We've got it assorted

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday March 1, 2011

Lucy Barbour

Variety is the norm on these inner-city streets ��� and menus ��� writes Lucy Barbour. The pedestrians on Darlinghurst's streets are a mixed crowd. There are men in suits, ladies (and lads) in stilettos, mums with prams, grey-haired couples, empty-nesters, film stars, sports nuts, wannabe actors and more.This eclectic nature is also what makes Darlinghurst's dining scene tick, says chef Mitch Orr of Duke Bistro, which opened above the Flinders Hotel late last year. "It's a really young crowd but there are still different age groups from all walks of life and it's very easygoing," he says.Orr (ex-Sepia) and business partner Thomas Lim (ex-Tetsuya's) are enthusiastic Gen Y chefs, not afraid to have fun with food. They've created an unpretentious supper club in Duke. "It's a place you can go late at night that's not [offering] a modified or supper menu or the apprentice chefs are cooking," Orr says. "You come and have full menu at 1am with the [full-time] chefs cooking it for you. We're serious about what we do, but we don't take ourselves too seriously."There's professional service, quirky colonial decor and an exciting menu. Try chargrilled watermelon with herbs and baby zucchini, or bonito covered in lardo, with macadamia nuts, butternut pumpkin and coffee soil for crunch. The "soil" is a mix of ground coffee, flour and butter that's dried and becomes crumble-like.Towards the Kings Cross end of Darlinghurst, dining becomes more multicultural. There's the elegant French bistro Tastevin, on Victoria Street, with crisp tablecloths and the comforts of pan-fried fish in a butter and caper sauce. Two doors along, the heat is on at Spice I Am, or travel further to Boca, an Argentinian grill-house specialising in coal-grilled meats. Enthusiastic carnivores can tuck into a platter of skirt steak, rump, sirloin, blood sausage or tongue.Not all restaurants survive Darlinghurst's upbeat crowd. "Three strikes and you're out," the chef and owner of A Tavola, Eugenio Maiale, says. "But I think generally if you're good, people will keep coming back and if something goes wrong they'll give you a second chance. It's a very loyal community."Maiale's intimate, communal Italian eatery attracts regulars enamoured by his handmade pastas such as pappardelle with wild boar and porcini sauce.For pizza fans, there's Lucio's Pizzeria in Palmer Street, which opened in 2008. Owner Lucio de Falco learnt the art of flipping his famous "half and half" - a ricotta, tomato, basil, mozzarella and ham calzone - while working at his family's pizzeria in Naples.Only metres away is chef Christine Manfield's Universal. Her globally inspired flavours come together in delicate, balanced dishes. Her dessert, Madame Pompidou - a combination of white peach curds, macaron, rose jelly, fromage blanc, sherbet and fairy floss - is a textural triumph, while a savoury favourite is sticky rice and salted duck egg cakes with green mango, ruby grapefruit and cashews.Universal isn't alone in delivering carefully complex dishes. Sydney-born chef Tomislav Martinovic, whose CV includes Aria and The Fat Duck, opened Tomislav restaurant a year ago in an oft-bypassed building on Kirketon Road. His modern Australian food is more involved than it appears in print. A Kurobuta pork belly, for example, is slow-cooked for 56 hours.Martinovic has a fetish for gadgets. His ice-creams go into the Pacojet, which freezes the mixture rock-hard at minus 21 degrees, then breaks it up again within three minutes, creating what he calls "McDonald's soft-serve texture". It doesn't taste like McDonald's. "Don't freak out," he says. "It's the texture that I love. It's absolutely perfect the way it melts in your mouth."Below Tomislav, in the same building, is Sushi Yachiyo, a low-key Japanese restaurant named after chef Mitsuhiro Yashio's father, who taught him some signature dishes. There are school prawns fried and served with a Panegashima stock, made from dashi, soy vinegar, onion and leak, which brews for four days. Yashio is particularly proud of the wagyu cheek. "It's slow-braised with tofu for one day and we serve it in tempura with miso sauce,"he says.The reclusive location of Tomislav and Sushi Yachiyo could be a challenge, so close to the action yet concealed from the thick of it, but Martinovic disagrees. "I looked at so many suburbs to buy, but I just knew Darlinghurst was the place," he says.On Darlinghurst Road, chef Stephen Hodges of award-winning seafood restaurant Fish Face sums it up in between serving silky, spanner crab ravioli. "The good restaurants stay around because they're quality but it's also about diversity," he says. "You need diversity to survive around here. It makes this area what it is."FOOD, GLORIOUS FOODDuke Bistro 65 Flinders Street, 9332 3180.Tastevin 1/292-294 Victoria Street, 9356 3429.Spice I Am 296-300 Victoria Street, 9332 2445.Boca 308 Liverpool Street, 9332 3373.A Tavola 348 Victoria Street, 9331 7871.Lucio's Pizzeria 248 Palmer Street, 9332 3766.Universal Republic 2 Courtyard, Palmer Street, 9331 0709.Tomislav 2/13 Kirketon Road, 9356 4535.Sushi Yachiyo 1/13 Kirketon Road, 9331 8107.Fish Face 132 Darlinghurst Road, 9332 4803.

© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home