Wednesday 22 August 2007

Bat & Ball Hotel

With the Landsdown Pub reportedly declining, could this be the beacon for fine pub food in Sydney’s inner city?

Classics dominate the regular menu, a choice cut of gravy lathered rump is cooked to order, arriving with a compulsory creamy mash and side salad dressed in a rich mayonnaise. Much heralded Sunday roast pork available every day of the week, the meat succulent with thin crackling that’s supercharged by a fruity apple sauce and winter vegetables. Both garnished with snakes of sweet potato crisps.

Redefining the specials board, there’s an air of opulence and decadence in both taste and presentation, giving precedence to a new benchmark in quality. Taste the love in the spicy tomato risotto, affectionately massaged Arborio becoming a creamy existence topped with a fan sliced chorizo sausage that provides sufficient impetus to ignite the taste rockets. Fat from the crispy salted bacon seasons the tenderly grilled chicken breast, a strong parmesan mash and Dijon cream a spectacular side show in a what can only described as a champagne dish. Chef’s version of nachos is a corn chip feast of bolognaise and beans, with freshly chopped avocado, Spanish onions and tomato. Toothpick sliced rump is quickly pan seared and tossed with onion, mushroom, spinach energised by a BBQ sauce wrapped with sniper precision in pita bread.

Do you expect an apology from the kitchen at any other establishment if there is a delay on your meal? A resounding no I hear you sigh, even though you’d like one. At Bat and Ball, either the chef himself or bar staff will come out and update if you had wondered if your plate had grown limbs and wandered off. Impeccable service such as this raises Bat and Ball to another echelon. How much for all this do you ask in classic pub surrounds? See below.

3.5 / 5 yums!

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Where? 495 Cleveland St, Surry Hills, NSW

What? Average Main $10, Specials $12



Left to Right : Wedges, Steak, Roast Pork, Spicy Tomato Risotto, Grilled Chicken with Parmesan Mash, Rump Wrap, Nachos, Penne Special

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