Top five bars with board games

1. Bar 99
Glebe’s new bar is set in an old terrace with lots of hidey-holes and small rooms plus a kitchen out the back. The dark room out front is filled with giant melting candles. It’s a casual watering hole where you can flop on an old lounge, flip through some mags or challenge your mates to games including Scattegories, Battleship, Trivial Pursuit and something called The Great Australian Gambling Game. Glebe 2037. (0411 209 930).

2. Madame Fling Flong
The ’Flong packs in Newtown locals and blow-ins into its teeny little room every night where there are vintage lampshades, cushy lounges and low-lying tables crammed in the middle that are ideal for curling up around. Games to pass the time include chess, dominoes, backgammon, Cranium, Yahtzee, Connect Four, Cluedo and Scruples. Newtown 2042. (02 9565 2471).

3. Hive Bar 
At the Hive Bar people hang out, drink beer, play records and the boardgames that are stacked around the room – everything from Guess Who? and Cranium to Scrabble, backgammon, chess, Battleship and Jenga. Hive features four different local beers on tap (Scharers, St Arnou, Blonde and the extremely malty E'ville) and does Sydney’s own Wicked Elf, St Peters and Red Oak by the bottle. Erskineville 2043. (02 9519 9911).

4. El Capo
This South American bar and restaurant has smoky chilli flavours, Pacifico beers, Argentinean wines, Caribbean rum and a tongue-in-cheek organised-crime theme. Every table boasts a set of dominoes as well as fake American dollar bills. Surry Hills 2010. (02 9699 2518).

5. The Courthouse
They do you a ripper steak Diane, they pour legendary schooners (the stout is especially good), and they’ve got one of the nicest courtyards in Sydney. On Thursday nights from 7.30pm the pub super-sizes the fun with Giant Connect Four and Giant Jenga. Newtown 2042. (02 9519 8273).

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