Banksii

Banksii – named for Sir Joseph Banks, the first botanist to come to Australia, not the graffiti artist – has recently opened on the soon-to-be-waterfront edge of Barangaroo. The soft gumtree inspired trunk colours – faded blues, dusky pinks and greys – are a nice departure for husband and wife team, Hamish Ingham and Rebecca Lines, whose Bar H restaurant tends towards dark, minimalist black. I stuck my nose in to find out more about this vermouth bar – the first one in Australia, no less. Using a combination of her own fabulous table service and thorough menu tasting notes, Rebecca is determined to show Sydneysiders that vermouth is the drink we never knew we wanted. To this end she has even devised a clever system of symbols to indicate how each of her forty odd vermouth selections scrub up best. We tried a Lustau Vermouth ($10) on the rocks. Based on two sherry wines (Pedro Ximenez and Amontillado) that were aged separately and then blended ...read more

A beautiful restaurant! Very quick service, our food arrived at our table in a timely manner. Every dish I had was delicious! The prawn bisque was absolutly delicious! All dishes are made to share and the only downfall was that I felt the dishes were a little too small. We also ordered a lovely bottle of Rose wine which was also very nice. The service is exceptional and the ambience made you feel right at home. Wasn't too loud either.