Botany Bay is iconic. It is the location of Captain Cook’s first landing. Since this time and the development of Australia, the area has seen a lot of buildings rise up in the area.
The Botany Bay hotel, close to the ports, was established in 1865 and known as one of the oldest hotels in the Eastern suburbs. Whilst it looks old from the outside, it has recently undergone renovations inside by the Publica group (known for Goldfish in the Hunter Valley and Henry’s in Cronulla).
The stylish wood interior and light blue painting and menus is welcoming and the new outdoor beer garden is a great area to enjoy your dinner or socialise with friends over a few drinks.
The bar has plenty of beers of tap, a wide range of wines and they also do a good cocktail. I had a nice espresso martini as well as a wine or two. You can socialize with your friends at the public bar which has sports on TV, and Keno as well as sports bet. There’s also a pokies area.
The executive chef Raf Tonon has put together a lovely bistro menu with a great variety of food and a brand new pizza oven, preparing your pizzas outdoors in a shipping container.
From the entrees list they offer foods such as chicken wings, Haloumi, Calamari, Fried Polenta, croquettes as well as some Asian influences in the dumplings and Sang Choi Bao.
We ordered mains on this occasion and absolutely loved the gnocchi with confit cherry tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil. It was extremely tasty and perfectly cooked gnocchi.
We also selected a salad that was a picture of art on the plate. Our salad was the beetroot, quinoa, smoked goats curd, sorrel and burnt onion dressing. It was just delightful.
If these options aren’t your fancy, there are burgers, fish and chips and steaks, just to name a few.
There’s also a woodfired pizza oven serving traditional pizzas made using the Italian method established in 1885. You can order these to eat in or takeaway. We watched these being made, and amazingly they came out in only 5 minutes, with a nice light dough and fresh toppings. We tried the Capricciosa with tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushroom, ham, olives and artichoke.
They run weekly specials each night so keep an eye out for that, as well as happy hour and Karaoke on a Saturday night.
This has some top food and is perfectly suitable to any guests, including families. Certainly worth popping in for a visit.
1807 BOTANY ROAD, BANKSMEADOW, NSW, 2019, AUSTRALIA
