The Swanson Hotel
106-108 Swanson St
Erskineville, Sydney
The Swanson Hotel is a big and "airy" hotel inside and out. It's on a corner and the hotel curves around. As you walk in you will notice that there is a wonderful bar where the bottles appear to "glow". There are areas where you can sit in comfortable lounge type chairs, there are booths and also a secluded lounge area where you can sit and relax or play the pinball machine. How good is that!
We sat on high seats and ordered a wine each. Sir had a Shiraz and Mlady a Cabernet Merlot, they both went well with the meals we ended up ordering later.
Our entrees were Chicken sliders - chicken sliders with guacamole and chipotle. Under the Tapas menu we chose the Spiced squid with chipotle aioli and the Falafel balls with eggplant chutney and yoghurt harissa. How good were these! The chicken sliders were tasty and crisp and served with that all important soft bun - nice. OMG the spiced squid was so yummy and tender and was nicely spiced. Very good chipotle sauce to dip them in too - lovely. The Falafel balls with the eggplant chutney - these had such a good "bite" and the yoghurt harissa complimented this dish nicely - delish.
For his main meal Sir chose the Pork and cider pie with smoked mash, broccolini and gravy. This was impressively presented. It sat high on the plate sitting on a bed of smoked mash. How do they smoke the mash? Loved the mash and the pork was tasty and tender. "Oh it's lovely" was the comment. This really was a good hearty meal.
Mlady loving fish chose a favourite - Beer battered fish and chips with mushy peas lemon and tartare. The fish was lovely. Tender and moist. The chips were crinkle cut and were crisp outside and fluffy inside. Chips are always nice to sip in the flavoursome aioli as well as the fish. Mlady enjoyed this dish and the mushy peas added nice colour and texture to the meal.
We managed to fit in dessert and chose the Eton not so messy with blueberry meringue raspberry sorbet, lemon curd, whole chocolate crumble and double cream and the Sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce double cream and spiced walnut crumble.
The Eton not so messy was such a pretty and delicate looking dessert. It was a forest of colours. So many wonderful combinations. Such a nice tangy lemon curd. It was a lovely sweet dessert that completed Mladys meal nicely.
The Sticky Toffee pudding was a substantial dessert and equally yummy. Great flavours. The butterscotch was a very tasty partner to compliment the sticky toffee. The spiced walnut crumble gave it a nice crunch. This was a delicious dessert.
The Swanson Hotel has a good varied menu. The servings are generous and the food is flavoursome with tasty combinations that go well together.
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of The Swanson Hotel. Big thanks to Tom and Alice for looking after us so well on the night. Special thanks to Jessy Marshall of Coote Connex for arranging this visit.