Templebar Precinct

Temple Bar certainly gives you plenty of BANG! for your buck. An alternative theatre restaurant and bar, it offers a pasta meal, beer and drag show for only $12 on Wednesday nights. If you're looking for a schlocky night out, it doesn't get much cheaper. And it certainly can't get much schlockier than (former competition) Hunchbacks- the Temple's gaudy stage shows are only matched but its decor.

Not that you'd know about any of this if you happened to be walking past, minding your own business. While the place looks perfectly harmless and generic from the street, things get decidedly more camp once you make your way through the front doors. The focus of the room is the large stage and the various shows it hosts, seven days a week. There are long, communal tables at the front of the room, a bar hidden towards the back and not much else to see, given the dim lighting. A slightly run-down campness pervades all this.

Like the meals and the shows, the drinks are of the cheap and cheerful variety. Cocktails are certainly available, but they're not made with the same attention to detail you might find in dedicated bars. That said, they are reasonably priced and the beer and wine on hand will get you through. Not that anyone goes to Temple Bar for an incredible Manhattan or Daiquiri; the place is all about cheap booze and stage shows. Good times for all.