Review: Banksii, Barangaroo
This harbourside Sydney restaurant serves light, clean food, but the backpacker staff don’t quite grasp the local identity.
Someone told me the other day she couldn’t run her restaurant without 457 visas. I don’t think she’s alone. In Sydney, particularly, it is simply impossible to eat out these days without flashing back to days of youth hostels and Eurail passes.
From all corners of the Old World do they come to lie on Bondi’s sands, share cramped Newtown terraces and wait the ever expanding number of tables in the city’s flowering restaurant hot spots, including Barangaroo. And so it is that Banksii has its inevitable team of Euro-youth working the tables. The same generalisations apply to our imported waiters as can be laid at the feet of the local breed: some are terrific, others woeful, most somewhere in between.
The Pitch: Joseph Banks was Australia’s first botanist, ergo the name. Banksii is about botanicals and vermouth, a drink that relies on such flora for its individualism and character. It’s nice for a restaurant to have a mission statement and point of difference, but for anyone unaware of the backstory, say someone who arrived at the Terrace on a pleasant Friday for a spot of lunch, the whole vermouth thing might seem something of a long bow drawn. The botanical thing is what they call in the industry something needing handselling. With neither owner, to the best of my knowledge, on site the day we lunch, I don’t think the message was getting through. Banksii comes across as just another pleasant, contemporary restaurant.
The reality: In fairness, our French waiter offers us a house vermouth, which he later explains, upon interrogation, is made “by the Maidenii brothers in Victoria”. This is not strictly true. But a French kid can’t really be expected to know about the botanist Joseph Maiden (1859-1925) and the acacia Maidenii, which takes Joe’s name, and gives its name to the country’s best-known small-scale vermouth maker. Except, perhaps, in an Australian vermouth bar. In either case, the terrace is the thing here, unless you crave aircon. It’s bright, breezy and dissected by a walkway.
The cuisine:Banksii has a “food philosophy … based around the abundant Mediterranean table”. Throw in a smattering of native ingredients, plenty with bitter/acidic notes, and you’ve got the picture. Light, clean food.
Highlights: Fat and perfectly delicious Fremantle sardines are crumbed, fried and served with a roasted garlic mayo. Simple and good. Excellent chicken liver parfait, dressed with a little sea salt and served with toasts and muntrie jam, is only slightly less palatable at the price point. A big ($54) bowl of mussels to share is cooked with white vermouth, green olives, lots of herbs in butter and sea succulents. They are a refreshing take on the usual white wine and garlic combo. And a slice of sesame-crusted puff pastry pie with “botanical greens” and cheese is pleasant too.
Lowlights: Creamed macadamia? Rich man’s hummous and not nearly as enjoyable. Sydney rocks with finger lime and bronze fennel at $60 a dozen? They’d wanna come with pearls. In fact, I reckon a lot of the Banksii prices, like side dishes at $16 and $14, or accessorised chicken liver pate at $23, are disproportionate to the amenity and service.
Will I need a food dictionary? No.
The damage: Ambitious.
In summary: Pleasant enough, but expensive for what it is …
Banksii
Address: 33 Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo South, Sydney | Contact: (02) 8072 7037, banksii.sydney | Open: lunch, dinner daily | Score:3 out of 5