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.