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Busselton Has a Vinyl-Led Cocktail Bar With Cult-Status Crab Sticks
Banksia Tavern is spearheading the coolification of Busselton. One bloody good crab stick at a time.
Busselton has had no shortage of openings, growth and cultural commentary in recent years. Less talked about is what hasn’t lasted.
When owners Brendan McCarthy and Nathan Headlam took on the site at 43 Prince Street, they came with a stack of records under their arms, an understanding of how to make a stiff drink, and the ability to read a room. Without the latter, they wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Brendan’s vision was simple: a classic, old-school tavern. Warm, welcoming, and built on “good old-fashioned hospitality”.
A few years on, Banksia Tavern is a local heartthrob. Vinyl spins. Staff feel like friends. And the old-fashioned joy of sitting at a hardwood bar, getting drunker than intended, hasn’t been lost.
“What’s been really special about being in a regional town like Busselton,” Brendan says warmly, “is the ability to connect with people in a meaningful way … [watching] locals connect with the space and make it their own over time.”
Head Chef Laura Koentjoro Harding came on board in 2023. A natural fit. She was already supplying formidable desserts while working down the road at Alberta’s, before it closed its doors. With time spent at the likes of Casa in Perth and Cafe Freda’s in Sydney, Laura understands the balance: challenging the status quo, without losing people along the way.
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“It’s important the menu always holds a level of nostalgia and familiarity,” says Laura. There’s no need to constantly challenge. But she admits to being “a bit sneaky”, wrapping what she really wants to play with in something recognisable, like “tricking a child into eating their veggies.”
Case in point: the bloody good (as written on the menu) crab sticks. A play on the ultra-processed, glorious grot you might find in the Coles freezer section. But hotter. Better. Smarter. Stronger.
At its base, a bright white scallop farce (a smooth seafood mousse), with roughly chopped blue swimmer crab and chives folded through. The mix is piped, frozen, and cut into fingers before being crumbed and fried. The golden fingers then sit on a puddle of lacto-fermented mango sauce, adjusted to resemble Thailand’s nam jim gai, or ‘sweet chilli’ as we know it.
Other menu items include Shark Bay Venus clams in white wine, chilli and coconut. Add bread for mopping. Charcoal-grilled salt and vinegar sardines follow the same rule: add the bread. There’s also a democratic Wednesday pasta and Negroni special worth knowing about.
Cocktails lean playful but well curated. A pina colada, served short with pandan leaf and a maraschino cherry. Hot. And wines lean local, and for the people. Beers too.
Laura also tells me not to overlook the Honey Toast Hokey Pokey — an ice cream sandwich from “back in OG ice cream sando times in the 1800s”.
“We make burnt Jarrah honey ice cream and sandwich it between two bits of crispy, buttery and honeyed toast,” she says. “It’s the dish I’m most proud of recently.”
Once you’ve ticked off this Busselton gem, why not check out our pick of the best Margaret River wineries for sensational sips and luxurious, long lunches, and our round-up of the most stylish glamping accommodation around the state.
