Thirsty Bird Southern fried chicken, Potts Point

First there was Mr Crackles. Now we have Thirsty Bird. The folks behind Mr Crackles have expanded to a second outlet, moving their attention from (predominantly) pork to chicken. It's no surprise that their obsession with crunch - have you had their incredible crackling roast pork rolls? - has translated to poultry's version of crack: Southern fried chicken.


Thirsty Bird at Potts Point

Thirsty Bird quietly opened five weeks ago in Potts Point, down at the station end of Bayswater Road. Word is they'd searched for a site in the city for a year with no luck until this one became available. It's a prime location for what they do, offering a hearty but tasty meal to the hordes of foot traffic, especially late at night - they're open until 3am on Friday and Saturday evenings.


Thirsty Bird menu

The short but sweet menu is all about the chicken. Get it fried on the bone Southern-style or go for the Buffalo wings drenched in hot sauce or BBQ sauce. Four burgers alternate between grilled, crumbed or fried chicken fillings.

Order and pay at the counter and hover on the footpath until you hear your number called. The shopfront is even smaller than Mr Crackles with only five stools available to perch on inside. We're not sure if they're planning on replacing their stools but currently they're at an uncomfortably low height for the table, making you feel like you're a four year old in need of a high chair.


8 pieces Southern fried chicken with ranch and roast chilli sauces $25

Wait times for food can vary, but it does mean your fried chicken order is guaranteed fresh from the fryer. The 8-piece box is impressive value at $25, especially when it includes two tubs of sauce and a handful of pickles.


Southern fried chicken batter

The batter isn't as thick and heavy as other joints, but the chicken itself is succulent and juicy. It reminds me of homemade fried chicken, not over-the-top crunchy but its thinner batter means you can keep on ploughing through.


Katsu burger $10

The katsu burger is a surprise hit, a flattened chicken thigh fillet coated in crumbs and deep-fried. The fillet is super tender, sandwiched by a super soft torpedo roll. Shredded cabbage counters the richness of the chicken, and squiggles of mayonnaise and fruity tonkatsu sauce add sufficient lubrication.


Mash, gravy and chicken crackle $5

We skip the waffle fries and choose the mash and gravy instead, lured mostly by the promise of chicken crackle. It's a shame the curls of chicken crackling get soggy so quickly, but otherwise it's practically a meal in a tub. Smooth and buttery mashed potato is drenched in a lake of chicken gravy.


Mac 'n' cheese with bacon $5

We finish up with a side of mac 'n' cheese, the cheesy pasta mixed in with occasional shards of crispy bacon. It's a perfect Southern accompaniment. All we need now is a couple of cornbread muffins and some corn cobs and we'll be set.






Thirsty Bird
Shop 3, 2-14 Bayswater Road, Potts Point, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8937 4672

Opening hours: 
Tuesday to Thursday 5.30pm-11pm 
Friday and Saturday 5.30pm-3am
Sunday 5.30pm-11pm


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Good Times Artisan Ice Cream, Potts Point

Everything's better with bacon. That includes ice cream. At Good Times Artisan Ice Cream, a massive bacon shard is the crowning glory on the Smashing Pumpkin, a why-didn't-anyone-else-think-of-that-first combo of salted caramel ice cream with pumpkin, peanut praline and caramel popcorn.

Good Times couldn't have opened at a better time, providing cool and creative salvation to Sydneysiders sweltering in a week-long heatwave. It's like the giant neon ice cream sign has become a homing beacon for sweet tooths. The spill of people across the footpath is hard to miss.


Soft serves and ice cream sandwich menu

Good Times is the childhood dream come true for Nathan Sasi (ex-Nomad head chef) and his wife Sali, keen to evoke that childlike excitement whenever the ice cream truck came trundling through. For their first week of trade, they're collaborating with dessert legend Christine Manfield resulting in a remarkably sophisticated menu of soft serves and ice cream sandwiches.

Everything - from the ice cream to the cones to the individual toppings - is made inhouse. That's worth remembering when you fork out $10 for each item and finish it within sixty seconds.


Stoned Pony $10
Chocolate and salted caramel ice cream, chocolate pearls, chocolate nougat crumble, chocolate shortbread

The decor, cheeky ice cream names and quirky flavour combos are reminiscent of Big Gay Ice Cream in New York, an influence that Sasi concedes as "one of his main inspirations".

The shopfront is ridiculously small, with a narrow doorway dumping you directly at the front counter. Military persistence by staff ensure that customers are escorted out the shop to wait for their order after payment. The system works though, and our ice creams arrive relatively quickly.

Our Stoned Pony has a messier "rim job" (their description) of chocolate pearls than the one promised on their Instagram, but this is a terrific ice cream sandwich nonetheless. It's the chocolate shortbread biscuit that I appreciate most, sturdy enough to withstand the ice cream without going soggy, but thin enough to bite through without any problems. The shortbread has a deep chocolatey richness to it too, the ideal foundation for its chocolate and salted caramel ice cream filling.


Ziggy Stardust $10
Strawberry ice cream, blackberry crispies, pop rocks, strawberry powder, gold dust stars

The Ziggy Stardust is pretty as a picture, swirls of smooth and silky strawberry soft serve topped with a white chocolate star dusted with gold. Freeze-dried blackberries and strawberry powder provide zing and a dusting of pop rocks snap and crackle on your tongue.


Smashing Pumpkin $10
Salted caramel ice cream, candied pumpkin chunks, salted peanut praline, candied bacon wafers, caramel popcorn

The Smashing Pumpkin is my favourite of our choices tonight. There's a little bit of everything in there, marrying textures with saltiness and sweet. The candied pumpkin is soft and sticky and that bacon shard doubles as a spoon.

Good Times by all.






Good Times Artisan Ice Cream
87B Macleay Street, Potts Point, Sydney
Tel: 0450 077 290

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Saturday 6pm-10.30pm or until sold out


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Ghostboy Cantina, Dixon House Food Court, Chinatown, Sydney (CLOSED)

EDIT: Ghostboy Cantina has closed

The beef taco at Ghostboy Cantina has some people convinced they're eating a handheld pho, a tumble of beef brisket, onion, Thai basil and crunchy bean sprouts. Ghostboy Cantina would have to be one the city's quirkiest new openings, a surprise pop-up deep in the bowels of one of Chinatown's lesser known food courts. Toby Wilson (ex-owner and ex-head barista at The Wedge Espresso in Glebe) switched from coffee to Mexican, promising "tacos no authenticos" and a sense of humour - the oft used "gweilo" by Cantonese to describe foreigners translates roughly to "ghostman" or "ghostboy".


Ghostboy Cantina at Dixon House Food Court

Dixon House Food Court has always been one of my favourite places to eat. Its basement location, closely packed stalls and tables, harsh lighting and dated decor are the closest thing you'll find in Sydney that resembles the hawker markets in South East Asia.

Ghostboy Cantina is the weird kid in the all-Asian neighbourhood, a commonality of stalls that trumpet rice and noodles with 30 different options promoted with backlit photos. Instead of trying to fit in, Ghostboy Cantina does the opposite, bucking the photo trend and offering a minimalist menu on a lightbox backdrop.


Toby Wilson in the kitchen

The corner stall opposite the bar used to be a Vietnamese place then Korean. The woks in the back of the kitchen are eerily still but Wilson makes high use of the grill and deep fryer.


Peking duck pancake tortillas on the grill

Wilson's Asian-style taco is underpinned by the vessel itself - the tortilla. Most people don't realise he uses Peking duck pancakes, toasting them lightly on the grill and then sandwiching them together for reinforced stability.


Adding parsley to the cauliflower taco

The assembly line is quietly efficient, an organised mise en place enabling tacos to be pumped out with speed.


Asian tacos, corn and fries

The tacos are served on Asian melamine plates, all jostled together on a standard issue black tray.


Beef taco $6

The beef taco yields a saucy jumble of brisket, Thai basil, bean sprouts and raw diced onion dotted with salsa verde and salsa roja. A squeeze of fresh lime makes all the difference, and the Peking duck pancake, blistered with brown patches from the grill, is thin enough so the wrapper doesn't overwhelm the filling.


Adding salsa verde to beef tacos

Pork taco $6.50

It's the addition of sweet yellow peaches that really make the pork taco, the meat marinated in an East meets West mash-up of five spice and chipotle.


Cauliflower taco $5

But my surprise favourite is the cauliflower taco, florets singed a deep golden brown that come through with an intense and satisfying nuttiness. It's vegans ahoy with this one too, sauced up with a macadamia cashew cream and sprinkled generously with chopped coriander.


Fries $4

A cardboard carton of fries gets an umami boost from seaweed seasoning.


Salad $6.50

The salad offers a virtuous counterbalance to the fries, a mountain of shredded green papaya and carrot with Thai basil leaves, coriander and fried shallots. Our only quibble is we find the dressing a little bland on this one, tasting like weak lemon juice and not much else.


Seasoning the corn


Corn $5

But really, who wants salad when you can have buttered corn? There's a generous smear of butter on this whole ear of corn, dusted with seaweed and garnished with fresh coriander.

With tacos at about $6 a pop you could easily rack up a $30 food court lunch, but there's a sense of fun and originality about the place that's worth a look-see. I'm looking forward to seeing what else comes through on the menu - I'm personally hanging out for tongue tacos. 

Head over before Ghostboy fades to black.

  






Ghostboy Cantina CLOSED
Shop B08 Dixon House Food Court
Basement level, 413-415 Sussex Street, Haymarket, Chinatown, Sydney

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Sunday 12pm-9pm or until sold out

Butter, Surry Hills - Fried chicken, sneakers and champagne

Let's make one thing clear. Butter is not for the fainthearted. Sydney's first fried chicken and sneaker store is unapologetic about calories, music and photos of lascivious young women posing with food. But you know what? The fried chicken is amazing, fat pieces of juicy flesh covered in a rubbled armour of golden crunch. Who cares if you lose an artery or two over dinner? Priorities.


Sneakers in the display window

You'll probably hear Butter before you see it, the throbbing base of its hip hop soundtrack sounding more like a nightclub than an eatery. And then there's the wall of kicks in the front window. Word is they'll be setting up their online store soon, but for now you can only recreate Audrey's Breakfast at Tiffany's scene, swapping a croissant for fried chicken.


Pabst Blue Ribbon $8 
Butter as F@#k slushie $12

The dining area is bigger than you first expect, a total of 42 high stools clustered around long benches, along the counter and tucked around smaller tables along the wall down the back. The butter logo in neon blue is hard to miss in the dim surroundings. The vibe is reminiscent of Eddie Huang's Bao Haus in New York - the only thing missing is a wall of graffiti.

Place your order at the bar. The impressive drinks list includes a handful of wines as well as an international roll call of beers (Mexican Tecate, American Pabst Blue Ribbon, Japanese Sapporo, Korean Hite, Kiwi Yeastie Boys Bunnamatta and local brewers Young Henry's and Batch Brewing. Half of the drinks menu is devoted to bubbles and champagne, everything from a Chandon Brut Rose from the Yarra Valley at $11 a glass to a bottle of MV Krug Grande Cuvee at $450 for maximum baller level.

There are usually three slushies on the go too - two alcoholic and one alcohol-free. The Butter as F@#k is a pink grapefruit and butter combo that is bewildering and refreshing, its echo of butter menthol lollies continuing long after you've finished drinking.

Butter isn't just a slick name for the business, we soon find out. It pops up as an ingredient everywhere.


3pac - 1 thigh, 2 tenders naked and a side of slaw $16
Extra thigh with hot AF sauce $4

There are three main staples on the menu: the chicken sandwich, the 3pac and fried tofu nuggets (all your vegetarian friends can join in the fun!). The 3pac yields one thigh and two tenders with a side of slaw. We throw in another thigh for $4 because I want the hot AF sauce, served on the side which turns out to be a godsend. That sauce is crazy hot, the kinda peppery insanity that tickles the back of your throat and infiltrates every crevice in your mouth. I dip the chicken in cautiously, take a bite and feel my pupils dilating as I start to sweat.

If you prefer to keep your tastebuds functioning throughout your meal, you can elect for lesser grades of hot, OG and naked (complete wimp out). They also do sauces $2 each. The smoked aioli feels a little OTT dipping fried into garlic mayo, but the buttermilk ranch is my favourite, especially if you combine it 50/50 with the hot AF sauce. Perfect.


Rubbly batter

But seriously. That chicken. It's an impressive feat, the batter providing a relentless rat-a-tat-tat of crunch. Chicken fillets make for easier eating, and yet there's still that succulency without the support of bone to keep in the juices. That's where the buttermilk comes in, soaked so the chicken maintains maximum moisture.


The chicken sandwich $16
with pickles, dashi butter and a side of slaw

The chicken sandwich looks innocuous enough, but take one bite and prepare for the river of dashi butter flooding your mouth. It's a scientific feat as to how they managed to drench such a soft milk bun with so much butter.

Just like the 3pac, you score a side of coleslaw smothered in mayo. Don't expect any relief on your arteries. The onslaught is hard and fast.


#sojuicy

Don't believe me on the juiciness of the chicken? Here's the proof.


Miso corny $4
Corn on the cob with miso butter

We skip the shoe string fries ($5) and go with the corn. You know what it came with. Butter. Every nook and cranny of this cob is slathered in miso butter. It's a marvel that the stuff hasn't melted and dripped onto the plate.

Head chef Julian Cincotta (ex-Nomad, ex-Rockpool and winner of the 2015 Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year) laughs when we ask him. "It's all about the temperature of the corn when you butter it", he says with a knowing nod. He's right. The corn isn't hot but warm, and the miso butter - faintly salty but not overly strong in miso flavour - is the same temperature as well.


Size 13s $60
4 thigh pieces, 9 tenders, 2 sides of pickles, 2 sides of slaw and 3 sauces

For the true baller experience, you need to order the size 13s, a party pack of 13 pieces of chicken with pickles, slaw and sauces all packed up in a... wait for it... size 13 shoe box. The attention to detail with the shoe box label on the side is commendable. They also use the boxes for takeaway orders.


Peanut butter soft serve with Milo crack rock $6

The soft serve machine will run through different flavours each week. Tonight it's a creamy and smooth peanut butter with Milo crack rock sprinkled across the top. On other rotations expect salted caramel, strawberry and, you guessed it, butter.






Butter
6 Hunt Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8283 1329 (no bookings)

Opening hours:
Monday to Thursday 11.30am-10pm
Friday to Saturday 11.30am-11.30pm


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Casoni, Darlinghurst

Every neighbourhood needs a local Italian joint. In Darlinghurst, they come with Negronis and Aperol Spritzes on tap. The former Foley Lane tapas bar shapeshifted into an Italian bar and restaurant over a year ago. It still has the same owners (Julian Marchetto and Nathan Moses). You'll find the same furniture (bar stools at high tables). But in the kitchen there's a new chef (Lachlan Robinson, ex-Pendolino).


Aperol spritz $14
Aperol, prosecco and soda

Aperol spritz on tap means these arrive at your table dangerously quickly. The bittersweet zestiness of Aperol, prosecco and soda is just what you need to unwind after work, the dying rays of sunshine illuminating the Italian sunset in your glass. Bonus: if you dine early on a weeknight, the Aperol Spritzes are only $9 before 6.30pm.


Salumi, prosciutto, green olives and chicken liver parfait board $24

You can order olives, salumi and chicken liver parfait separately or get all all three on a board to share. It's an easy way to slip into dinner mode, nibbling on an olive here and a thick slice of salami there.


Prosciutto

A paper-thin slice of prosciutto is deliciously soft and fatty.


Chicken liver parfait on crostini with onion jam in the copper pot behind

And the chicken liver parfait is impressively smooth, smeared generously on toasted crostini.


Mozzarella, ox heart tomato, crostini, basil, balsamic $19

By the time the clock hits 7.30pm on a Wednesday, the place is reassuringly full. It's a merry mix of locals, couples and groups of friends.

The menu is short and sweet, with only eight dishes in total. Aside from two pastas and two mains (spatchcock and swordfish), the rest are smaller sized dishes including beef carpaccio, octopus with potato, cabbage with mint and burrata, ox heart tomato and basil on crostini.

Our waitress lets us know they've run out of burrata but we order it anyway. The burrata has been substituted with mozzarella, its gentle milkiness marrying well with the ox heart tomatoes - a touch over-ripe and soggy today - but the sweet acidity of balsamic pulls everything together.


Swordfish, cos, spring onion, olives $27

The swordfish is a surprise highlight, a large steak-sized portion cooked so the flesh has only just started to flake apart. Crushed green olives across the top add a briny saltiness, roasted spring onion bulbs and fresh cos leaves provide further shades of green.


Pasta of the week: tagliatelle with duck ragu and Swiss brown mushrooms $27

The pasta is made inhouse. Each week a new special is chalked on the blackboard. This week it's tagliatelle with duck ragu and Swiss brown mushrooms. Roughly torn shreds of slow-cooked duck are tossed through the gently chewy strips of tagliatelle, but the real flavour bombs are in the Swiss browns with their deeply earthy notes.


Pumpkin ravioli, pistachios, burnt butter, sage $23

But whatever you do, don't miss their signature dish: pumpkin ravioli. Seven plump ravioli rounds hold a pocket of sweet pumpkin puree, bathed in a lake of burnt butter. There's a terrific textural element from the fried sage leaves, pumpkin crisps and pistachio too.

While we notice plenty of other diners ordering this to themselves, we find it sufficiently rich to share between three. This could have had something to do with us drinking every last drop of burnt butter, but that extreme nuttiness is just too good to waste.

Gather a small group of friends and order several dishes to share or order the $55 set menu for the kitchen's favourites.






Casoni
371-373 Bourke Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney
(corner of Foley Street and Bourke Street)
No telephone. Book by emailing casoni@casoni.com.au

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Thursday 5pm-11pm
Friday to Saturday 12 noon-12 midnight


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