As an ex-employee, I can assure you that this is not the pub to go to if you want a huge Thursday night out in North Sydney. In fact, this pub is all but dead most of the time - with a few exceptions.

Friday nights at VC are huge. Disgustingly, sweatily, I-dont-know-you-but-i'm-physically-closer-to-you-than-to-any-man-before huge. The crowd swells around 5pm, when the entire office block above the bar comes down to wind up the week, and doesn’t usually clear until about 1 or 2 in the morning. The large outdoor area caters for this at first, but when it closes up at about 10, it’s a living hell inside. Most other nights, it's a relaxed affair, with the sole pool table usually going unused. The music is an uninspired selection of R’n’B and House, and the dancefloor is about the size of a small napkin.

The food at VCs is cheap, but very good for a small kitchen. All lunches are $7, and so big that I guarantee you will feel like you have eaten a beanbag if you finish them. Along with a few pints of Guinness and some Canadian Club (the VC speciality, it’s a Canadian Bar at heart), you’ll feel even worse, or better, depending on how you look at it.

VCs has a great selection of tap beer (including Beez Neez and St. Arnou), and an even better selection of small beers and mixers that are hard to find elsewhere. Everything from Little Creatures to Blowfly to Kronenburg 1664 is there, as well as the usual suspects (Peroni, Corona etc).

Canada Day is celebrated with enthusiasm, if not style, by huge crowds every year. Male bartenders to “The Full Mountie” – take from that what you will – and Canadian Club spills everywhere. Great for everyone but the clearners.

As much as the beer and the food could make you stay, the crowd, or lack thereof, is enough to make you think that you are in a morgue. My suggestion: if you go on a Friday night, be prepared to wait for your beer, if you go on any other night, ask yourself why.

review by: bornslippy1984