Roxbury Hotel

Does not live up to the hype!
Ordinary pub décor, cold and uninviting.
Over zealous bar staff, who over-​sell the bistro.
The daily $ 10 is mis-​leading as add-​ons to your meal, chips, sauces or salad cost extra if you have more than one.
Won’t be going back, we should have gone into the Nags Head only a short walk away.

Seriously delicious food for $ 10. The bar staff is s very friendly and always up for a chat.

Came to this place for a comedy night.
Just OK pub nothing special.
Drinks where OK and the food looked alright.
I had a good funny night there.

You could easily walk right by the Roxbury (or heck, all of Glebe) on a weeknight — the streets are so quiet. Nothing hints at the absurdly high quality comedy improv happening there.
If you’ve seen some improv, you know that at its best it’s high art … and at its worst, a huge mess, depending on who and how they go about it. You go in with fingers crossed, hoping to see that rare magic, but you take a seat near the door … or the bar.
I’m so pleased to report that at the Roxbury is home to comedy is intelligent, delightful, charming, creative, and fun. 6 performers built their imaginary worlds with the audience, and each one had the entire room laughing and engaged throughout. Nothing about the show was stiff or hacky, and the consistently strong performances from each of the comedians as individuals and two man improv teams was really impressive. This is comedy certainly worthy of a major world city. The fact that it’s in Glebe means there are some extra bonuses in terms of parking, comfort, and seats.
The Roxbury turns out to be quite a nice venue — both upstairs where the performances take place, as well as in the many spots to lounge pre and post show on the other levels. Warm lighting and comfy seating abound, and in the theater there is enough room between chairs for full body laughter — you’re going to need it :-)

The Roxbury is a smooth hotel located in the Inner West that also doubles as an entertainment venue for live music and even comedy shows. It’s exterior is bright red, so you can’t miss it. I highly recommend one of the comedy shows, which was enjoyable, ironically despite my general distaste for standup comedy. There are drink and food specials all week long, like $ 10 pizzas on Mondays (they’re not fantastic) and $ 5 drinks and dumplings during happy hour. The crowd here is quite a broad range of people, from young hipsters to older locals. The drinks are average priced, and my mixed drink was pretty strong. There is a smoking area, too.
I haven’t tried the food yet, but they do have an extensive menu of bistro food. There is also something very special: $ 10 steaks every day of the week.

I get to the hotel early, I’m performing as part of the Quest for the Best and I have a fierce aversion to a lack of punctuality, so in the hours leading up to the show, I sit and have a pale ale and study the art work on the walls.
In the upstairs area the walls are brightly coloured and covered in a pop art-​esque pattern, some of the images I recognise, others fade into the background like a dull tune whistled by someone I don’t know.
The Roxbury has many different rooms made for many different functions, a multi spaced centre for pub based activity. We have the down stairs room where trivia is soon to take place; a small stage and an array of tables and seats all eager to accept the multitude of teams that will take part in the imminent evening.
There’s the main bar area, also with seating and on a split level, just to make things difficult if you have a few too many to drink or are in fact upright impaired at times.
A smoking area, which is really just a slightly outside glassed off room designed to make smokers look like they’re sitting in a square jar. The upstairs seating, complete with a pool table and access to the kitchen, (access for the staff, not the patrons, it’s not a communal pub kitchen) and of course connected to this room, in the upstairs area of the hotel is the performance room.
A small room with velvet curtains and a PA system. This is why I am here. It’s the Quest for the Best, a stand up comedy night billed as the richest competition in comedy as it boasts a $ 5000 cash prize for the winner of the grand final.
Every week ten or so new comics compete and are judged by the audience to see if they’ll progress into the next round. A headliner, support and MC, all very funny, help to fill out the night.
I stumble on a joke and I blame the pale ale I had a few hours earlier, (I never drink before a show) but still manage to win my heat and move on to the preliminary finals.
A great little bar with a lot going on.

The poor bar man at The Roxbury was on his own with two staff down and working up a sweat. Orders from the kitchen were flying at him and he had to hand-​drag the dumb waiter up and down and was clearly pretty stressed. Despite that he managed to let everyone know he would get to them and although it was quite a wait no-​one got the shits. Top marks for service, nice bar guy!
That particular day was a Sunday, but I generally go to the Roxbury on a Wednesday night for their comedy comp. The staff are lovely, the food is tops and the comedy is always a hoot.