Pony Dining, The Rocks

 Pony Dining is one of the rocks’ most delicious secrets. Kel and I had a great time when we visited Pony Dining last year (Kel went back to Pony Dining earlier this year as well). I can attest to Pony Dining’s high quality produce and food, excellent service and intimate décor. Pony Dining also do AMAZINGLY orgasmic cocktails as well.

Recently Pony Dining has made a few aesthetic changes making their venue feel more open, with more access to natural light and some natural greenery to add a fresh touch.

I recently get the opportunity to check out their brand new spanking lunch menu. Their new lunch menu is fresh and quick (let the staff know if you’re in a rush back to work) and more reasonably priced. The lunch menu is still aligned to Pony’s commitment of using fresh local produce and high quality. There's also an awesome array of cocktails which are AWESOME. My favourite is still the coconut chilli martini

So should you order? If you’re thinking of a small dish to share as an entree, I would suggest you share the Wood fired grilled flat bread ($8, below) with a friend to start off with. The Grilled bread is served with an eggplant, yoghurt and pomegranate dip. The eggplant is slightly smokey and smooth. The touch of pomegranate adds a touch of freshness too. I like the smokiness of the bread and the smokiness from the eggplant combined.

There’s also other dishes that might be nice to share that are more substantial like the Roasted Fig, burrata blob of cheese, Italian ham and aged balsamic ($17, below). The big blob of burrata cheese is creamy and makes way for the sweet fig flavours to come through. I personally love figs and burrata cheese so that would be my choice to share with a friend. The burrata cheese is from local producer La Stella Latticini.

Pony Dining also do really nice crunchy bread at lunch time. If you’re craving that then there’s the Vietnamese inspired pork belly roll with pate, hot and sour dressing ($16.50) or the Brisket roll, kohlrabi slaw, house BBQ sauce ($16.50). The Vietnamese roll is a fancy, smaller version that you would expect to find from a Vietnamese bakery. The Brisket Roll would be Matt’s favourite dish as he would have loved the smokiness from the meat in combination with the BBQ flavours from the slaw and sauce. I suspect the boys would love the Brisket Roll.

My personal favourite from the new lunch menu is the Gnocchi, pumpkin, wood roasted corn, hazelnuts, goats curd ($19, below). The gnocchi is light, fluffy and flavoursome. The combination of the charred corn and hazelnut is a winner as well. This dish is so moreish and delicious. I only wish there was more of it.

Kel’s favourite is the Salad of slow cooked lamb shoulder with baby cos, roasted cauliflower, capers, tahini and lemon ($23, below). The lamb is cooked perfectly and is full of flavor so I understand why this is her favourite dish. We also agree the greek style chicken salad ($19.50) with lemon and chilli vinaigrette would be a natural choice for those who are looking to be healthy but still want to be satisfied with something yummy. The lamb shoulder is from Mirrool Creek, Riverina NSW.

And of course there’s always the meatiest option of all which is the 250g Rangers Valley rump steak, south American salsa, served with shoestring fries in a separate little bowl ($28, below). The meat is from Vic’s so you now you’re getting high quality. It’s a simple dish but very well executed.

For dessert, my favourite was the Hot chocolate pudding, orange compote, housemade hazelnut ice cream ($12, above). The pudding oozed out full of chocolate which perfectly matched the ice cream. The chocolate pudding uses Cacao Origin Chocolate. Yum.

For those wanting something a bit less conventional, there’s the Roasted pineapple cheesecake, gingernut biscuit, caramel, lime and mint ($12, above). I’m not a massive fan of ginger but I could still enjoy the gingernut biscuit.

If you’re looking for a bigger dessert to share then there’s the Baked Apple Crumble (to share, $20) is made with house made cinnamon ice cream and crème anglaise.

Summary: For a high quality experience, check out Pony Dining's new lunch menu. Otherwise dinner is a lovely affair and you can't go away without trying some of their delicious cocktails. My favourite lunch main was the gnocchi and I loved the chocolate pudding. Love this place

P.S: Their bar tenders always have cool beards or hair.

Price: Most lunch mains are $15-20

Location: Corner of Argyle and Kendall Lane, The Rocks

Opening Hours: 

11:30am to 3pm, 6pm to 10pm daily

Weekend Food Escapes dined as guests of Pony Dining. All photos, opinions and words are my own.