Sunday 25 January 2009

The Banc at Swansea

Two of the places I've got on my 'to go to' listing are The Banc, and Piermont, both at Swansea, and both of which are places that you might need to save up for a couple of weeks before going to if you end up going to each on successive nights as Rita did on Friday and Saturday night!

Tonight's review is of The Banc, and pictured above is one of the entrees we had - their Tasting Plate ($17). It comprised:
*roasted quail leg (sprinkled with sesame seeds) - just roasted quail. (I tend to think quail is a bit over rated - it's cute on the plate, but I have never recognised any specific quail flavour to it)
*rare roast beef - just as it says - two slices of rare roast beef
*(cold) Thai fish curry and rice - Jamie thought they had made a mistake and that this should have been served heated, and checked with Lee after, but she reassured him it was meant to be served cold. Maybe a bit 'emperors new clothes'?
*two of the tiniest (twenty cent piece sized) little cheese tartlets I've ever seen in my life, but the tastiest little morsels I've ever had in my life too! Lee said they were blue cheese, but I'll swear on my bible that blue cheese went nowhere near them. I love blue cheese and am sure I would have recognised the faintest skerrick of blue had it been in them. It didn't matter as they were absolutely perfect anyway. They tasted more like a Heidi Raclette flavour - which I also adore.

We also had the entree of
Flash fried local calamari in rice flour with Sczechuan pepper & five spice, Thai salad & tabasco aioli 16.00. Jamie liked this, but once again it was sliced as the calamari I had last week at Oyster Cove Inn, and the larger sized slices don't appeal that much to me. I felt the pepper/5 spice mix could have been spicier too, but must admit that my (jaded) taste buds prefer flavours which are more dominant.


For mains, Jamie selected the Banc signature baby suckling pig, served with baked vegetables, pan gravy and apple sauce $30. This was excellent. The crackling was crackly and gorgeous. The meat and veg were absolutely to die for. I highly recommend this meal to any pork lover. I am not a huge pork fan, so if I'm raving about it, you better believe it's good!




I decided to treat myself, given that I'm still on holiday, so went with the $55 Bicheno half crayfish (natural), which came accompanied with dressed lettuce and a bowl of new potatoes, as well as the usual cocktail sauce. It was exactly what I felt like, and to be frank, you just can't go wrong with that, can you? I didn't touch the lettuce or potatoes. They were superfluous to the beautiful cray meat.



After that, we couldn't fit a single mouthful more in, and besides, Jamie wanted to get back to the cricket on TV, so we called it stumps and left.


All in all, we really enjoyed the meal at Banc and look forward to a return visit. They were flat out at The Banc, as were all the other restaurants in Swansea on Friday night. Let's hope this keeps up because I would hate to see someone have to close down due to lack of customers.
Posted on by Rita
10 comments

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK, what have you done with the real Rita, who are you?

Well it looks fantastic, very professional.

Now the food. The East coast is a personal favourite of mine, so much so I invested in a block of land on Dolphin sands a good while back, can't afford to put a house on it, but then thats life.
I like the Banc, and a few of the others up that neck of the woods and I am always eager to see its continued development as a quality town.
A couple of times a year we usually stay up at Freycinet lodge (cabin 17) has a spa , it was my honeymoon room.
The merc' today mentioned the food at the lodge. All I can say, is that I have always enjoyed it immensely and enjoy my trips there. Conrad and the chaps do an exceptional job, I would recommend it to anyone.

Cartouche

Rita said...

Hi Cartouche - and thanks for the comments. Yes, I totally agree with you - who took the REAL Rita? I'm finding this new-look site a bit difficult to manage at the moment, and the post last night about Banc took me twice the time, and 100 times more thought, than usual! I hope it all gets easier in future! I've got the Piermont review to do today!

Regarding your love of the East Coast - I would presume you don't get much (if any) time to spend up there? I love it there, especially Swansea, and found it difficult to return to the city yesterday. The sunrise was magnificent; the morning still, sunny and warm, as opposed to Hobart when I arrived back here. It was quite cold here in comparison.

I got chatting to a lovely couple of girls from Sydney at the table next to me as I lunched at Ebb on Friday afternoon. They were absolutely enchanted with Tassie, our wines, our food - the whole package. I am positive they will return here for a longer and more strategic trip next time, but it seems a waste that people like that come and sort of bumble around, knowing exactly what they want to see and experience, but not sure as to how to find it.

They were on an impossible timetable and en route to Strahan (hopefully via NW coast) the next day, and I'm sure would have been more than happy to remain on the East Coast, drinking and eating their way round the area.

Pity they hadn't known about Rita's blog earlier! Rita would have set them straight alright!

rockoyster said...

"I'm finding this new-look site a bit difficult to manage at the moment, and the post last night about Banc took me twice the time, and 100 times more thought, than usual! I hope it all gets easier in future!"

Geez Reetz - stop overthinking it! Just keep doing what you always did and you can't go wrong.

And for those interested in more on The Banc menu go here.

Anonymous said...

Like the general look of the new site, Rita, though I hope you haven't dumped those interesting characters from your "people" section.

Tassiegal said...

Hey Rita,
New site looks great! I contemplated Banc when I drove back through Swansea last month, but ended up back at Ebb - the siren call of chowder was too strong (but the oysters won out in the end).

Anonymous said...

Very swish, Rita. Well done.
Can't get over you leaving those spuds, though.

Rita said...

Anon 10.40 - no, I haven't dumped the interesting People. Just using this period as a housekeeping time, and re-looking at them all. Also working on a few new ones. All I need is a bit more time on my hands....
Thanks TG - there are some rippers to eat at now in Swansea. You must get back up the coast and go specifically to Swansea next time.
Sir G - thank god you finally visited, and commented. I've been holding my breath waiting for it....
If you'd been there, I would have passed you the spuds.

Tassiegal said...

Rita- heading up for a belated birthday lunch on Sunday. Plan is to book a 1pm table @ Ebb and see what happens!

Rita said...

That sounds like a great plan TG. Don't forget to report back to us please!

Tassiegal said...

Course I wont...Montys tonight though! YAH for CHEESE!