All pubs are different, yet the same. This one, bang on the Princes Highway at Banksia, lies somewhere on the spectrum of same and different, old and new. Same and old is the sports bar, with its happy group of Macedonians and bank of flat screens delivering the ballgames of the day.

Different and new is the bistro, where former Four in Hand chef Colin Fassnidge and 3 Weeds' Leigh McDivitt are attempting to carve out a space for a new type of pub-goer.

It seems to be working. Rustic wooden booths and tables corral young mums and dads, babies and kids, and the menu is pure Fassnidgian Irish pub territory, with its crab on toast, pork jowl and cider pie, Irish stew, and braised lamb shoulder for two.

And how nice to have a wine-list (16-strong, most available by the glass) where $59 is the highest price and not the lowest.

The team also runs the food at the Macquarie Hotel in Liverpool for Monarch Hotels with a similar menu. But all is not as it seems.

On the one hand, you have a big, fat suckling pig sausage roll, wrapped in great pastry and served with a roasted apple sauce ($14). It's an upscaled classic; the sort of grown-up sausage roll with which you can drink red wine.

On the other hand, you have a composed curve of Ora King salmon cured in 18-year-old Suntory Yamasaki whisky and blood orange, with wasabi root ice-cream, shaved cured duck egg yolk, salmon skin crackling and beetroot-infused caviar ($17). It's apparently McDivitt's entry – and a finalist – in an Ora King salmon recipe competition, and feels like a fish out of water in this unpretentious pub.

Manager Clayton Ries shakes his head. "Don't take the suburbs for granted," he says. "We started off with a more pubby menu and a few fancy specials, and everyone really went for the specials."

It's back to classic pub fare with a shared main course of slow-roasted ham hock ($49 for two), the soft, pink meat stabbed with a carving knife and presented country-bumpkin style on a large wooden carving board, with an accompanying bowl of Irish colcannon mash.

It's a bloody big order, the hock surrounded by halved roasted onions, softly cooked carrots, grilled leeks and salty beans, dripping with a poured-on sauce of maple syrup-enriched pan juices. Like, really dripping. Like, pooling in the gutter of the carving board then overflowing onto the table, to be staunched by paper napkins. The manager notices the flood. "Performance art," he says cheerfully, instead of helping out.

Tart of the week is a square of blood orange, almond and olive oil torta ($15), cheffied up with satiny chocolate ice-cream and chocolate honeycomb.

There's a genuine attempt to elevate pub food here, as well as churn out burgers, chips and lasagne spring rolls.

And if you don't like the service, you have only yourself to blame, because it's DIY. You order at the bar for food and for booze, and help yourself to sauces, mustards and water – it's the price you pay, for the prices you pay.

And yet the bar service levels are terrific. A casual question about draught beer, and suddenly there are two frosted tasting glasses up on the bar for a comparative tasting. Order a bottle of wine and it might beat you back to the table.

The Banksia might be a bit new and different, but at the end of the day, it's still a pub.

The lowdown

Best bit: New life for an old pub.

Worst bit: Overflowing gravy.

Go-to dish: Ham hock for two, $49.

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.