Banksia Hotel — Restaurant in Sydney

The Banksia Bistro has an exciting new menu launching April 5. We were lucky to be invited by foodie friend Where_do_I_eat_pete and one of the owners of Banksia Bistro, Clayton, who in conjunction with chef Colin Fassnidge of Four In Hand and Leigh McDivitt of 3 Weeds, who, opened this venue just over a year ago.

Located on the Princess Highway at Banksia, you’ve probably driven past it many a time, without realising the great dining venue located inside! A pub with your typical bar and sports area, but the venue saw a huge renovation and kitchen overhaul to inspire the locals to experience great food, near home without having to trek to the city.

The space has rustic wooden tables, an outdoor section and kids area so it’s very suitable for a group catch up, a date or a meal with the family. We would describe it as a gastro pub with nose to tail cooking. The food is hearty, delicious and certainly very moreish.

The new menu adding a sense of nostalgia by adding Prawn toast, which is always a favourite when visiting an old school Chinese restaurant. Crispy bread topped with prawns and sesame seeds, herbs and a lemon wedge, this adds an element to it and a great start to a meal.

Their Mezze plate with ham hock, smoked chorizo and tempura Rapid leaves (of the kale family), the accompanying grilled bread and smoked pumpkin mayo was the perfect match.

The chicken liver parfait a polarising dish that you either love or don't. Served atop pork skin crackers with pickled watermelon radish and parmesan, it had a number of us going back for more.

We shared a seafood entree of whisky cured Ora king salmon with a salmon skin cracker, avocado purée salsa, make sure you squeeze a little lime to adding another element and to cut through the rich flavours.

Their famous creamy blue swimmer crab toast with citrus and paprika flavours is another winner and great to snack on with a beverage in hand.

Other options from the previous menu include a pigs ear schnitzel, suckling pig sausage roll, it’s great food to accompany a beer or two. Another dish perfect for this includes the chicken wings, crispy and super flavoursome coating, this combined with the ever tasty Kim chi mayo and your heart is warmed. We could have eaten a whole basket.. Or two.

These options are great to share amongst friends, but if you’re after your own dish, their mains include burgers and chips, bangers and mash, a ginormous buttermilk’s schnitzel sitting above a huge pile of the most amazing fries (cooked in lard).

They have a pie of the week too. Not your regular pie, in French style it is made in reverse, flat pastry on the bottom, with the extremely flavousome beef and Guinness filling with pea purée and greens. We could order this time and time again.

Dessert will take you back to your childhood. A banana popsicle is made with bananas, topped with ice magic and crystallised sugar, this is one that the whole family will enjoy.

We’ll be back to try a whopper of a 1.2 k Tomahawk steak, but first will be the whole suckling pig. For 10 people, at $80 each with all the trimmings, sounds like a party made in heaven.

The new menu begins April 5, and we’re certain you’ll enjoy it...

They’re bringing out a revamped menu today and was lucky enough to sample it in advance with some other foodie friends.

This bistro is now working with Colin Fassnidge and is branded with Welcome by fassnidge on the doors. It has a welcoming ambience with comfortable seating. They have an upmarket version of pub food that is definitely more gastro pub than your local. There was also an Easter special menu too which we got to sample.

There was an array of delicious and tempting items on the menu. Highlights for me were the Mezze Platter with their to die for bread served with meats (chorizo and ham hock), olives, fried kale, and this awesome pumpkin purée. The Crab On Toast was light and served on that wonderful bread I could eat for days. The special of pie was Beef Cheek & Guinness Pie With Greens & Jus. The pithivier was amazing with melt in the mouth beef. The greens and purée added contrasting textures. There was also a special dessert of a fresh Banana ‘Paddlepop’. The ice cream wasn’t too sweet and had a creamy texture coated in chocolate and topped with praline of hazelnuts. It add a nice sweetness and crunch.

This bistro is suitable for all and we saw lots of different groups in here. It is quite relaxed but it doesn’t compromise...

Overpriced, food portion sizes incredibly small and it’s the first and last time I’ll ever step foot in there.

Chicken schnitzel w mashed potato - was okay, nothing great about it. Schnitzel was about half the size of an average schnitzel you’d buy anywhere else for half the price, and the mash potato was a very small serving for $23, definitely not worth it.

Southern Fried Chicken wings (8 pieces) - pieces of wings were so small, they were the size of about 1.5 cherry tomatoes. When brought it to the attention of the manager he was very surprised and shocked they were that small and came back and said that we were given an additional 2 because they were small. Very poor customer service, and walked away very quickly and seemed to not bother at all. Overall for $15, definitely not worth it. The wings combined of the 10 given were equivalent to about 3 normal size wings. Major let down, worst wings I’ve had. Spicy mayo was a very small portion.

Curry chips - just an average bowl of chips, with some curry gravy poured on top. $11 - well overpriced.

Overall, apart from the furnishing and new renovated area there is nothing positive to say about the...