The Kittyhawk, Sydney

Chips are good but homemade crisps are better. Especially when they're a vehicle for creme fraiche, caviar and briny pops of trout roe. It's just one of the snacks at The Kittyhawk, the French restaurant and cocktail bar you've probably walked past a million times and never noticed. Kittyhawk isn't entirely new, having opened in 2016. My interest to visit was piqued when I realised Alex Lynn, former head chef of Casoni, was now rattling the pans here.



Entering Kittyhawk feels like a bit of a strange and awkward maze at first, but keep walking and a second door spits you into a moody dining room. The semi-circular banquettes are where you want to be - cushioned and cosy comfort for the entire table. The dimly lit room is filled with prints, dark toned timbers and empty liquor bottles.

What I do love is the menu, a terrific range of dishes that can easily accommodate your table's collective appetite. Because you can order throughout the night, too, it means our late-running friend, doesn't miss out either.


Sardines, pickled lemon, aioli and toast $19

We kick off with Ortiz sardines, the saltiness of these prime fillets offset with pickled lemon slices pickled fennel and a dollop of aioli. The charred toast offers a pleasing smokiness.


 Trout roe with crispy potato $14

The trout roe with crispy potato is ridiculously addictive, like the fanciest chip and dip you and your boujee friends could possibly imagine.


Trout roe and caviar on crispy potato

Slather generously and savour that creamy lusciousness against carby crunch. Bliss.


Steak tartare with horseradish $20 

Housemade crisps also arrive with our steak tartare, seasoned with just enough cornichon to make me sigh with relief. Could I just have all my meals served on potato crisps please?


Bone marrow, parsley and black garlic toast $17

Ordering bone marrow on any menu is usually a no-brainer for me. This one is cooked to perfection, the trench of marrow wobbly with fattiness but still whole, slicked with a parsley sauce in forest green. The black garlic toast on the side reminds me of Vegemite toast, but truth be told, I end up preferring to eat these components separately so I can appreciate each of them on their own and unadulterated.


Boudin noir with French toast $16 

Boudin noir blood sausage arrives as crisp slices on top of rafts of French toast. Melted cheese adds a extra layer of decadence, the whole shebang crowned with petals of pickled onion.

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Gruyere cheese donuts $8 for 2 pieces

And because Chef Lynn has realised I'm dining tonight (I'd sent him a direct message on Instagram to reserve an order of scarlet prawns), we're sent out a round of gruyere cheese donuts from the kitchen.


Inside the gruyere cheese donut

If you love cheese, you'll love these donuts, elongated footballs of cheesy sophistication.



Let's not forget the drinks list either, a comprehensive menu that includes a depth of rum and cocktails like lean in all different directions. The Ledo Road with pandan leaf, lime juice, pandan syrup, toasted coconut milk and Bacardi has my name all over it.


Gnocchi Parisienne with mushroom fricasse and asparagus $27 

We finish up with larger dishes, including the gnocchi Parisienne. This French take on gnocchi is potato-less, instead using choux pastry that is boiled and then pan-fried. It makes for a starchier and slightly chewier mouthfeel, the golden-seared pillows served with a deeply rich and savoury mushroom fricasse. Crisp asparagus spears provide much appreciated freshness and crunch.


Scarlet prawn tagliatelle with prawn bisque $38 

And of course we have to have to the scarlet prawn tagliatelle. These are huge portions, each one easily shared between two. The scarlet prawns themselves are enormous, cooked so the flesh is still soft and sweet. The highlight is in the prawn head of course, a bonanza of prawn intensity that deserves to be licked, scraped and sucked with enthusiastic abandon.


Rum baba brioche cake with rum and creme patissiere $14 

Dessert is a classic rum baba, theatrically set on fire at the table. Once the blue flame subsides, you're left with a boozy brioche laced with rum, best eaten with a good spoonful of creme patissiere.


Creme caramel with miso caramel

And because it was my birthday, the kitchen sends out a complimentary dessert: creme caramel with miso caramel on the side. It takes us a while to work out the flavour of the caramel on the side - later verified with Chef Lynn - its savoury saltiness adds nuance and complexity to this traditional French dessert.

All up, good food and good fun. And if you enjoy live music, swing by on Thursday nights when blues-rock band Cass Greaves and the Ragin Cajuns perform.






Kittyhawk
16 Phillip Lane, Sydney
Tel: 0455 041 172

Opening hours
Tuesday to Saturday 4pm-12am


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Cafe Paci, Newtown

He's back. It's been four years since Pasi Petanen shut the doors on Cafe Paci, his pop-up restaurant in Darlinghurst that ran for two years. Diners were won over by a menu of interesting and experimental dishes, like his pho-tato Scandi-Vietnamese mashup and desserts of carrot sorbet with licorice cake. Petanen draws on influences across Asia as well as his Finnish heritage, finessed with fine dining expertise (Petanen was the former head chef at former three-hat restaurant Marque).

Cafe Paci has now opened in permanent digs in Newtown, neatly tucked in between Bella Brutta Pizza and Mapo Gelato. It's a win for everyone.



The long and narrow dining room feels more like a European wine bar. Long banquettes along the wall are lined with tables and bentwood chairs. High stools at the bar are ideal for walk-ins and single diners. And the former set menu structure has been casualised in favour of a la carte. That means diners can pop in for a snack or stay for a full meal.


Potato and molasses bread with butter $4 per slice

Petanan's potato and molasses bread has thankfully been revived. It's impressively soft and fragrant with a gloriously sheen to its glaze. On the side is a swipe of whipped butter, interspersed with flecks of brown butter. It's so addictive we run out of butter and plead for more. We're rewarded with an even bigger portion that we down with glee.


Blood cake with whipped lardo and pickled onion $20

Blood cake is a hearty disc of earthy satisfaction. The pure-as-snow whipped lardo belies its mouth-filling decadence. Petals of pickled onion provide welcome acidic relief.


Raw beef with smoked tomato and parmesan $26

Raw beef with smoked tomato and parmesan is Petanen's take on steak tartare. It's not quite the pizza-inspired mouthful he presented at Rootstock and then Cafe Paci in 2014, but there's plenty to like about this tender raw beef enhanced with the umami of smoked tomato and fresh parmesan curls.


Maltagliati with sweet corn, basil and walnut $24

If you like corn, you'll love the maltagliati with sweet corn, basil and walnut. It's beautifully balanced in sweetness, and boosted with the slightly bitter crunch of toasted walnuts. The maltagliati pasta sheets are whisper thin and silky. Next visit, I'd be happy to eat just this with a glass of wine.


Potato dumpling with XO trout $26

Is there a difference between potato dumplings and gnocchi? Methinks not. What these potato dumplings do offer is a cloud of fluffy lightness. XO trout is a little harder to grasp if you're used to, and expecting scallop and prawn hit of traditional Hong Kong-style XO sauce. This trout version is obviously fishier, with less of the traditional garlicky shallot sweetness.


Flounder with sauce Florentine $38

Whole flounder is something you should order, cooked to just the right level of fork-yielding tenderness. Its mild sweet flesh is perfect for soaking up the lake of creamy sauce Florentine, speckled with mustard seeds.


Dutch cream potatoes with potato anglaise $10

And on the side, a serve of buttery soft Dutch cream potatoes, doused in butter. C'est bon!


Carrot sorbet with yoghurt and licorice $15

One of Petanen's signature dishes, the carrot sorbet with yoghurt and licorice, has survived the move. This felt like a nonsensical and crazy dessert when we first ate it in 2013. It's just as enjoyable and enigmatic today. The cloud of yoghurt foam envelopes a quenelle of carrot sorbet like an egg white eiderdown. The licorice cake on the bottom is ridiculously more-ish.

It's a surprisingly accessible menu from Petanen, which is perhaps one of its only disappointments. The former set menu format forced everyone to join a wild ride, as Petanen ignored conventional flavour combinations and applications. Is this a more economically sustainable option for inner west diners? Maybe. But I'd happily pay more for Petanen's playful whimsy in a heartbeat.






Cafe Paci
131 King Street, Newtown, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9550 6196

Opening hours
Lunch Saturday from 12pm
Dinner Monday to Saturday 5.30pm til late


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Arthur Restaurant, Surry Hills

Ten dishes for $70? Surely this is one of the best value dinner treats in Sydney. Treat yo'self for cheap at Arthur, a small and cosy restaurant in Surry Hills. You'll find it an intimate spot for date night but it's relaxed enough, too, for a special catch-up with friends.



Heading up the kitchen is Tristan Rosier whose cooking pedigree (ex-Biota and Est.) is reflected in his seasonal, local-focussed, plant-friendly cooking. The menu includes a detailed note of thanks to a broad list of suppliers, acknowledging the use of produce from Living Earth Organic Market Farm in the Southern Highlands, native ingredients from Outback Pride, Wollemi Honey from Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains, and fruit and vegetables from Rosier's own mum and Nan's garden.



Ten dishes will arrive in pairs, a five-course meal that the restaurant warns will take about two hours. The duration feels like the ideal compromise, long enough to feel memorable without the oftentime drawn-out arduousness of a 15-course degustation.


Arthur's sourdough with cultured butter

We start with housemade sourdough, deliciously crusty on the outside with a mattressy softness.


Raclette gougere with truffle and honey

Our starter counterpart is a plate of raclette gougeres.



These are far tastier than you first expect, the golden brown choux pastry boosted with aromatic truffle, the nutty cheesiness of raclette and a floral hint of honey.


Scallop with globe artichoke and verjuice

The following three courses pair a protein dish with a vegetable-based one. Raw scallops offer a gentle sweetness against pickled globe artichokes and a sunshine yellow splash of verjuice dressing.


Ricotta with broad beans and brussels sprouts

Ricotta with broad beans belies its understated appearance. The milky creaminess of ricotta works terrifically with tender double-podded broad beans, hidden beneath a forest of charred brussels sprouts leaves. We drag our spoons through the ricotta island, scooping up as much vivid green fennel oil as we can. It's one of my favourite dishes of the night.


Kangaroo with bush tomato and peppers

Course three includes a giant raviolo of kangaroo, the silky pasta draped with roasted red bullhorn peppers and bush tomatoes.


Cabbage, fennel and sorrel

On the side is a thick wedge of cabbage, roasted to a blackened caramelised sweetness, the green quotient bolstered with fennel and lemony sorrel butter.


Spatchcock with cipollini and brassicas

Our final savoury course proffers spatchcock, brined and cooked to an impressive succulency. On the side are candied cipollini onions and a tangle of cavolo nero.


Jerusalem artichoke with macadamia

Roasted Jerusalem artichokes are my other highlight of the evening. They're addictively sweet and nutty, smashed and fried so that obtain a blistered crisp at the edges. And then there's the macadamia sauce, velvety in texture and lush in its nutty richness.


Wattleseed, blood orange and strawberry

A wattleseed parfait provides a palate-cleansing segue into dessert. It's a clever dessert, balancing the creaminess of parfait against the refreshment of blood orange with strawberry and the sweet hit of caramelised white chocolate smithereens.


Chocolate, peach and rhubarb

And while we're relieved there's a chocolate dessert too, this one isn't intense or heavy. There's a deftness of touch that tempers a flourless chocolate cake with peaches and rhubarb. Lashings of cocoa dusted cream hit the satisfaction button.

It's a thoughtful and elegant meal although our only quibble is that our table of three consistently receives a single dish to share the entire evening. That would be fine if the dish - normally designed for two, based on our observation of the next table - was increased proportionately, but many looked to have been left as is. It's a small point, but worth noting if you plan to dine with an odd number of people.








Arthur Restaurant
544 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel: +61 (0)468 991 088 

Opening hours
Lunch 
Saturday and Sunday 12.30pm (Fridays from 11 Oct)
Dinner 
Wednesday to Sunday 6pm
Wednesday to Saturday 8.30pm


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Esquire Drink + Dine, QVB, Sydney

So you've met Reign at the QVB. Esquire is her brother. And you couldn't find two restaurants with greater contrast. Where Reign is light and airy and all things pretty, Esquire is determinedly dark and moody with an aesthetic more geared to practical comfort. It'd be sexist to assume that Reign is marketed to women; Esquire to men. I do know that I take one look at the Esquire menu and feel right at home.



The food menu is listing on a single black page, neatly compartmentalised into bar fare, small plates, larger plates, the grill and sides. The drinks menu is a weightier tome. Unlike the champagne parlour that is Reign, Esquire is all about whisky (there are more than 180 varieties) and wines (about 200).


Seared steak tartare $21

We can't resist ordering the steak tartare, even if we are a little nervous about the preceding "seared" on the menu. Thankfully it's not as cooked as we feared. The hand-cut beef tenderloin is pale pink and soft, a fresh contrast against earthy cubes of roasted beetroot and rich egg yolk. Finely chopped eschallots, cornichons and fresh horseradish add brightness; pommes gaufrettes provide the requisite crunch.


Crumbed sweetbreads $22

Crumbed sweetbreads should appear on more menus. Here, the waiter explains, they use pancreas instead of the usual thymus gland, cooked with expertise so each mouthful offers a yielding lushness protected by golden deep-fried armour. Lemon, cauliflower, smashed hazelnuts and nutty brown butter add roundness and complexity.


Esquire dining room and bar


250g Riverina Angus sirloin steak $43

Protein options include pork jowl schnitzel ($32), blue eye cod ($39) and a whole roast chicken for two ($75 served over two courses as chicken salad and then with potato gratin). We're all about steaks though, ordering three steaks between the four of us.

The steaks are just that. A hunk of seared meat on the plate served with a cheek of lemon and your choice of sauce (bearnaise, red wine, mustards or peppercorn).


350g pasture-fed Pinnacle scotch fillet steak $46

The sirloin steak is good but the scotch fillet is better, a little juicier overall with succulent pockets of delicious fat.


250g Grainge signature MB3+ rump cap steak $44

My rump cap steak, from Grainge Black Angus cattle, isn't as tender as I expect although it has been cooked to more of a medium than medium rare at one end.

If you're in serious need of an iron boost, you can order the 800g T-bone steak for $90.


Glazed carrots with miso, sesame and maple $12

We accompany our steak with carrots (the new cauliflower?), glazed with miso and sweetened to an almost dessert-like intensity with lashings of maple syrup.


Potato puree $10

The little pot of potato puree is decadently good, like a Paris mash you want to savour slowly.


Gruyere de comte jaffle with fries and pickle $20

Bar snacks include the classic wagyu cheeseburger ($26) and jaffles. You can order your favourite after school snack fancied up with ham and aged clothbound cheddar but it's hard to go past the cheesy satisfaction of gruyere and comte. The molten cheese stretches like a long hot summer afternoon.









Esquire Drink + Dine
Queen Victoria Building
Level 2, Shop 1 (Market Street end)
455 George Street, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8023 7609

Opening hours
Monday to Wednesday 12pm-12am
Thursday to Sunday 12pm-2am


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