The Australian

AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺

The Australian, besides being a friendly bar that tries to serve good food, is known as a top place to go for rugby. Old and new jerseys and balls (eggs?) celebrating the sport cover the walls and bar here, and they open early when the rest of the world is playing. A recent visit coincided with the Six Nations Championship, a yearly competition between the top 6 countries in Europe.

Later this summer, this will be the most popular bar for fans of the Socceroos, the national football team of Australia which will be competing in the World Cup. (Side note: Australia is one of the only places in the world like here in the USA, that insist on calling football "soccer" for some reason.)

Outside of sport, you can also come here to get a taste for some foods from or inspired by Australia. Although you won't get away from sports even if you try, there is even a sign up sheet for a cricket league in the bathroom.

It was impossible to resist the grilled kangaroo skewers ($16, above), if only for the uniqueness of eating this meat which is popular in Australia. The first taste and texture is similar to beef, but a flavorful gaminess comes through during chewing. The dish is interesting and tasty, but laughably small at this price point. Next day overseas delivery must be built in.

The menu also offers four varieties of pies. The traditional meat pie ($14, below) is served with a choice of potato.

These pies are less soupy than their American pot pie cousins, letting the ground beef speak for itself but unfortunately coming up a bit dry. The curry vegetable version might be the way to go, but again at the price it is probably not enough to be filling. Kangaroo is also available for an extra $2.

On the menu, the barramundi ($24, below) is listed with the comment "Australia's No. 1!" That fact could not be independently confirmed by this website, but the concept here was pan frying of the fish and laying it over slightly spicy pad thai.

The bar definitely excels with beer selection, including some Coopers options on draft and in bottle. You can have Fosters if you must, and a couple other choices, as well as plenty of domestic and imported options more familiar.

See you in June, Australian. It is going to be a tough group to get through, with all three other countries expecting three points against the Aussies. But that is why the matches are played, it should be fun.

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MIDTOWN Manhattan

20 West 38th Street