Balk Restaurant @ Bolton on the Park

Located at Bolton on the Park Motor Inn, Balk Restaurant dares to step outside the norm by nailing its gastronomic colours to the minimalist mast with a nod towards the principles of nouvelle cuisine. At first glance, a menu offering just four entrees, four mains,...a selection of tortillas and three desserts might seem niggardly when compared to multiple choices adorning the menus of most other dining establishments in Wagga. Yet as I discovered on Friday July 28, you can 't judge a book by its cover: Baulk 's slender tally of choices conceals visionary excellence in design, preparation and presentation of each of its dishes. Our party of five elected to bypass the quartet of First Course offerings including guacamole wontons, chicken wings with sesame lime mayo, Asian beef empanadas and corn croquets) in favour of tortilla $3.5 each, or three for $10) followed by a Second Course item. The cornflour tortillas were small but exquisite. We sampled Five Spice Duck and Pork Belly varieties, noting their concentration of flavours with a perfect marriage between meat and tangy slaw. For second course, three members of our party ordered Market Fish barramundi) served with chilli and lime crust and pineapple salsa. This was unanimously pronounced excellent, with alternating spicy and sweet overtones enhancing the succulent white flesh. One of us selected slow cooked brisket, served with iceberg lettuce and consumed as with Peking duck) by wrapping the diced meat in a lettuce leaf. As for myself, I dared to be different by selecting the chicken breast with tequila, risotto and bok choy, and here again the flavours were distinctive yet subtle, highlighting to perfection the two symmetrical lengths of moist chicken breast. Beautiful! Having previously decided to forego dessert, what did we do? Why, we called for menus and studied the three dessert offerings, namely a confection of pina colada, pineapple, coconut and lime; deep fried churros icecream with potato chip praline and chocolate sauce; and popcorn sundae with candy and fairyfloss, the latter described by our personable waitperson as My ten year old 's absolute favourite. As it turned out, four of us ordered the pina colada dish for which a resonant lime sauce embraced a scoop of icecream. The fifth person, no doubt recalling trips to the movies, chose the popcorn and fairyfloss number, later ruefully observing its overriding sweetness. Visually, portions throughout appeared smallish, as if in deference to the nouvelle cuisine tradition, itself a revolt against a longstanding tradition of heroic portion sizes. But appearances can be deceptive. All of us were satisfied, albeit without that bulging sensation that screams for one 's belt buckle to be released two notches. This was in short an imaginative and exquisitely careful assembling of ingredients for which each food type was respected and enhanced by touches of sauce and spice. Finding such food in a motor inn environment is remarkable, as was the presence of a waitperson providing such warm and helpful attention. Only one discordant element must be mentioned: the music. The motor inn management should realise that music based on an unrelenting rhythmic thumping is counter productive to the enjoyment of fine food.

A delightful evening with family. The waitress was busy with lots of tables occupied however she was very friendly and courteous attending to your requests quickly. The menu is great with great variety. After a variety of tortilla fillings for Entree, I very much enjoyed...the fish (Barramundi on this occasion) served with a delightful pineapple salsa. What an amazing hit on my taste buds, the chilli and lime crust on the fish was sensational. This was all matched with a lovely glass of Riesling. Well done, I will return

Located at Bolton on the Park Motor Inn, Balk Restaurant dares to step outside the norm by nailing its gastronomic colours to the minimalist mast with a nod towards the principles of nouvelle cuisine. At first glance, a menu offering just four entrees, four mains, a selection of tortillas and three desserts might seem niggardly when compared to multiple choices adorning the menus of most other dining establishments in Wagga. Yet as I discovered on Friday July 28, you can't judge a book by its cover: Baulk's slender tally of choices conceals visionary excellence in design, preparation and presentation of each of its dishes.Our party of five elected to bypass the quartet of First Course offerings (including guacamole wontons, chicken wings with sesame lime mayo, Asian beef empanadas and corn croquets) in favour of tortilla ($3.5 each, or three for $10) followed by a Second Course item. The cornflour tortillas were small but exquisite. We sampled Five Spice Duck and Pork Belly varieties, noting their concentration of flavours with a perfect marriage between meat and tangy slaw.For second course, three members of our party ordered Market Fish (barramundi) served with chilli and lime crust and pineapple salsa. This was unanimously pronounced excellent, with alternating spicy and sweet overtones enhancing the succulent white flesh. One of us selected slow cooked brisket, served with iceberg lettuce and consumed (as with Peking duck) by wrapping the diced meat in a lettuce leaf. As for myself, I dared to be different by selecting the chicken breast with tequila, risotto and bok choy, and here again the flavours were distinctive yet subtle, highlighting to perfection the two symmetrical lengths of moist chicken breast. Beautiful!Having previously decided to forego dessert, what did we do? Why, we called for menus and studied the three dessert offerings, namely a confection of pina colada, pineapple, coconut and lime; deep fried churros icecream with potato chip praline and chocolate sauce; and popcorn sundae with candy and fairyfloss, the latter described by our personable waitperson as "My ten year old's absolute favourite."As it turned out, four of us ordered the pina colada dish for which a resonant lime sauce embraced a scoop of icecream. The fifth person, no doubt recalling trips to the movies, chose the popcorn and fairyfloss number, later ruefully observing its overriding sweetness.Visually, portions throughout appeared smallish, as if in deference to the nouvelle cuisine tradition, itself a revolt against a longstanding tradition of heroic portion sizes. But appearances can be deceptive. All of us were satisfied, albeit without that bulging sensation that screams for one's belt buckle to be released two notches.This was in short an imaginative and exquisitely careful assembling of ingredients for which each food type was respected and enhanced by touches of sauce and spice. Finding such food in a motor inn environment is remarkable, as was the presence of a waitperson providing such warm and helpful attention.Only one discordant element must be mentioned: the music. The motor inn management should realise that music based on an unrelenting rhythmic thumping is counter productive to the enjoyment of fine food.

A delightful evening with family. The waitress was busy with lots of tables occupied however she was very friendly and courteous attending to your requests quickly. The menu is great with great variety. After a variety of tortilla fillings for Entree, I very much enjoyed the fish (Barramundi on this occasion) served with a delightful pineapple salsa. What an amazing hit on my taste buds, the chilli and lime crust on the fish was sensational. This was all matched with a lovely glass of Riesling. Well done, I will return

Terrible experience we were 15 minutes late for our 7.30 booking on Friday night I did apologise we were caught up at the hospital greeted with I was only giving you 10 more minutes and I would call your room madam here is your table, I asked if we could have a drink first, at the table madam, no would you mind if we sat out side to this I was told the kitchen closes at 8pm so here is the menu madam we got our beer and bottle of wine with the menu ( the attitude of the waitress was not pleasant) we are not read to eat straight away so don't worry about the meal just charge our drinks to our room and we will go some where else as we would like a nice night out bottle of wine and sit for a while with out feeling we were keeping everyone, to this we were told she is here til 1am! (go figure) no no no she said I have spoken to the kitchen they will stay open for you after more yap yap we finished our drink stashed the bottle of wine in the bushes to collect on the back to the room we went across the street and had a lovely night out.such a shame as our girls said the food is lovely there. Truly 8pm on a Friday night