National Hotel

I love Freo, we often have a drink and meal at the National Hotel. The National Hotel has recently been renovated after a fire which nearly destroyed her. It has great food at a reasonable price.

I’m trying really hard not to have my review of the National Hotel defined by the 3-​star guitar duo that kind of missed their union like trapeze artists at 100 feet above the ground. And I don’t want to be affected by the merry Englishman that had got into the Chirstmas Spirit a bit too early… in July. But this place is inches away from being really «cool».
A great selection of beers, a slightly older crowd, a sensitive renovation job and all that was missing was more people and better music. And being that I actually did a «pub crawl» this night, they had the most enthused crowd out of about five venues, on a Sunday!

Great place to grab a happy hour pint and lounge out on the upper balcony.

Hosted my hubby’s birthday drinks here last night and highly recommend it for a gathering. The food was delicious, had our own spot at the bar and the staff were so attentive! Loved the pork dumplings, chicken and leek sausage rolls and the arancini balls. So happy we chose this pub!

Been meaning to drop in here for sometime now since the revamp and opening.
Not my choice today, to get out with some old workmates for lunch and find a venue.
Happy with the place and we were upstairs on the balcony,$ 12 pints, and $ 18 entrees, but got to say it on a par with most of the Freo’s other icon eating establishments.
Staff and patrons where pretty laid back and set the mood for a good afternoon !
Would go back again for sure.

I am torn between two and three stars for The National. I was bordering on a two star review but can only base it on one night out and it was Anzac Day.
The 2 stars are based on the $ 12 pints, which rub me up the wrong way anyway but this is to be expected when you see the location. The ‘wait’ on orders of chips was 45 minutes… how is this possible? On such a busy day wouldn’t you have chips ready to go all day? Chicken wing orders usually means that you get a basket to share around your table, not 5 wings… quite hard to share 5 wings if you are hungry. The bouncers have a city center attitude which doesn’t add up to the Freo atmosphere that they are trying to create.
The extra star was made up by the fact that the wings were actually very nice, the bar service was exceptional and the location is very handy and the live music tends to be very good.
No doubt I will end up back inside The National, its bound to happen so I will update this review as I see fit.

This gorgeous old restored pub has only been reopened for a couple of months. Following a fire that gutted the interior and previous developers running out of money, The National has reopened with plenty of old school charm shining through.
Happy hour is everyday 5−6pm, perfect for after work drinks or starting an evening in Freo (who can go past a $ 5 vodka mixer?) The only food I have tried here was the fries, they were delicious and the aioli that complimented it was amazing!

I’m not sure what happened last night. The puzzled look is probably still planted on my face.
Take a lovely historic building that’s been wonderfully renovated in the cultural heart of Freo and then turn it into a discothèque? Perhaps it was the late hour we arrived but the spinny flashy lights and commercial upbeat tunes just rubbed me up the wrong way. It didn’t make sense when the owners have gone to the trouble of creating a rather awesome wall of fame dedicated to the rock gods and also feature historic photos of Freo.
I really do love the interior décor and lighting at The National and the range of tap beer and drinks also appears pretty good. The balcony upstairs is sure to be well used! The staff had massive grins on their faces and appear to be very well trained. So I’m hoping that future visits at different times of the day will result in a better experience and thus an updated review.
I did eye off a projector upstairs so I think on a massive sporting day, The National will be an excellent venue to rah rah rah at your favourite team on screen.
Open till 1am.