The Balmain Hotel

We feel a bit like we've gatecrashed a street party.

The new owners of the vibrant and colourful Balmain Hotel (until recently the dingy West End) have invited about 80 of their neighbours in for a drink. Girls dressed for a night on the town rub shoulders with genteel septuagenarian couples and families with children in their pyjamas.

We've been lured instead by the promise of good pub grub in the bistro and $5 kids' meals.

Super-friendly staff play to their happy-hour crowd, presenting Archie and Lulu with sticker-puzzle books as soon as we sit down. Like the rest of the pub, the bistro decor is eclectic and funky, with one wall papered in a Hermes jungle print.

Some heritage features of the Victorian-era pub, including the main bar, have survived, but recent additions include a retro ladies' lounge, a pinball room with murals by street artist Ben Frost, and a tiki-bar-cum-beer-garden out the back. There's also a photo booth in the bistro where $4 buys you hours of family fun. It's a bit temperamental during our visit and spews out multiple copies. The kids are delighted.

The menu, under chef Brad Sloane, has something for everyone: sliders and steamed buns to soak up the booze, a United Nations of tapas-style ''Little Stuff'' (from falafels to nachos) as well as typical pub mains, including steak and fish of the day.

Children's menus are invariably heavy on the fried stuff and light on salad and veg, and the Balmain is no exception, offering a choice of lightly battered fish, beef burger or pizza (all with chips) and nachos. But when the burger (wagyu, we discover) arrives it's perfect, on a brioche bun, and the crumbed ocean perch fillets are fresh and sweet with textbook shoestring fries. Given we'd paid $35 for average kids' meals at a posh Mornington Peninsula winery recently, the Balmain gets a big tick for value. Our ''Little Things'' are delicious appetisers: salt-and-pepper squid dusted in Chinese five spice and ground fennel seeds resting on a zingy kimchi salad, and the gloriously mixed cultural metaphor of sour-sweet chicken larb "choy bow".

Steamed buns are standouts, the dough made daily and filled with red braised pork, shiitake and cuttlefish or hoisin-laced Peking duck. Having wolfed down their own meals, Archie and Lulu get stuck in, too. The ''Big things'' pale a bit by comparison - rump steak with a fiery potato, bacon and jalapeno salad is hearty and honest but chargrilled jerk salmon, while perfectly cooked, needed a sauce.

Archie is thwarted in his dessert choice of churros with chocolate - the machine is broken - but Lulu is in heaven with a foamy Snickers sundae.

We're not strictly locals, but the Balmain Hotel is a nice addition to the neighbourhood.

Do … order before 6.30pm and the kids' meals are $5.

Don't … go home without getting a happy snap in the photo booth.

Dish … Peking duck steamed bun with hoi sin, cucumber and green onion.

Vibe … Modern revamp for curious inner-west locals.

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