The White Horse Surry Hills: Historic Pub with Rooftop Dining

The White Horse Hotel in Surry Hills, a 1930s pub marked by a silver stallion on its roof, reopened in April 2024 after a reported A$6 million renovation that turned the venue into three distinct hospitality spaces. This review draws on published restaurant criticism from two major Sydney outlets and verified venue details to help you gauge whether its polished ground-floor restaurant, upstairs public bar and rooftop terrace fit your next outing. Time Out Sydney called the transformation “a restaurant worthy of a wolf whistle,” setting a high bar for what has become one of the neighbourhood’s most discussed re-openings.

Last checked: 2026-10-25

Name: White Horse Hotel · Address: 381 Crown Street, Surry Hills, Sydney · Type: Public hotel, restaurant, bar · Built: 1930s · Notable feature: Silver stallion on the roof · Opening hours: Dinner Tue–Sun, Lunch Fri–Sun

Key facts: White Horse Hotel

Who owns the White Horse Hotel in Surry Hills?

The White Horse Hotel’s most recent leashold was taken over by a hospitality group led by Craig Hemmings ahead of the 2024 relaunch, according to secondary reports collated by Hotel Australia. The current corporate entity that holds the venue — and whether the property itself changed hands — has not been confirmed from direct public records or operator disclosure.

History of the White Horse Hotel

The three-storey building at 381–385 Crown Street dates from the 1930s. Over the decades it has reportedly operated as a piano bar, a brasserie and a live-music pub, each incarnation leaving a mark on the site before the 2024 renovation reset its identity. A secondary account from Hotel Australia notes a prior refurbishment around 2004 that added a bar and brasserie, but few public records survive from that period. The pattern of reinvention is consistent with Surry Hills’ broader pub scene, where heritage-listed buildings frequently cycle through operators and concepts.

What this means: Ownership history is opaque — the venue’s most dependable fact is its location and the 2024 relaunch under the Hemmings-led group, not a continuous lineage.

What is the White Horse Tavern famous for?

The pub’s current fame rests on a three-level layout that trades the old party-pub image for a more layered experience. Time Out Sydney described it as “a sophisticated dining room aimed at competing with fine-dining venues” while keeping an upstairs public bar that retains a relaxed, walk-in character.

White Horse Surry Hills menu

The ground-floor restaurant works to a chef-driven brief that emphasises ethically sourced produce and native Australian ingredients. Good Food reviewer Michael Harry called the result “the pub’s most delicious iteration yet.” Example dishes from the 2024 review period include marron with sweetcorn and ice plant at A$58, toothfish at A$55, wagyu tri-tip at A$45, and a striking beetroot millefeuille with native muntries and native thyme oil at A$24. A Jerusalem artichoke starter with goat’s cheese and saltbush was listed at A$6 each, and char siu pork and prawn fried rice at A$20 (all Good Food).

White Horse Surry Hills rooftop

The rooftop terrace is one of the three principal drinking areas created in the 2024 renovation. Open year-round according to the venue’s listing, it offers an outdoor alternative to the upstairs public bar and the ground-floor dining room. Early user reviews on TripAdvisor praise the rooftop’s atmosphere, though the sample of reviews is still small.

White Horse Surry Hills Happy Hour

The venue advertises a Happy Hour in the upstairs public bar, with discounted drinks during early evening windows. Exact timings and offers were not verified from a current operator source; the availability of a Happy Hour is noted in secondary online listings rather than the main editorial reviews. Separately, the bar’s wine-by-the-glass pricing at around A$15 means even pre-Happy-Hour pours land at a competitive point for Surry Hills.

Pros and cons of the ground-floor restaurant

The bottom line: The White Horse is most famous today for recasting a historic pub as a multi-level venue where serious cooking and bar informality coexist, a balance that Good Food called a “highly tuned pub-restaurant with fine-dining chops.”

What is so special about a white horse?

The white horse of the name gains literal form in a silver stallion statue that sits on the building’s roof, visible from Crown Street. Secondary accounts attribute the sculpture to Scottish artist Andy Scott, best known for public equine works including The Kelpies. The statue dates from around the 2004 refurbishment and has become a de facto landmark for the venue. The stallion gives the pub an instant visual hook — you can spot the horse from several blocks away along Cleveland Street, which makes the address easy to identify on a Surry Hills pub crawl.

The silver stallion roof

No primary source (operator confirmation or Scott’s own catalogue) was found in this research to verify the attribution with certainty. The statue’s condition after the 2024 works — whether it was cleaned, moved or retained — is not documented in the main reviews. What is verifiable is that the three-storey building with a horse on the roof has occupied the corner of Crown and Campbell Streets since the 1930s, and that the image appears consistently in venue photography reviewed by Hotel Australia.

What to watch: The horse remains the pub’s most shareable feature, but the lack of a primary source for the artist attribution means the story should be treated as plausible rather than confirmed.

Location and how to get there

The White Horse is at 381–385 Crown Street, at the corner of Campbell Street, in the Surry Hills neighbourhood of Sydney. It is a 10-minute walk from Central Station and served by multiple bus routes along Crown Street and Cleveland Street. Street parking is limited to metered spaces and resident-permit zones. Rideshare drop-offs usually stop at the Campbell Street entrance. The area is dense with bars and restaurants, which makes the White Horse a convenient base for a wider Surry Hills evening.

Alternatives in Surry Hills

For readers comparing options before booking, the following venues offer a related pub-restaurant experience within walking distance of the White Horse:

• The Dolphin Hotel – A restored corner pub with a modern bistro and courtyard, on Crown Street about 500 metres south.
• Bishop Sessa – A wine bar and restaurant on Cleveland Street focused on Italian-influenced small plates and natural wines.
• The Norfolk – A historic pub with a large beer garden, roughly one kilometre away in the south of Surry Hills.

Each of these alternatives shares some DNA with the White Horse — heritage building, modernised food, outdoor drinking space — but none combines a restaurant, public bar and rooftop terrace in the same three-level layout.

Our pick: Why the White Horse stands apart

“the pub’s “most delicious iteration yet””

— Michael Harry, Good Food restaurant critic

“Highly tuned pub-restaurant with fine-dining chops”

— Good Food editorial review, Restaurant review publication

Frequently asked questions about the White Horse Surry Hills

Sources cited