What To Order From Toby Wilson’s Retro Pub Grub Menu at the New Norfolk Hotel

“It’s like a mullet venue,” says Toby Wilson of Redfern’s revamped Norfolk Hotel, which bounced back under hospitality giant Solotel last night. “Pub food up the front, Ricos at the back.”

Wilson has spent the last few months overhauling the century-old boozer’s food offering. That means, no matter where you sit in the pub, you can choose between the full Ricos Tacos menu or a swag of pub classics “inspired by growing up in Australia”.

“It’s food that everyone’s familiar with, but is becoming harder and harder to get your hands on,” he tells Broadsheet. “Pubs are so diverse now and the food is probably better than it’s ever been. But if you want that really traditional, almost country-style pub food, it’s tricky knowing the right place to go.”

Well, we guess this must be the place? Here Wilson walks us through seven of his favourite dishes from the new menu.

Beef and VB party pies and sausage rolls sold by the inch

“These are definitely based on the party pies and sausage rolls you had as a kid,” says Wilson. “They’ll be sitting in the pie warmer. You can just order them whenever you want and they’ll be good to go.” For the sausage roll, pork mince is encased in house-made shortcrust pastry, rolled up, then studded with fennel seeds. The party pie, meanwhile, is a “little beef and ale number” with beef shin slowly cooked in VB. “Really good for the footy.”

Chicken schnitzel and the “salad you actually want to eat”

The jagerschnitzel and rosti dish at Darlinghurst institution Una’s was the inspiration for Wilson’s bird. A chicken supreme (a breast with the drummette still attached) is breaded and fried before it’s crowned with a chopped frill like a turkey leg at Christmas. A roast chicken gravy goes extremely well with the potato rosti, which is “essentially a giant hash brown with clarified butter”. Every main – including this one – comes with a salad of baby cos hearts, cucumber, herbs and champagne vinaigrette. “I wanted to make a salad you actually want to eat, rather than just pay lip service to salad.”

The “chicken shop” roast chook roll

Wilson’s favourite dish on the menu wasn’t even his idea. “I was originally going to do a schnitzel roll and our general manager [Marcella Guilfoyle] was like ‘Why don’t we do a roast gravy roll instead?’” Whole chickens are stuffed with breadcrumbs before they’re roasted, shredded and tossed through the silky, aforementioned gravy. The whole lot goes into a steamed hot dog bun, gets topped with fried sage then tucked into a foil kebab bag. “Then we serve that on top of a bowl of chips with a separate gravy dish. Dunk your roll into the gravy or pour it on your chips. It’s a very wet, messy chicken-shop thing.”

The “footy park” rissole burger

“It feels like every pub in the country is doing smash burgers now. They’re great, don’t get me wrong. But I thought we’d take it in a different direction,” Wilson says. He’s going for the “footy park on a Saturday” experience with house-made beef rissoles, pickled beetroot and caramelised onion on a bun. The kicker? “We put vintage cheddar on it. It’s a bit more bitey than American burger cheese, which I do love – just not on this burger.”

The Good Ways x Ciccone & Sons lamington ice-cream sanga

Good Ways Deli and Ciccone & Sons have chipped in with a collaborative ice-cream sanga inspired by the former’s legendary lamington. Inside? Ciccone & Sons Jersey milk fior de latte gelato, vanilla sponge and Davidson’s plum jam. The whole thing’s dipped in chocolate then coated in coconut. “You know that really snappy chocolate on Magnum? It’s like that. It has this really nice, crunchy chocolate snap.”

The new vampiros at Ricos Tacos

Designing the pub’s new food offering also meant stripping back the Ricos menu to its original five-taco, two-quesadilla format. But Wilson loves a side quest – so he’s adding vampiros to the mix. “It’s probably my favourite thing to eat in Mexico, but it’s tricky to find in Australia. It’s a hot tostada with melted cheese, al pastor and avocado salsa. Kind of like a crunchy, cheesy, hot taco. They’re also called volcanas depending on where you are in Mexico. Vampire or volcano.”

The Norfolk
305 Cleveland Street, Redfern

Hours:
Daily midday–midnight

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@norfolkhotelredfern