The Australian

Location: 20 West 38 St. (btw 5th & 6th Aves), New York, NY
Cuisine: Australian
Hours: SUN-WED (11:30am-12am); THU (11:30am-2am); FRI-SAT (11:30am-4am)
Phone: (212) 869-8601
Website: www.theaustraliannyc.com
Prices: $20/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 7
Value: 7
Environment: 7

Frequency: Unique


I've been trying to go to The Australian for a while now, but it didn't seem like anyone was interested. I suggested it about 3 times to various friends, but the plans changed all 3 times. I finally made it there today during Kelly's visit to the city. I already knew I was going to order the meat pies as my entree. The in-restaurant menu was a little different than the one they have online though. Like other cuisines, they had a lunch special. So the meat pies entree was $2 lower than I thought. It's served with either fries or salad. On the website menu, they don't mention kangaroo skewers, but they actually had it in the restaurant. Kelly was adventurous enough to try it out, so we shared it as an appetizer. How can you go to an Australian restaurant and not try kangaroo!?

The restaurant had a comfortable crowd with most people eating at the bar... probably office people on lunch break who were by themselves. There were only a few tables taken up. I imagine they get most of their audience at night or during rugby games. Service was pretty good as the food came out at a reasonable time. The waiter was polite and paid a lot of attention to us. In contrast to the rest of the place, the bathrooms weren't that clean. That was the only tiny negative.