The Bank Hotel324 King St
Newtown, Sydney
Never judge a book by its cover. The Bank Hotel may seem like your average pub but venture inside and you'll find a lovely hotel that flows through to an oasis in the Beer Garden. It's lovely there, with lots of timber, leafy branches, lounges, wicker chairs and hanging lanterns.A lot of effort has also been put into the new menu too and the variety and quality was impressive. They even had duck sausage rolls with HP Sauce - Mlady was impressed with this! The enormous pride in The Bank Hotel of licensee Jake Toivonen shows through in everything he does. We were fortunate to have him recommend some dishes for us and to also show us around later on. It's a huge place too, spread over three levels. The upstairs indoor/outdoor area was also great!
The smoked oysters with creme fraiche, tabasco and crackers was a great starter. We just loved the contrasts in this appealing entree - the soft sweetness of the creme fraiche compared with the salty smoked oysters and the bite of the tabasco.
It had tang, taste and texture all in one lovely combination and yet it was also so simple.
The crumbed mozzarella, "saltimbocca" and tomato vinaigrette was to die for. The crispy outer coating gave way to an oozing mozzarella centre that was enhanced with a tasty prosciutto wrapping.
This was an amazing dish that is understandably very popular here at The Bank and we'd eagerly have it again next time!
Of course it's still a pub (or Hotel) so you can obviously get a range of drinks here!
Apart from the usual array of beers, wines, spirits and cocktails on offer they also have specials from time to time.
On our visit we just had to try the Tijuana Colada - this drink looked amazing in it's jar with colourful straws protruding.
It also tasted just as amazing too!
Mlady started with a non-alcoholic drink and had a lovely Strangelove Organic Energy Elixir of Ginger Beer which was extremely refreshing, as it was a muggy day.
The pizza's here are certainly impressive. We tried two and loved them both. First was the potato, broccoli and fennel sausage pizza. This had such a great mix of flavours, the sauce with it was great and the thin base was lovely. We then had the roast prawn, harissa and black cabbage pizza which had a real bite to it. Prawns and chilli go so well together - and adding a thin pizza base caps it all off very nicely!
Mlady's main course was not a huge surprise given her favourite was on the menu. She had the crisp skin salmon with horseradish mash and nicoise. The skin was indeed nicely crisp, just as described in the menu and exactly how Mlady likes it.
Mlady absolutely loved the horseradish mash. It had lovely flavours that fortunately didn't overpower the salmon and the nicoise capped it all off nicely.
I must admit I am partial to larger servings for my meals - it's my inner glutton showing through. Well I was certainly pleased to find that my main course was a massive serving!
I had what was probably the largest meal on offer - the 500g sirloin on the bone with onion rings and cress.
The steak was a lovely cut of meat that was cooked to order - medium rare.
I have to also confess that the presence of onion rings is also a huge attraction for me when ordering some meals. This was one such occasion and I was extatic to find that the onion rings were the biggest I've ever seen - they were absolutely huge, and yet at the same time tender and very tasty.
Desserts are brought in at The Bank Hotel from Pat and Stick's. Their sweets - or sweeties as they're described in the menu - are simple but oh so effective.
We started with a vanilla ice cream sandwich which was lovely and so easy to eat with the biscuits on the outside. Then the caramel pecan ice cream sandwich was just as nice!
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| Jake Toivonen |
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of The Bank Hotel. Special thanks to Jake Toivonen for his time and suggestions. Thanks also to Gabby and Tim for looking after us on our visit. Thanks also to Kimberley Stewart of Agency G for arranging our visit.
