The Bank Food and Wine: 13 Ballarat Street, Yarraville, 9362 7222
My score: 3/5
The Bank’s honest food, decent prices and an attractive heritage dining room are a spirited illustration of how the west is winning. The menu is an easy read, the food is contemporary but not too tricky, and there’s a focus on top produce delivered at reasonable prices.
A spring lamb dish is a fine example of what the restaurant does well: lovely meat, well cooked and attractively presented. A two-point rack perches alongside a brick of slow-cooked shoulder. Caponata salsa with pine nuts and capers steers the dish down a continental path, then thick mint sauce diverts into Sunday roast territory. Dabs of translucent sweet onion puree add another piquant dimension and are perhaps the clearest indication that chef James Kummrow spent time cooking at Dunkeld’s three-hat Royal Mail. Chicken and chips is a crowd-pleaser given a makeover: chicken leg is boned and rolled, served with pommes frites, watercress and puffed grains. Barramundi from Cone Bay near Broome is excellent. This sustainably sea-farmed fish is firm, moist and clean, and the kitchen did it justice with a straightforward, confident preparation that let the fish shine. Pan-fried then gently baked, the fillet comes with mash and a witlof and pear salad.
Some dishes are very laidback, like the tagliatelle with zucchini, torn burrata, prosciutto and lots of mint. I could imagine Yarraville locals popping in after work for this house-made pasta and arriving home 30 minutes later feeling happy and ahead of the game. The dessert list isn’t very inspiring and the chocolate brownie was an unremitting slab lacking the gooey bits that turn great brownies into sweet, swooning memories.
The wine list nicely balances interest and accessibility with beauties by the carafe at keen prices. Better glassware would improve the experience. Service is willing and friendly but not intuitive or polished. I will live if my water glass dips below brimming but I would like a fork with which to eat my dinner, please. And it is a terrible shame to discover there are specials right about the time the bill arrives. Nevertheless, it’s possible to sense the enthusiasm and optimism underpinning the business. This keen ethic has prompted big plans: a wall will come down to turn the deck into an inviting al fresco room, seasonal dinners will feature up-and-coming chefs and there are plans to run the first floor as a fine dining parlour and gallery.
More honest meals:
Bacash, 175 Domain Road, South Yarra, 9866 3566
As he’s done for decades, Michael Bacash deals in impeccable seafood, simply cooked and served with a complete lack of pretension.
Templestowe Living Room, 19 Anderson Street, Templestowe, 9846 6158
An all-afternoon snack menu segues into a low-stress dinner menu of dips, oysters, salmon salad, pumpkin risotto and grilled pork. There are heaps of gluten-free options.
Malvern Hotel, cnr Glenferrie and Malvern Roads, Toorak, 9822 3582
The char-grilled steak menu is a focus at this congenial old pub. The rest of the menu is a mix of old faves (chicken parma, fish and chips) and more adventurous dishes like seared roo and duck liver parfait with walnut bread.
First published in The Age, November 11, 2012
Leave A Comment