The Mean Fiddler Review

Review by Gemma McDonald

If you enjoy the classic nightclubbing experience, predominantly involving dancing the night away to mainstream music and getting sloshed under strobe lights, I dare say this is the place for you.

The Mean Fiddler epitomises the typical nightclub, with everything from the clubbing to the music and even the people, being incredibly mainstream. It’s clear that this venue does not get its notoriety through exclusivity or uniqueness, but rather thrives knowing that everything mainstream becomes mainstream for a reason- because almost everybody likes it.

Despite having never been there before, I found the place to have a real sense of familiarity about it, which may have been because I was surrounded by every clichéd, conventional characteristic of a nightclub that I could think of, but I had fun none the less. The Mean Fiddler is simply living by the philosophy that there is strength (and considerable amounts of money) in numbers, and they are too right because this place has got the numbers.

The crowds on a Saturday night age anywhere from 18-35 and are your typical partygoers, unless you’re dining out for what I hear is a lovely, but considerably overpriced meal, in which case you’ll find people of all ages. I was amongst those who were there to test the drinks rather than the food. Each bar has buckets full of $5 drink specials and $10 jugs of Coopers, but overall the pricing for drinks is pretty average, with cocktails from $9.50 and spirits and beers ranging from $6-10.

The Sub Bar is located in the outdoor courtyard, where on a Saturday night resident DJ’s pump the place with house music and Ministry of Sound party anthems. Alongside this are huge video projections and a number of colourful, flashing lights that can be quite debilitating depending on what state you’re in.

There are a number of large booths surrounding the dance floor that are there for the taking if you’d rather have a few drinks, hook ups or make vain attempts at socialising. The heating makes the atmosphere so comfortable that it becomes easy to forget that you’re actually dancing under the stars.

Once you’re sick of this you can venture inside where loads of sweaty, energetic patrons congregate in the center of an otherwise empty room, grinding amongst one another to R&B; music. This is the great thing about the Mean Fiddler, each dance floor is equally packed full of grinding men and women, and yet the place is so big that you can either join the sweaty packs, or navigate around without touching every person in the joint.

Overall, there really is nothing particularly special about the Mean Fiddler, other than possibly, its reputation. Despite this, people just keep coming back, regularly and frequently. This is the place to go when you don’t want to risk the outcome of your night and quite frankly, these are the clubs that we fall in love with first. While we may ultimately venture out into the freaky, weird ones, places like The Fiddler are where we will always come back to when we want to ensure a good, fun night.


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A Second Review of The Mean Fiddler

Review By Shane Brien

Having grown up at The Mean Fiddler I feel uncomfortably comfortable calling it my second home.

The place has gone through such a dramatic transformation over the last 6 to 7 years it makes for a good script. From a consistent multiple award winning hotel through 2006 and 2007 to being placed on the problem venues list late 2008 this place has seen it all.

The Mean Fiddler is now the people’s hotel, Friday is 18-26 age bracket young crowd, Saturday 27 + for the older age bracket, it simply has it all.

From the 3 bars, The Fiddler Bar the traditional Irish Bar as its been labelled by management where you can commence you night with a few quiet drinks with friends, The Woolshed listening and singing to those iconic tunes belted out by the live band and the third, The Drovers Bar caters for the locals and the workers in the arvo who feel a little parched and in typical tradie style they can sit on the verandah in the sun, 3pm, down a cold one TAB facilities arms length away and finish the day off in style, but by mid evening this place is overtaken with the people who are out for a big night.

Those who like the courtyard are in luck, this thing is huge, and the atmosphere sitting in different locations will offer you a different experience.

From roughly 10:30pm downstairs on the outside dance floor (The Sub Bar) you’ll hear the beats pumping out from the DJ playing typical House beats, with the odd Ministry of Sound event thrown in for good measure. If you want to get in the thick of things, entry fee is 10 hard earned dollars and if you get down there early enough you can grab one of the four intimate booths that can fit quiet a large group in, and if you never been to the Fiddler before I suggest you part ways with your cash and experience the true Fiddler at its best, going down stairs to the outside dance floor is where my mates and I grew up, all I can ask is for you not to judge me though, if the house music is not for you the music upstairs next to The Fiddler Bar caters more for the RnB fans.

The dining experience is fancy, overpriced typical pub food, with two separate dining areas The Royal Oak Grill and The Fiddler Bar offers a range of products at an inflated price if you can hold out for the Fiddler Burger or kebab after your been ejected or voluntarily walked out I suggest you do so, it’s the only way to finish a night out isn’t it.

The Mean Fiddler offers several private or open function areas to cater for your needs big or small from a family birthday to a wedding reception, each to their own really.The place simply put is huge it’s like a pub crawl within the one hotel, there’s a few other smaller bars in the place you’ll find yourself at during the night, the music is pumping, the crowd well I’d rather you make up your own mind but it won’t take long for that to happen, the place can become a sweatbox inside by the end of the night if you haven’t ventured outside you’ll know about it and phone reception inside is not good, always has been, for those who lose people easily, the night will soon become a blur but as we did we found our way back there weekend after weekend.

Enjoy The Mean Fiddler Experience.

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