Beautiful, spacious outdoor dining in the Adelaide Hills
The Bridgewater Inn has a large two level outdoor eating area that is just gorgeous! It is family friendly and set creek-side, so the kids can amble amongst the rocks while you wait for lunch.
by Sharon Harrington
We love to make a day of it when visiting the Adelaide Hills with a walk, lunch and a play at the playground. Bridgewater is the perfect location for all these activities as you can walk the Heysen Trail, loop back for lunch at The Bridgewater Inn and have a play at the adjacent Bridgewater Reserve Playground without even moving the car.
The setting at The Bridgewater Inn is just stunning; two levels of beer gardens lit by fairy lights amongst the leafy gorgeousness of the Adelaide Hills.
Our first visit was on a warm day in April when the creek was empty, and the kids had a blast ambling about in the rocks of the creek bed while waiting for lunch.
Our most recent visit was on a quiet, slightly drizzly Wednesday in January. Although the weather wasn’t at its best, the garden was still lovely under a big umbrella and next to a toasty heat lamp.
In Winter, the indoor restaurant is a cosy place to spend some time with a hearty meal and a glass of red. The stone walls, leather couches and a big fireplace give the restaurant a warm, rustic feeling.
Autumn is also a magical time to visit, with the adjacent playground looking especially pretty at that time of year.
The menu covers a wide range of meals including salads, steaks, burgers, fajitas and a vegan selection. We opted for the pub classics: chicken schnitzel, chicken parmigiana and dinosaur chicken nuggets. Quite the deep-fried chicken theme for us that day due to their discount schnitzel day! All was tasty pub fare, served with chips and salad.
The kids’ meal is $10 or $14 in a meal deal with drink, dessert and an activity pack. The kids loved their little dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, juice and ice-cream sundae. The other options were fish and chips, pasta, cheeseburger or hotdog. The activity pack didn’t arrive for some reason, but the meals were still good value without it.
The beer garden has a great vibe on a weekend, when they have live music – check the website for times.
When booking, you’ll notice there are different seating areas to choose from. All the areas are lovely, but the “creek side” option is more fun for kids than the “upper beer garden”. We recommend that you keep a watchful eye on them, of course, especially when the creek is full of water.
If you are after a relaxing lunch with family and friends in the beautiful Adelaide Hills, The Bridgewater Inn is just the spot!
Location:
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For more information please visit The Bridgewater Inn’s website here.
What: The Bridgewater Inn
Where: 387 Mount Barker Rd, Bridgewater SA
Who: Family friendly
All photos by Sharon Harrington for Play & Go Adelaide
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post and our review is done completely independently.
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