The Sydney Hotel, Galle, is a must go on an Australian Cricket Tour of Sri Lanka. Opposite Galle International Cricket Stadium, this dodgy looking public house is very easily missed if you are not actually looking for it, even though it is a multi-floored building, at the front of Galle Market, facing the bus station. No garish signs or flashing lights, at the wrong time of day (open 10am – 2pm, and 5pm – 9pm), when the front steel gate is chain locked, you might reconsider your need for refreshment as it is not the most inviting.
Being Galle’s most 'low-key' bar, means it is also Galle’s cheapest where a 660ml Lion Lager is an astonishing Rs500 (A$2 on 11/04/22). It did receive a ‘make-over’ in 2013, but you are not paying for ambiance. Although the front bar is aesthetically comfortable, the undecorated walls deep in the belly of the back bar frame the dimly lit furnishing around which many a local and foreign cricket supporter has sat, heads bowed over a glass of misery since 1921.
By account of some, Sydney Hotel was in the 'World’s Top 5 Most Dangerous Bars' 2011. I do not know where that tidbit came from, perhaps it caused the 2013 makeover, but I cannot imagine Sri Lanka hosting the most dangerous of anything in Sri Lanka let alone the world! It only takes one person to receive a Chinese whisper and here we are suggesting you pop-in on your next Sri Lanka Cricket Tour to find out for yourself... avoiding the chicken schnitzel!