Chinese Restaurant

The Chinese restaurant at the Bankstown RSL is a separate dining room on the main floor of the building, walled in patterned timber panelling with a red-and-gold colour scheme picked up from the broader Australian-Chinese restaurant tradition. The ceiling carries a row of paper lanterns at regular intervals, each one with the gold tassel and red bell-pull standard to the genre. The floor is patterned carpet in a deep crimson with gold motif. Round tables sit beneath each lantern, ten covers each, set with linen and lazy Susans. The bar at one end of the room is timber, dark-stained, fronted by upholstered stools in matching crimson vinyl. The entrance is framed by a small archway carved with peony-and-dragon detail.

The Chinese restaurant at the Bankstown RSL ran alongside the bistro through the latter decades of the club's life, serving members and guests a separate menu from the bistro buffet. RSL clubs across western Sydney often partnered with a Chinese-restaurant operator who leased the dining room and ran their own kitchen and staff while the club handled the bar. The arrangement worked for the club, the operator, and the local lunchtime and dinner trade. The Bankstown RSL was demolished in March 2019. The restaurant room, the lanterns, the timber panelling, and the entrance archway went with the rest of the building.