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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Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo

Fun. Clever. Honest. Three words that aptly describe the revamped food menu at The Old Fitzroy Hotel, now in the hands of owners Jaimie Wirth, Joel Amos and Mike Delany as of February this year. Newly installed head chef Nic Hill has some serious pedigree, with stints at Sepia, Quay and Michelin-starred London restaurant, the Ledbury. You can tell. This is cheeky British gastro pub fare executed with flair. For cheap.


Beers on tap 

The front room of this local's favourite remains the same, dimly lit with dense carpet underfoot. An impressive range of beers on tap runs from Victoria Bitter to local brews. The Mr T blueberry ale by Alexandria-based brewery Yulli's Brews is a deliciously crisp way to ease into lunch. Or dinner.

The best area for dining would be the sunlit bistro area behind the bar, not immediately obvious until you walk past the kitchen. It's also where you'll find the cellar shortcut into the Old Fitzroy Theatre next door. Be warned this is a popular venue for theatre patrons, with a loud bell ringing staff member providing a ten minute warning before a performance commences.

Upstairs they've just completed renovations, although the small round tables would be more suited to drinking than eating.


Scotch egg $8

The menu riffs off British comfort food, pub grub classics like schnitzels, rissoles, and fish and chips with mushy peas. The scotch egg is up there as one of the greatest under-appreciated deep fried snacks.


Expertly runny egg yolk 

An egg encased in sausage mince, crumbed and deep fried doesn't sound like much. That is until you've had a good one. Here it's a revelation, a runny lake of egg yolk hidden within, like an adult version of a Kinder surprise. It's hard not to feel like a little kid again, marvelling in the rich egg yolk and juicy sausage mince against the delicate crunch of its golden fried breadcrumb shell.


Pork pie tart with Queens mustard $16

The humble pork pie is lifted too, converted to a tart form (versus the usual encased pastry pie) and topped with a layer of glistening Branston Pickle jelly. The jelly and accompanying disc of Queens mustard are just what you need to cut through the rich and fatty cold pork pie. The piece de resistance is the pastry, satisfyingly lardy and short.


Tripe and chicken nuggets $8

We're quick to order the tripe and chicken nuggets off the regularly updated specials menu. Offal is treated like a beloved friend here.


Tripe and chicken inside the nuggets

The nuggets aren't as tripe-driven as I expect - more of a croquette than a crumbed fillet - but there's still much to like about the saucy huddle of tripe and chicken chunks within. There's much more finesse here than most would associate with a typical nugget, but I love that Hill is doing his darnedest to bring tripe to the masses.


Raw beef on dripping toast $14

On the other hand, beef tartare is served without euphemism, described simply as "raw beef on dripping toast'. The hand-cut beef has a pleasing acidity from capers and cornichons, served on a thick slab of toasted sourdough that almost squelches with dripping. Yum.


Chicken and lardo terrine with tarragon mustard and toast $16

The kitchen sends out a bonus serve of chicken and lardo terrine. We've been discreet but maybe they've spotted our cameras. It's a meaty serve of compressed chicken chunks, covered in a pepper-dusted blanket of lardo. We scoff this on more toasted sourdough, served in the cutest toast rack for two.


Rissole sandwich with beetroot, cheddar and fries $17

The humble rissole scores an upgrade too, slapped between toast with beetroot, lettuce and melted cheddar cheese like a cross between a burger and a steak sanger.


Rissole, beetroot and cheddar sandwich

The beef rissole is a juicy concoction, and one that feels right at home alongside a mountain of fries. It doesn't escape me either that the bread has come from a tank loaf too. Pub grub perfection.


Pigs head, grilled onion and cheddar pie $22

Pies appear to be a rotating menu special, filled with everything from mackerel (fish head poking out at one end; tail at the other) to chicken (you bet he had a pair of chicken feet sticking out). On the day we dine it's all about the pigs head.


Pigs head inside the pie

There's no pigs ear adornment (shame) but a charred onion half provides a smoky, almost jammy treat. Beneath the pillowy layers of flaky puff pastry we unearth a treasure trove of fatty pork pieces. It's a surprisingly rich dish, bolstered even more so with the inclusion of cheddar.


Hot chip butty $10
with curried egg $4 and beef dripping gravy $4

But if there's one dish you need to order off the menu it's the hot chip butty. Long appreciated by drunken revellers stumbling home, the hot chip sandwich offers carb-on-carb salvation for a couple of quid.

Hill lets you build your own for ten bucks - either lay them neatly like a quasi-qualified bricklayer or just pile them in willy nilly. But first you'll need to butter the soft white bread generously, and lo, we applaud the room temperature butter that makes slathering so wondrously easy.


Adding the curried egg to our chip butty

It's worth adding upgrades of curried egg or beef dripping gravy. Why not have both? We do. Add vinegar or HP sauce as you please.

Chip butty glory

Behold. Our chip butty masterpiece. Try getting your gob around this without dislocating your jaw.

The chips themselves are stupendous. Fat. Chunky. Fried to a decent longevity-holding crisp. The jug of dripping gravy clogs your arteries in all the right places. You'll probably want to share this between two people, maybe three if you don't have a defibrillator handy.

Better yet, bring a bunch of mates so you can share as much of the menu as possible. Go now. And keep going. This one's a beauty.






The Old Fitzroy Hotel
129 Dowling Street, Woolloomooloo, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9356 3848

Kitchen hours
Monday and Tuesday 6pm-9.30pm
Wednesday to Saturday 12pm-2.30pm; 6pm-9.30pm
Sunday 12pm-9pm


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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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Reign at the QVB, Sydney

Remember the ABC shop in the QVB? It's now Reign, a glam and gleaming champagne parlour (yes, a parlour, darling) decked out in Insta-friendly tones of gold, dusty pink and marble. You would never know that the bar was once a display area for Dr Who, Bananas in Pyjamas and Wiggles DVDs.



The Reign concept provides cocktails, wines and nibbles in a luxe and decidedly feminine setting. The emphasis on walk-ins (reservations are only available for groups of five or more) seems like a clever way to easily accommodate city shoppers. Its late night trading hours (until 2am Thursday to Sunday) are worth remembering.


Champagne Districts tasting flight $75
NV Pierre Gimonnet Blanc de Blancs Cuvee Cuis, NV Nathalie Falmet Brut Cuvee,
NV Laurent-Perrier La Cuvee Brut, NV GH Mumm Grand Cordon Brut Cuvee

Bubbles include sparkling wines and champagnes by the glass. Otherwise you can go all out with a tasting flight that includes thorough tasting notes ($55 for sparkling, $75 for champagne).

The food menu varies depending on whether you're dining at brunch, lunch or supper. A dedicated nibbles menu - which includes an eclectic mix of meatball sliders, wagyu beef dumplings and an okonomiyaki burger - applies at all other times.


Bacon and egg roll, kipfler potato, scarmoza, watercress pesto and bbq sauce $21

We dine at brunch, when offerings are as light as bircher museli or as heavy as pork fried rice with king brown mushrooms. The bacon and egg roll at $21 seems a tad steep at first, but the huge hunks of deep fried kipfler potato add a heavy hit of carb-loading satisfaction.


Smoked salmon, creme fraiche, salmon roe and pikelets $24

Far more dainty is the smoked salmon with pikelets. There's been some obvious effort with plating but it feels somewhat forced, especially with the salmon rolls that are tightly compressed and a touch too chilled making it difficult to appreciate its flavour. We could do with a lot more creme fraiche too, but otherwise enjoy making little salmon and pikelet sandwiches. The table is divided over the relevance of lemon jam with this dish - I end up using this on my crumpets instead.


House crumpets, cultured butter and preserves $12

I'd only expected two crumpets for $12, so am pleasantly surprised when three arrive. They're thick and soft although a little on the stodgy side of spongy. Accompaniments include butter and raspberry which doesn't help when I immediately get a craving for honey and butter instead. Surely every crumpet desires to be drowned in honey? It's like Vita Wheat needing Vegemite. Pavlov effect indeed.

The food offerings may be a little patchy but I expect that won't deter its target audience. And there's much to be said for a spacious bar with comfortable seating and great views in the Sydney CBD.






Reign at the QVB
Queen Victoria Building 
Level 1, Shop 48 (Druitt Street end)
55 George Street, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8023 7608

Opening hours
Monday to Wednesday 11am-12am
Thursday to Friday 11am-2am
Saturday to Sunday 10am-2am


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Esquire Drink + Dine at the QVB, Sydney