Bush, Redfern

Kangaroo curry puffs, all day pikelets and Sydney's best cheeseburger? Bush by chef owner Grant Lawn in Sydney's Redfern has established a strong following since it opened just over a year ago. And in today's tough new Covid world, it's still drawing in (socially-distanced) fans.  

Cheeseburger $15 with chips $6

The Bush cheeseburger is legendary and with one bite you'll know why. The bun is soft but not too doughy nor sweet. The blanket of bright yellow cheese oozes seductively. There's a good hit of tang from the thick sliced pickles and a generous splodge of burger sauce. But it's the beef patty that brings it all together, a reassuringly unevenly shaped patty that's charred and caramelised in all the right places. It hits all the right notes of an American cheeseburger executed oh so very well. 

Is this Sydney's best cheeseburger? It's definitely a front runner. Make sure you get chips too. Here they're old-fashioned crinkle cut chips, fried to a golden ridged crunch.

Nan's sausage roll $7

We're thwarted by last night's diners who ate the last of the kangaroo curry puffs (noooo.... shakes fist) but console ourselves with Nan's sausage roll. What the sausage roll lacks in length, it makes up for in girth, a hefty slice served with tomato sauce on the side.

This is a classic sausage roll made with beef mince, soft and juicy in the middle, encased in flaky pastry. 

Dirty vegetables $14

Dirty vegetables will balance all the fried food, right? Crisp iceberg lettuce and crunchy fresh cucumber slices are dressed with vinaigrette and pistachio smithereens, an assembly that tastes much cleaner that its namesake would suggest. 

Courtyard seating

We're seated inside but there's a cosy looking courtyard out the back too. An Australian bush theme extends throughout, from the Aussie fauna plush toys dotting the dining room to the beautifully raw timber tables, tree stump stools and native floral arrangements. 

 

Pikelets with assorted toppings $14

Fairy bread and butter pudding is one of their signature desserts but we skip this in favour of their all day breakfast pikelets served with a choose-your-own adventure assortment of toppings. 

Pouring salted caramel sauce onto pikelets

The salted caramel sauce is particularly good, its salty sweetness tempered by a caramel pushed to a satisfyingly bitter edge.

Pikelets with toppings

Classic honey with butter is great but the wattle seed cream is even better, topped with a rubble of crushed pistachios. 

Native Australian ingredients pop up throughout the entire menu, including wattle seed damper (sold out when we dined) and desserts that that use lemon myrtle and strawberry gum.

Bush

55 George Street, Redfern, Sydney

Tel: 0403 780 067

Open Tuesday to Saturday

Breakfast 7am-3pm

Lunch 12pm-3pm

Dinner 5pm-10pm

Takeaway is available. Call 0403 780 067 

Dimitri's Pizza, Darlinghurst

So you like your pizzas puffy and blistered with a caramelised char? Me too. At Dimitri's Pizza in Darlinghurst, they churn out brilliantly floppy pizzas made with sourdough bases, finished in an Italian-made woodfired oven.



The best table is by the kitchen, offering a front row view of all the pizza making action. There's something almost sensual about watching a pizzaiolo gently coax the dough into shape, then strew it with toppings before plunging it into the fiery cavern of the woodfired oven (I told you it was sensual).


Marinara pizza $18 with stracciatella +$10
tomato, confit garlic and oregano

The classic marinara is simplicity at its best: a humble tomato sauce with confit garlic and oregano. We upgrade ours with stracciatella, made from torn mozzarella soaked in cream. It adds a milky decadence to this tomato pizza, interspersed with alternating hits of jammy garlic cloves and fresh basil leaves.

The pizza edges are the best bit, brilliantly bubbled around the edges with all the right shades of char. The base is soft and floppy because of its thinness, perfect for folding over while you try and eat this demurely with your fingers (who am I kidding? Just get right in there).


Funguy pizza $23
Mushroom, mozzarella, truffle oil, chilli and basil

The pizza menu is reassuringly short - just eight options to choose from - but owners Ken Williams and Drew Huston aren't tied to the usual toppings. They're not afraid of a few puns either, like the funguy pizza with mushrooms and truffle oil (boom tish).


Cream of korn pizza $23
Wood oven smoked and creamed corn, mozzarella and pickled jalapenos

The cream of korn pizza wins over my tastebuds tonight though, because, CORN. It's a party of juicy sweet corn kernels sliced straight off the cob, made even tastier with stretchy molten mozzarella cheese and the gentle heat of pickled jalapenos.


Bee sting pizza $23
Tomato, sopressa, mozzarella and hot honey

Things get even wilder with the bee sting pizza. That's slices of sopressa - an aged salami - drizzled over with warm honey.


Sopressa salami pizza with mozarella and hot honey

It's not as strange as you think. Pork goes brilliantly with sugar - think roast pork with apple sauce or Chinese char siu barbecue pork. Here it adds a mellow richness to the cured pork.


Smoked eggplant $16
with charred cherry tomatoes, olives and parmigiano 

It's not all pizza either.

The smoked eggplant is terrific, its buttery soft flesh permeated with smoky undertones, sauced up with blistered cherry tomatoes and a cloud of parmigiano cheese.


Cheese and tomato $16
housemade stracciatella and mixed heirloom tomatoes 

We get in on more housemade stacciatella action too, dolloped generously over a medley of mixed heirloom tomatoes. Tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and extra virgin olive oil. Is there a more iconic taste of Italy?

Drinks? There's definitely a focus on boutique beer breweries, including half a dozen beers by Marrickville brewery The Grifter. Happy hour used to run 5pm-7pm but looks to have been shortened to 6pm now. There's a pretty decent selection of wines too, includes orange/skin wines and nine wines available by the glass.





Dimitri's Pizzeria
215 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8068 4247

Opening hours
Wednesday to Saturday 5pm til late


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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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Noi, Petersham

Take one LuMi co-owner, Anastasia Drakopolous, add Veneto-bred chef Alessandro Intini (ex-Aqua Dining) and you have Noi Restaurant plonked in the middle of Little Portugal, Petersham. It's the kind of fancy restaurant you wouldn't expect in Petersham, but one that's likely to accommodate the changing demographic in the inner west: one that likes good food with parking and isn't too far from home.

The seven-course tasting menu is priced at a very reasonable $72 or choose your own adventure with a la carte - entrees range between $18-$21; mains are $26-$31.

It's a reasonable proposition once you factor in the complimentary items. We're immediately presented with amuse bouche of lemon thyme pastry puffs with mayonnaise and mini tacos with salmon and wine jelly. They're incongruously served in a Chinese steamer basket, but functional and cultural inexplicabilites aside, it makes for a welcome and appetite-inducing introduction.


Milk bun, focaccia and bread sticks with extra virgin olive oil and smoked paprika butter

There's a sense of LuMi hospitality too in the presentation of the complimentary bread offering, a trio of options served in an elegant timber box. Quell any hunger pangs with the mini milk bun, a square of crusty focaccia and elongated bread sticks. Smoked paprika butter is dolloped into a wooden pinch pot; extra virgin olive oil is dispensed using a (plastic) pipette. While the novelty value of the pipette is high, my only quibble would be it wasn't quite enough for three people.

Maybe I'm looking for the similarities, but the decor has LuMi vibes too, a sense of understated luxury with its cool tones of dark timber, brass and midnight blue. The napkins are heavy, water is poured into beautiful ceramic cups and industrial lights illuminate exposed brick walls and stripped back floorboards.


Kingfish, young fennel and wild rice $20

The menu reads more like a list of ingredients. You can always ask waitstaff for more details - or look on Instagram (you bet we did). It leads us to lock in the kingfish with young fennel and wild rice. The entree is light and refreshing, delicate slices of firm kingfish contrasted with the acidity of pickled fennel and the nutty crunch of wild rice puffs.


Pig's head terrine with coconut, turmeric and sherry vinegar $18

Pig's head terrine is steadily becoming one of Noi's signature dishes, raved on about across Instagram. The picked morsels of pork are compressed into a neat little log, crowned with a dollop of whipped coconut cream and scattered with toasted coconut flakes. The coconut adds a tropical decadence although it does feel a touch overwhelming - perhaps even dessert-like - against the soft and tender fattiness of the pork.


Risotto, Cloudy Bay clams, asparagus and sour cream $21

We skip the housemade pasta options in favour of risotto. The rice is cooked to a toothsome chewiness, strewn with petite nuggets of de-shelled Cloudy Bay clams and crisp spears of asparagus. It eats better than it looks, fortified with pinstripes of asparagus emulsion and sour cream.


Lamb, hazelnut, kipfler potatoes and buerre noisette $29

Lamb cutlets are cooked to a textbook shade of juicy pink. The fat has been rendered, the skin is crisp and the buerre noisette and toasted hazelnut crumbs add a nutty and textural enhancement.


28-day dry aged black Angus sirloin with spring onion, shallots and juniper $31

The 28-day dry aged black Angus sirloin feels a little chewy by comparison, although I am a fan of the charred and caramelised spring onions and sticky jus.


Hapuka, green papaya, baby cos and ginger $31

For a lighter main, the hapuka delivers on all fronts, a hunk of fish cooked to flake-forking tenderness that we swipe through polka dot dollops of of green and white.


Broccoli, satay sauce and cashew nuts $8

We order a side of vegetables on our waitstaff's suggestion. Roasted broccoli sounds delicious but in hindsight the satay sauce is an odd inclusion, especially as its pervasive creamy spiciness jars against all of our mains. The broccoli is cooked to the point of soggy softness which does make me appreciate the crunch of smashed cashews even more.


Terramisu $14
Miso oil, mascarpone and coffee

Terramisu continues the Asian-Italian pattern, a mash-up that works well here. It's a playful presentation of umami-laden miso soil scattered across mascarpone cream.


Green $14
Matcha creme, pistachio crumble and mint ice cream

Green is a triple combo of matcha, pistachio and mint. Do they work together? I'm not sure. The match and mint don't feel like a natural pairing, even if the pistachio works valiantly between the two.


Spring $14
Yoghurt pannacotta with melon and almonds

The most unassuming dessert ends up being my favourite. Yoghurt pannacotta is impressive in its nuanced subtlety and delicate fragility. There's a distinct echo of honeydew melon in the aerated foam. This is just the kind of dessert to leave you refreshed and content after a long meal.


Chocolate meringue with jam

We linger so long in the dining room (there's only been one other two-top present throughout the entire Sunday lunch service) that we score complimentary petit fours, chocolate meringue shards with jam. A bottle of peach-cello also materialises - it's like limoncello but made with peaches instead of lemon - and everyone is treated to a shot.

In a suburb cloaked with the aroma of charcoal chicken, Noi is not like any of its neighbours. Even seafood restaurant Fich next door looks to do a heavier trade in takeaway than dine-in. Noi means "we" or "us" in Italian. Here's hoping Noi finds its tribe.

Noi Restaurant
108 Audley Street, Petersham, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9337 7377

Opening hours
Lunch Thursday to Sunday 12pm-3pm
Dinner Thursday to Tuesday 5pm-10pm
Closed on Wednesdays


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