At the Old Bank restaurant & bar, enjoy delicious food and craft beer, surrounded by talented musicians, in one of Dubbo’s most iconic heritage buildings.
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I was away in Dubbo, for work and as a team we had decided upon the old bank for our evening meal due to their “secret” vegan menu. “Secret” menu? OK… you have my attention!
Vibe
The vibe was similar to a “clean weatherspoons” in the UK, with the addition of live music. It was not too busy, but had enough people sitting inside and out. Along with the 30 degrees heat, laughter filled the air as fronds and colleagues were catching up about their day.
Location
The location was perfection relation to my work place and where I stayed. I was staying at the Westbury B&B and it was quick walk around the corner. This allowed me the opportunity for a red wine (vegan of course) at the end of a long day. To the front of ‘the old bank’ are a few steps up to an outside seating area. Not a massive one but big enough for a group of 4 groups of people to meet and on this warm evening, it was full. When you walk in from the street entrance, you are greeted by what feels like a large ‘living room’ with a bar at the far side. We walked through to the back to find our reserved table. I think we were in the garage, well at least that’s what it looked like with the shutter door to my left. It was cool out there with they night breeze coming in through the shutter and the opened doors to the right. There were people sitting inside and out at the back of the restaurant, enjoying each other company, the food and the drink.
Food
The legend were true! They did have a ‘secret vegan menu’ and the choices looked pretty good. Normally, I look at the vegan options and what you are able to eat is super obvious as there is usually only one option or at the most, two; the second is usually a fried option which would not work for me. They had vegetable schinzal and salad, a chickpea and lentil burger with chips or salad, a walnut and pumpkin salad and a few other bits such as sharing platters. I didn’t take a picture of the menu as I was too caught up in good conversation and by this time the red wine was hitting the ‘sweet spot’ and pulling out my phone was the last thing on my mind… lol
Section time and I was toying with the walnut and pumpkin salad, however, I changed my mind at the last minute and went for the lentil and chickpea burger with salad instead of chips. As the food started to arrive at the table, we remembered the last time some of us were here and how they had forgotten one of our orders. My colleague literally received her food 10 – 15minutes after we had all finished eating. We laughed and joked who would be the ‘victim’ this time. Have you guessed yet?
Yep!
It was me…
My boss (at the time), the CEO bless her; went to ask them where it was and a plate came out not long after… However, it was the vegetable schinizil and I had ordered the burger. I informed the waitress and after another 5-10 minutes my food came. By this time, everyone had finished eating which a left bad taste in my mouth. Yeah… You saw what I did there!
By the time my food had arrived and I had finished my wine, I was not really that hungry. More tired. I ate the pattie and part of the bread and the salad and called it a day. The presentation of the food was good, the food was very tasty, fresh and hot. The bread for the burger was ‘door stopper bread’.You know, the thick kind. Well, at least that’s what mum used to call it; you know the white loaf from the bakery that they slice for you… it thick enough to stop a door lol. I had about half of one slice, the pattie and salad and I was done. I would 100% order it again when I am back in the big D.
Drink
I decided on a small red wine. It was $9.00, which is around £4.50 in old UK money. It was lovely and a reasonable price, I think. I am not really a drinker, so I don’t have much to bench mark against. Many of my collogues had beer, which appeared to go down a treat. Afgain, I am not a beer connoisseur by any means, but ‘the old bank’ had a number of beers on tap.
Service
The service overall was ok, the people who serviced our table were very polite, informed and engaging. I often feel sorry for those serving tables as many complaints from customers are things outside of their control. It felt like this time and the time before, there was an issue with communication in the kitchen. However, they should know how many people are at the table and how many meals should be coming out.
Overall rating: The overall rating for ‘the old bank’ is 7/10 and this has been impacted by the issue with my food. Aside from that, it was a good experience and somewhere I would go again for sure. There is a restaurant in London that has the gimmick of ‘rude waiters’ and makes a lot of money off it. Whilst the staff at ‘the old bank’ were not rude at all, they were the complete opposite, maybe they could use the gimmick of ‘someone does not get their food until everyone has finished’ as a gimmick and capitalize on something that appears to be common practice for them.
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The Jalloh Family
The Jalloh Family 