A WEEKEND IN ...... PARKROYAL PARRAMATTA

A Weekend In ..... Parkroyal Parramatta
Parkroyal Hotel

30 Phillip St

Parramatta, Sydney

The weekend away in your own city is becoming popular. With this in mind we travelled the short distance to do this in the heart of Parramatta - at the Parkroyal which was refurbished in 2010. It's close to everything so it proved the prefect base!

Parkroyals have a signature lemongrass scent - and it's certainly nice! Here they have live entertainment each Friday and Saturday night in Bar 30 - and as it was a Saturday we planned to drop in there later. The $10 cocktails on Saturday nights don't hurt either and there's even bar food available too.

The hotel is big - with 196 rooms in one of Parramatta's highest buildings. It was full when we were there, as a wedding was being held in their function room and the Wanderers were playing at home that night as well!

Our room was simply lovely.

We were in a deluxe king room that was decorated in chocolate browns and it had magnificent views out over Parramatta.

We could see Parramatta Park in the distance - home of the Parramatta Eels and the Western Sydney Wanderers.

Of course not all the rooms are the same.

We got to see the different options available there and they all looked lovely.

There's plenty of different facilities there for guests too - a pool and outdoor area, their bar (Bar 30) and of course Table 30, their restaurant that peers out from the mezzanine level over the expansive foyer and into the bar area. 

Parramatta is in the middle of everything and has facilities to match this. We had arranged to pop over and visit the Riverside Complex where a short film festival called Young At Heart was playing.

Every lead actor was a senior citizen while most of the producers or directors were youngish.

All the films were great - we have a wealth of talent in Australia that we should be so proud of!

On our way back to the hotel after visiting Riverside we saw the Western Sydney Wanderers supporters marching to their home ground and singing loudly for their team.

It was a real sight to see - they looked and sounded great and there was no bad behaviour.

This is what sport and good support bases are all about - and how it should be all the time!

Table 30 sits upstairs in the prime position at the Parkroyal. Saturday night is seafood buffet night and it's a good one, so of course it's popular.

Boasting Sydney rock oysters, Australian tiger prawns, Balmain bugs and blue swimmer crabs we were keen to dig in - and did until we bulged.

Then we had more - the salads, the hot dishes and the very very large range of desserts.

The huge range of desserts here is something you have to see to believe. They seem to have just about every dessert you could imagine! You're spoiled for choice and we felt like we were kids in a candy store - and yes they did have lollies as well!

They also had a chef making crepes and other goodies - I grabbed a tasty grand marnier crepe with double cream, after going close to ordering an apple strudel.

Pistachio, Apricot and White Chocolate Cake

Chocolate tartlet with white chocolate mousse

After dinner we dropped into Bar 30 for a night cap. We'd been listening to the live music throughout dinner and it seemed like the perfect way to end the evening!

I had a port and Mlady had an Amaretto - one of her favourites!

We sat back and enjoyed the music and everything else just seemed to disappear around us.

Parramatta Park with storms raging!

Breakfast is also served in Table 30 and is again a lavish buffet.

We started with a great coffee - which is so important - then moved on to the huge range of choices available.

Mlady had plenty of fruit - as usual - and I even got inspired and started with muesli and yoghurt before moving on to the hot food.

Again a chef was on hand to cook a variety of goodies - including several versions of eggs and of course my favourite of eggs Benedict! These came on muffins with ham and soft poached eggs and a good dollop of hollandaise sauce. Yum.

I still saved room for some pancakes though - I have no willpower! Mlady was more controlled as always but still managed to devour plenty of food, juice and coffee!

The Parkroyal in Parramatta has a great seafood buffet that we didn't know about before our visit. It was clear though that its reputation had spread to plenty of other people!

We hadn't previously spent the weekend in Parramatta - with its restaurants, cafes, bars, sports stadiums, theatres and atmosphere - but we're very glad we had the opportunity to experience it this time!


Sir and Mlady were guests of the Parkroyal Parramatta for their stay and meals. A big thank you to Vicki who showed us around and to Josh for looking after us at dinner. Special thanks to Parkroyal Hotels and to Laura Heslop of 6DC (Six Degrees Creative) for arranging our visit.