Calling this sprawling mutli-venue establishment a club kinda diminishes all that it actually is –with more than a dozen restaurants and bars, indoor gardens, a theatre, a kids precinct, and all sorts of entertainment, it’s practically like a whole town in itself. The most surprising part, though, is that every venue within this 'mega venue' – every restaurant’s menu and every decor detail – is thoughtfully curated. Many of the restaurants and bars would merit a place on one of Time Out’s best-of lists.
The venue was founded all the way back in 1958 to raise funds to support more than 47 local sporting clubs and over 10,000 people who participate in sport, as well as hundreds of local charities and community groups. Talk about giving back to the community. The club has come a long way since its 1950s origins – it’s a very slick operation with top-tier restaurants covering cuisines that span the globe.
The club has a venue for every vibe. You may not expect to discover a legitimately convincing slice of Italy in Bankstown, but the La Piazza dining area feels like an actual open-air square. It’s even surrounded by facades of traditional Italian apartments, with balconies draped with drying laundry for that extra touch of authenticity. You can order great pizza from the Pizzeria Bellucci side; and pasta, seafood, antipasto, etc, from Stuzzichino’s menu.
While one eatery transports you to the streets of Florence, another – Greenfield Station Bistro – takes you all aboard a Victorian-era train station eatery. Enter through the arched entrance and dine in railway carriage-like booths. It’s a nod to the wonderful world of adventure and, as such, the menu you take you on a world tour – all the way from a breakfast buffet to English-style roasts, steaks, bistro classics (schnitzels, salmon and herb-crusted lamb rump), seafood platters, Asian stir-fries – as well as a high tea experience. They’re basically catering for every traveller who comes through the doors.
If you’re in the mood for Chinese, you have not one but two excellent options, with Lucky Cheng’s and Canton Kitchen (the former is quite traditional, while the latter is a more of an old-meets-new style menu).
The club has its own microbrewery, Basement Brewhouse, which brews craft beer in-house. Sit back in one of the “barrel” booths for a burger or other perfect-with-drinks meal and get your Foxtel sporting fix.
That sounds like plenty enough, right? But we’re not done. They also have an Al Aseel (an outpost of the famed Lebanese eatery); a new sushi restaurant, Miso Oishii; a variety of other cafés and bars; and for a sweet end to the day, San Churro Chocolateria.
Then there are BSC’s other venues – including Lady Banks Rooftop, on the tenth floor of the adjacent building, the Flinders Centre. Lady Banks is Sydney’s biggest rooftop bar, and it gives you panoramic views of Sydney’s skyline, all the way to the Blue Mountains. The bar is named to honour Lady Dorothea Banks, the wife of botanist and Bankstown namesake, Sir Joseph Banks. Lush greenery and cascading flowers in shades of yellow bring old-fashioned romance to the space.
In addition to food and drink, there’s also play centre: Monkey Mania, which boasts the highest as well as biggest indoor play structure in Australia. By now you're getting the point: the club doesn’t do anything on a small scale. There's also a Turbo Climb centre for all-ages indoor climbing, a theatre that hosts live shows and a range of other entertainment, and thirty screens for watching sport. Oh, and an UltraFade hair salon. Look, you could basically live there.
