.