banksii

the absolute worst restaurant experience to date.

my partner and i dined at banksii for the valentine's day 8 course menu. you'd expect that at $149 per head, you'd be served all your dishes on the menu at the very least. upon being seated, we only glanced at the menu before it was quickly taken away from our table, which we initially found rather odd but didn't think any further into. it was only at the end of our meal and having paid for dinner, did we notice the second round of customers enjoying two dishes on the menu that we hadn't received. we’re extremely disappointed that not once throughout thenightdid any staff bring this to our attention. we requested for the menu not once, but twice, and each time this was unfulfilled.

at the end of the night, we raised to a waiter that we believed we hadn’t been served two dishes. not once was an apology made by himself or the manager. instead, he offered us one complimentary pre-drinks voucher each for future use. we refused this, as we’d rather the dishes be deducted from our bill at this point. we made this very clear, however he made us feel extremely uncomfortable, and strongly pressured us to accept the voucher, repeatedly saying “this is a better deal, it’s worth more than your two dishes, you’ll only receive $8 off your bill otherwise.” we reiterated that the vouchers won't be of use to us as we don't frequent the area, to which he then rudely snatched the vouchers off us and stormed off to the register to reprocess our bill. he came back and without a word unmannerly placed the eftpos machine in front of us, with a grand total deduction of… $4. first of all, at $149 per head, 2 courses on the menu definitely does not equate to $4. secondly, one course is a pre-existing dish on their menu valued at over $10, at the exclusion of their inflated valentine’s day pricing. we requested to speak to the manager who was available on the floor, but she refused to even present herself to us. the waiter’s response to this? - "we've already refunded you $4. we weren't even going to deduct anything from your bill." this is completely appalling and unacceptable. utter dishonest service to advertise 8 courses, only to serve 6 and refuse to even remunerate the difference, let alone offer a single word of apology.

it's a real shame that several tables next to us also only received 6 dishes, but were most likely completely unaware, as they left before the second round of bookings arrived. this only leads us to believe that the removal of the menus from our tables was intentional and very deceitful.

the rest of the service was extremely poor. it took almost 2.5 hours for six courses to trickle out. the food was ordinary to say the very least. a lot of our requests were ignored, water was not refilled and cutlery was placed directly onto our unclean table.

we most definitely will never be coming back or recommending banksii to any friends or family.

pretty busy for a tuesdaynightdinner, by far one of the more popular places along barangaroo on the night. we got a table outside with comfy cushions and relax decor with a floral garden feel. vermouth would not normally be my drink of choice, but since we're at a vermouth bar we all got the banksii aperitif rose vermouth. it was dry & crisp with a bitter citrus note but not unpleasant. of the food, they were good in general, but felt each was just bit short on being excellent. the creamed macadamia dip with sweet & sour currants, was a bit on the sweet side for me, couldn't taste any sour and just needed a hint of savoury to lift it. the salmon carpaccio was bit bland. the sticky beef soft ribs was soft & tender, but need more of the sticky sauce. the shaved zucchini was my favourite for the night, simple fresh & light. the desserts follow similar trend as the savouries. the honey parfait with lemon curd & honeycomb was surprisingly good, but it was hard to dig into the parfait itself & hard to get the earl grey syrup off the plate to eat with it. the bitter sweet choc mousse was really intense on it's own, but was good with the mandarin granita. overall an enjoyablenightout.

we had an amazing anniversary dinner at banksii. really friendly staff, amazing food, and the share platters idea really works here - we left with happy, full bellies. the gnocchi and short rib had to be our favourites! we even got a little anniversary gift and card from the restaurant which just made ournightthat much more special. we will be back!

for a good time you can banksii on it.

came on a fridaynightwith a couple of my girlfriends at 6pm. we had a booking using opentable which is really easy to use and would highly recommend. without a booking we don't think we would've gotten a table because it was quite full by 6:30.

the decor is beautiful, clean and fresh. view of the harbour is always a bonus.

service was outstanding. our waiter, not sure of his name but was an older one, was very friendly and helped us through the menu and every question we had. all the staff were excellent though, from the maître d' to the food runner.

we ordered a round of martinis that came quickly. all were pleasantly strong and tasty! the second round was equally as good and also came well-timed.

for food we ordered the cultured butter garlic bread roll, grilled prawns, king crab risotto, pork belly, and a fresh green salad. the garlic bread had balsamic in it which was very tasty; the prawns were lovely as prawns usually are; the risotto was a hit even with my friend who doesn't like seafood, and the pork belly was luscious. for desserts we had the chocolate mousse and the banksii trifle, both were excellent!

recommendations: pork belly!

a more expensive dining experience than i'm used to, but the level of food and service was more than worth it. including tip the three of us paid $290.

simply divine culinarily experience
strolling on the lovely strip of barangaroo, we decided to have early dinner at 5pm. settling to eat in banksii was impromptu without any prior research, which is unlikely of us. the ambiance looked right and the place was already half full. we decided to sit outside, which proved to be a great choice to watch the bypassing people while dining.
banksii drinks menu was extensive, but the food menu was small, in three categories of shared food: small, medium, large. on the small list, we chose grilled prawns, also bean, pea and goat cheese salad. prawns were cooked perfectly and the taste was to die for. the oil with mustard sauce was really original, i could easily say the best prawns i have ever tasted. bean salad was also a nice surprise with every element in the salad matched with perfect harmony. i had a glass of sangria with elderflower and it did not disappoint.
we then ordered steak from medium menu with a side order of broccolini salad. the steak was cooked perfectly and balanced with a lovely green sauce and leaves on the side. bowl of string chips was complimentary, and nicely cooked.
once again, perfectly cooked broccolini with fried onions were original and matched perfectly.
we had no room left for desert, but ordered one simply because we were curious what surprise it could be after such a perfect meal. again we were not disappointed. pear cake with lavender icecream was so perfect, it reminded us the masterchef judges raving about a great dish when every element makes sense on the plate.
banksii is not cheap, but the experience is special and worth the money.
this restaurant is an excellent find. it all starts with great location and ambiance; but the clever use the plates and lovely cutlery, and of course the divine food and drinks are of masterchef quality.
simply divine experience for us.
thanks banksii for turning our saturdaynightinto a one to remember for a ling time.
we shall return!

having read the previous reviews & reluctantly shown up for dinner, i was better than surprised, i was sold.
great food. really great.
they obviously got the "crap service" memo because the service was spot on - informative, attentive and with spark (thanks amanda!).
the vermouth specialty thing was really interesting too - which left us vermouth neophytes wishing they offered a tasting event so we could explore it more.
despite it not being a cheapnightout, i'll be back.

banksii – named for sir joseph banks, the first botanist to come to australia, not the graffiti artist – has just opened on the soon-to-be-waterfront edge of barangaroo. the soft gumtree inspired trunk colours – faded blues, dusky pinks and greys – are a nice departure for husband and wife team, hamish ingham and rebecca lines, whose bar h restaurant tends towards dark, minimalist black.i stuck my nose in on their secondnightof trade to find out more about this vermouth bar – the first one in australia, no less. using a combination of her own fabulous table service and thorough menu tasting notes, rebecca is determined to show sydneysiders that vermouth is the drink we never knew we wanted. to this end she has even devised a clever system of symbols to indicate how each of her forty odd vermouth selections scrub up best. we tried a lustau vermouth ($10) on the rocks. based on two sherry wines (pedro ximenez and amontillado) that were aged separately and then blended with more than ten botanicals, this red vermouth has the complexity of a cocktail, and could easily replace your end ofnightold fashioned. expect some sweetness, a bit of nuttiness, and some citrussy orange peel...