North Bondi RSL: the cheapest great view in Bondi

The sign on the wall outside tells you most of what you need: three QR codes for the bistro, what's on, and a booking. That is the whole club in miniature - unpretentious, organised, and far more useful to a visitor than its plain exterior suggests. What the sign cannot show you is the view, which is the actual reason to walk up the hill.

Where

118-120 Ramsgate Avenue, North Bondi

Open

Sun-Thu 7am-10pm; Fri-Sat 7am-midnight

Bistro

Full menu from 11am; coffee and bar from 7am

Getting in

Sign in at reception. Bring photo ID

Good for

Families, groups, sunset, a cheap ocean view

Phone

(02) 9130 3152

The view is the point

The club sits above the northern end of the beach, which means you are looking south down the whole arc of sand towards the Icebergs. Almost every other room with this outlook in Bondi charges accordingly. Here you are in a club bistro, which is the trade: the food is dependable rather than remarkable, and the view is the kind people plan a holiday around. In the club's own words, come for the view, stay for everything else.

Late afternoon is when it earns its reputation, because the sun drops over the land behind you and lights the whole beach and the ocean in front. It gets busy accordingly.

How to get in

It is a registered club, not a pub, so there is a sign-in desk rather than an open door. Visitors sign in at reception on the way through - take photo ID with you, as you would at any club in New South Wales. Membership is cheap and worth it if you are local or staying nearby, because members get lower prices across the full menu. There is a membership page on the club's site if you want to sort it before you arrive.

Eating, and the bit for kids

It is club-bistro food - the schnitzels, steaks, pizzas and seafood plates you would expect - at prices that have no business being attached to a view like this. There is kids' play equipment and the sort of family-friendly room where nobody minds a toddler having a moment, which is why it is the default North Bondi option for anyone travelling with small children. Our full write-up of the food lives on the North Bondi RSL venue page.

A nice detail most people miss: the breakfast, bistro and drinks menus are illustrated by Alex Snellgrove, a local artist known for her paintings of the eastern suburbs beaches. It is a small thing, and it is the sort of small thing that tells you a club is paying attention.

What's on

The club runs a regular programme rather than relying on the view alone. When I last checked the listings, that included a weekly trivia night, a happy hour, Friday evening sessions, and Parents and Prams - a free weekly community catch-up for parents, carers and little ones, which fits this end of the beach perfectly. Individual nights and times move around, so the What's On page on the club's site is the thing to check rather than this page.

Getting there

• On foot from the beach: it is a short walk up from the northern end of the promenade, past the playground and the pool.
• By bus: the 333 runs from the city to North Bondi, and Ramsgate Avenue is a couple of minutes' walk from the stops at the north end.
• Driving: street parking around Ramsgate Avenue is metered and heavily contested on warm weekends. The bus is almost always the better call.
• With a pram: the walk up from the beach is on footpath the whole way, which is more than can be said for most of the North Bondi foreshore.

If you are working out where to eat around this end of the beach, our guide to eating and drinking in Bondi covers the alternatives - but for the price-to-view ratio, nothing in North Bondi touches it.