The Welcome Hotel

The Welcome Hotel is a Rozelle backstreet pub with a proper 1890s bone structure — cosy front bar, dining room, leafy beer garden — and has been trading since 1877, originally as Rhenisch's Hotel. The tap wall leans heavily into independent Australian breweries (Mountain Goat, Moo Brew and the rest), and the kitchen sticks to a reliable spread of steaks, schnitzel, fish-and-chips and a Sunday roast that pulls the neighbourhood out in force.

Dogs are welcome in the front bar and in the beer garden, with water bowls on hand. Reviews note the venue offers dogs the same menu options as patrons — an unusually generous read on the house rules, if also slightly optimistic about canine palates. It's the kind of local that has fifty opinions per block and holds its own against every one of them.