"A room this light-filled and so darn pretty is not what you expect at the back of a pub where, nearer the street, TV sports and beer on tap rule. Food and service this polished are welcome but similarly surprising, unless you know that restaurateurs Damien Pignolet and Ron White - of the fancier Bistro Moncur up the road - are running the show. The menu is described as 'traditional', and corned (wagyu) silverside with white sauce, excellent bangers and mash, spag bol and crumble all feature. The nostalgic will thrill to the childhood bliss of crumbed lamb cutlets with mushy peas and potato mash, but the skilled kitchen's Mediterranean offerings, such as the daily risotto are hard to ignore..."

SMH Good Food Guide 2008 14/20

"In spring, a young man's thoughts turn to the L-word. Any by the L-word, I mean lamb. And by lamb, I mean lamb cutlets. Any by lamb cutlets I mean crumbed. Any by crumbed lamb cutlets, I mean the Bellevue Hotel.

Those of us who love a good bit of crumbing have been coming here for years for what I regard to be the best cutlets in Sydney. Match them with chilled beaujolais on a hot spring afternoon and I am in heaven.

Of course, there's more to the Bellevue than cutlets. There's the always friendly service, and the little alcove in the pub where one can sneak off for a quick bet, but mostly there's on of the most thoughtful pub menus, not only in this city but, dare I say, the whole country.

Always check the daily specials, but there are also some great old standards as well, usually some fab cold meat selections. On the day we visited it was some jamon (isn't that just the flavour of the month) as well as tried and true favourites like steak diane and Wagyu corn beef with mash and white sauce.

Oh, and another thing: don't worry about such heavy sounding dishes with the weather hotting up. Not only does the kitchen bring a light touch to these old dears but the airconditioning is always pumping to the point where buttery mash potato goes down like ice-cream on even the hottest of days.

It was rather warm the day when Bunny and I took her two Swedish friends Sven and Inga there for lunch. They stopped complaining of the heat as soon as the first plate of oysters arrived and by the time we'd shared the delicious ocean trout balls with a gentle aioli, lunch was under way.

I, of course, had the cutlets, Bunny and Sven had the Wagyu beef meatballs on pasta, which I have to admit they found to be a little dry. Frankly, they should have had the silverside, which from the moment it arrived in front of Inga was descended upon by the others at the table like a bag of chips under fire from hungry seagulls. I noticed that I too was a cutler down after a trip to the bathroom.

The Bellevue is famous for the size of its portions. Seriously, I have always been too full to even contemplate dessert, but seeing as others do like a sweet we dove in.

Firstly, the pavlova was a little on the homemade side, which is exactly what it should be. Again, too much food on the plate, whereas the blood orange pannacotta was far easier to get through. It was delicious and if my belt hadn't been groaning under the pressure, I'm certain I could have gone again.

Mind you, there will be plenty of other times."

'Dish' Southern Courier 7/10

"An ageing Paddo pub has had a dust-off rather than a makeover. There are bangers and mash (still), corned beef and steak diane, but now the emphasis is on flavour as well as portion sizes."

Bellevue Dining Room, Paddington 14/20

".....well it's mostly all good. The prices may have gone up to 2005 levels from those of 1985, but the quality also has increased.

The Bellevue, a small drinking hole in Hargrave Street, is a regular haunt for those who want to watch sport on a big screen. There's also a bistro, hidden away in a courtyard-like space at the rear. The glass roof is covered with folds of white fabric, presumably to block the sun, and on the left-hand side you can see the kitchen, and the kitchenhand beavering away.

...there are excellent prints on the walls. Two blonde waiters bob up between tables as quietly as meerkats. It's a sign of Sydney's maturity that you can get such well-mannered waiters at a pub dining room these days. Despite the no-surprises menu, the flavours are also a sign of the times.

Well-known restaurateurs Damien Pignolet and Ron White are behind the revamp. Pignolet, who runs the two-chef's hat Bistro Moncur with White in nearby Woollahra, was at pains to tell me that the Bellevue was not really worth a look for a review when I first spoke to him. How wrong he was. The Bellevue may not be trekking to the stars, but it's a long way from the counter meals I was raised on, and a long way from most pub bistro menus today.

There's steak, fish and chips, oysters and caesar salad - all of them given a sprinkling of good taste thanks to chef Tahlia Gilbert, who was second chef at Bistro Moncur.

... we've ordered less than a full meal each and, when the plates are cleared, left more than usual. Portion sizes are so big they border on the obscene...".

Eat Out by Matthew Evans, Good Eating, The Sydney Morning Herald 2005

The Bellevue Dining Room is a smart, bright restaurant at the back of The Bellevue Hotel in Paddington. A grand old pub and a favourite watering hole for the local workers, The Bellevue is walking the fine line between sticking to tradition and being trendy, and in my opinion, gets the balance right.

A semi-open kitchen overlooks the predominantly white room, which, by the size of the air conditioners and the movable white ceiling blockers, can obviously get quite hot in summer. A marvellous collection of herb-themed paintings is the only decoration; nothing distracts from the business at hand: eating!

The menu is an old-fashioned delight with traditional dishes like 'Bellevue Grilled Sausages with Mashed Potatoes, Peas and Onion Gravy' and more modern fare such as the Fergus Henderson classic 'Veal Bone Marrow with Parsley, Caper and Olive Salad'. We tried the 'Pork Terrine with Cornichons', which is a very up-market brawn with a gorgeous jelly holding it all together and 'Crispy Fried West Australian Whitebait with Aioli and Lemon', a substantial serving of large whitebait. They certainly are not neonatos, but are fresh and most certainly filling.

For mains we tried 'Corned Wagyu Silverside with White Sauce, Cabbage, Carrots and Mashed Potatoes'. Only a brave chef would dare to put this dish on the menu, with many Australians remembering the 'glugg' of the same name that their mothers served while they were growing up, but I assure you this is a worthy dish. The meat is beautifully tender, the sauce clean and not cloying at all, and the cabbage's acidity cuts through the heavier flavours. My companion ordered the pie and we were both amazed at the size of it. All the portions are very generous indeed, but the pie takes the cake, so to speak. It's enough for two or more, but it is demolished nevertheless.

Someone put a lot of thought into the wine list. Arranged by varietals it is an intelligent selection at excellent value for money. In fact everything about this place spells excellent value for money. The service is efficient but aloof. This might be a pub restaurant aimed at the local clientele but I can tell you it's worth travelling to for a good feed.

'The Bellevue Dining Room' by Franz Scheurer, on behalf of Australian Gourmet Pages