We’re calling it: The chicken Kyiv is back – and this bowlo gets it right

Finally, it’s back. I can feel it in the air. The time of the Kyiv is upon us once more. For someone who has an eBay alert set up for “vintage Black Stump restaurant menu”, the return of chicken stuffed with butter, garlic and herbs is even more exciting than the time I saw Dr Terence from A Country Practice at Grace Bros (I was eight).

Granted, I’ve only spotted two new chicken Kyivs in the wild – at the relaunched Carlisle Hotel in Newtown and Leichhardt Bowling Club – but after years in hibernation, these are major sightings. It’s still popular at butchers and supermarkets, yes, and the headline act at Chippendale’s Kyiv Social, but like chips, gravy and the parmigiana, it tastes four times better at the pub.

The Kyiv’s appearance at Leichhardt bowlo’s Blue Ribbon Bistro is a calculated move by chef Nic Wong, who wanted to serve pub classics from the age of MeadowLea and French onion soup mix in everything. Wong knows how to hit the right nostalgia notes from his time leading Marrickville’s Lucky Prawn, but he also cares about produce and doing things the right way after cutting his teeth at Rockpool.

For the bowlo kitchen, which relaunched in July, Wong teamed up with other former Rockpool chefs: Joel Humphreys (they’re co-owners of Newcastle’s hatted Bistro Penny) and Graeme Hunt (who runs the kitchen day to day). This means your $10 side salad features top-condition radicchio and a spot-on mustard dressing, and the $35 rump (served with chips, naturally) comes from nearby boutique butcher Great Meats Co.

The tartare on a whopping big fish sandwich hits the right balance of dill, Dijon and gherkin, and a quality rendition of pub calamari is crumbed in-house, a rarity for anywhere with pokies. The club still has a dozen slots in a dank little side room, which is a fair reduction from the number it used to have, but come on Leichhardt Bowlo board: vote “yes” to turfing the lot. On any given weekend, there’s a line at the bar and the kids’ playground and beer garden are packed. No doubt winter trade isn’t as healthy, but I still can’t see the club going under if it replaces Cleopatra and Cashman with pinballs and Buck Hunter.

Anyway, that’s my obligatory “pokies destroy families and culture and they should all be incinerated” rant. Back to the Kyiv, which is very good. A thick crumb wraps the bone-in cutlet, and absorbs the waves of garlic, butter and mash as you approach the centre. The fish-and-chips batter is appropriately lacy, and onion rings are purpose-built for beer and cheap wine in the sun.

A vodka-sauce pasta bake nails the cheese-and-comfort brief it’s assigned, and the sleeper hit is Hunt’s fish of the day. At club trivia the other week, that fish was a nicely steamed fillet of orange roughy, laid over a punchy puttanesca-ish mix of tomatoes, capers, olives and butter beans. Meanwhile, every second person orders the works burger heaving with a fried egg, beetroot and bacon on a super fluffy bun. It is everything you hope it will be and will require nine serviettes.

Blue Ribbon is an order-and-collect-at-the-counter situation, hence I’ve been restrained with the score, but when the vast majority of NSW’s bowlos and RSLs trade on frozen schnitzels and bulk-buy squid, traditional club food doesn’t get much better than this. With Kyiv back on the menu, maybe it’s also time for the return of carpetbag steak.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.