2025 Pyney’s 🥧 Reviews
Review No 24
Captains Flat Hotel
(Captains Flat NSW)
There’s nothing like sitting back in an old country pub and having a few cold ones with the locals and talking complete rubbish. That’s wxactly what I did last month when I went out and saw the girls at Captains Flat Hotel. The town of Captains Flat is located about 45 mins drive south east of Canberra in the southern tablelands region. The town is quite small and the star attraction is the local hotel.
First opened in 1938 legend has it this pub was once home to the longest bar in the southern hemisphere. Once a thriving mining town the town started shrinking when the gold and silver started drying up and this eventually led to the pub shuting down. In June last year two remarkable women Sharanne, and Kaitlin andecided to become publicans and reopen this once historic hotel. With no pub experience these incredible ladies have given the locals and tourists a place to meet up again and enjoy a few cold ones.
Open Wed to Sunday and employing 14 plus staff this pub suddenly has some life back in it. The ladies have always got something going on from live bands, to special events even whip cracking. There is always something happening and supper family friendly. As a added bonus there is space out the back to park up your caravan. Spots are limited so check availability at the pub on this one. One of the newest additions at the pub is homemade 🥧’s. I mentioned to Joanne a couple of months earlier about making me a 🥧 and true to her word she has now added 🥧’s as a permanent fixture to the menu and lucky me was first to sample them.
As the 🥧’s are a relatively new to the menu Joanne only has 2 flavours available. Chicken, mushroom and leek (which was fantastic) and beef and 🍺. This was slow cooked beef soaked in
travla beer. Travla is my go to beer, so I was keen to see how this one would go.
🥧 THE REVIEW 🥧
1. Value for Money – Like Bredbo a few weeks ago, $9 is up there for a pub 🥧. The size/diameter was satisfactory and the 🥧 was full. 7/10
2. Meat/Fill Ratio – Loaded up and full to the brim. Easy score to officiate. 10/10
3. Flavour – The actual flavour was really good. The meat was cooked well and you could really taste the beer flavour throughout this 🥧. The meat was lovely, not chewy, but the filling needed a little bit more gravy. Overall for her first attempt, the flavour was great. 7/10
4. Pastry – Sensational !!! to be honest there wasn’t much wrong with this pastry. The color, oval shape, stability, bakes and bake thicknesses were all there about’s and near perfect. The pastry
was wonderful and was golden and flakey. Great job.
5. Serving Temperature – Excellent serving temp. Straight out of the oven into the mouth. 10/10
Overall Rating
🥧🥧 43/50 🥧🥧
For a first up effort baking 🥧’s, Joanne has done a wonderful job. Baking a 🥧 for the first time, then have someone pick it apart and judge your work can be very daunting, but Joanne took it all in her stride and passed with flying colors. Yeah $9 is up there for sure, but it was still a decent sized full 🥧. The flavour was yummy and you could easily taste the Travla beer. The 🥧 needed a bit more gravy as the 🥧 itself was a smidge dry, this is such a easy fix and I’m positive Joanne is all over it. The pastry was excellent and Joanne has completely nailed this. The pastry was golden and fluffy, the stability, color and shape where great and both bakes and bake thicknesses were superb. Overall I massively enjoyed this 🥧. It was that good, I smashed about 3 of them.
A massive thanks to the ladies for inviting me out. They have bought an historic aussie pub back to life and doing it in fine form. With absolutely no pub experience what so ever the ladies have risen to the challange. This is one 🇦🇺 pub that everyone should visit at least once and please spread the word as it’s already been closed a few times and we want this special place open for a very long time. All the best ladies and this is one place I will certainly be coming back to.
If your caravaning and planning on exploring the Canberra area, then staying at Captains Flat is a genuine option. It’s only 40/45 mins drive from the nationals capital and so much more cheaper than paying caravan park fees in and around Canberra.
