The Budgie, 169 Budgewoi Rd

The pub is on Budgewoi Rd, in the middle of the Central Coast, an hour and a half north of Sydney. The building has been reworked as a coastal pub, with a beer garden for summer, a firepit for winter and two kitchens under the one roof. To the town it is simply the Budgie.

There are two kitchens in the building. The bistro on the ground floor does the pub cooking — steak with chips and salad or mash and veg, schnitzel with a topper, pizza and pasta, tacos, the Budgie Classic Burger, a hot roast on Sunday — at prices that suit a regular table. Lago Cucina is the Italian room upstairs on Level 1, with a menu and a set of hours of its own. Weekday lunch in the bistro starts at $13, and most nights of the week carry a deal of some kind.

The day starts early for a pub: the doors open at 10, and in the school holidays that means coffee and breakfast before the free children's activities begin at midday. From 3 to 6, Monday to Friday, Budgie Hour puts house beer, wine and spirits at $6 for members. Evenings run on whatever is scheduled — pool, trivia, open mic, karaoke, poker — and the weekend runs on music, from Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon. It suits a family at lunch as well as a crowd late in the evening.

The ground floor holds the bar, the bistro and the Lakeside Room, which can be closed off and hired on its own for 80 standing. The Lakeside Deck opens off it, covered, so it works in any weather, and it looks out at the water. Birthdays, work functions and cocktail parties are most of what goes through it. Membership is worth having if you are here often: it is taken out at the bar or in the hotel's app, and it is what unlocks the $6 Budgie Hour price.