Cricketers Arms

First licensed in 1880 and heritage-listed, the Royal Cricketer's Arms has held its corner of Prospect for well over a century — a low-slung colonial pub and residence that the surrounding sprawl of Blacktown has grown up around rather than swallowed. Locals just call it The Cricketers. The appeal is old-fashioned in the best sense: a fire to dine beside in winter, and in warmer months a beer garden shaded by hundred-year-old willows and a spreading jacaranda. The food is honest pub cooking at honest prices — wood-fired pizzas on Wednesdays, chicken parmi on Thursdays, burgers on Fridays — and dogs are as welcome as their owners. Sitting in the Blacktown entertainment precinct beside the Skyline Drive-In, it trades on friendly service and leafy calm, much as it did when the first pint was poured.