Books - Eating and Drinking Sydney

Published in 2011 by Hardie Grant Books

Hardie Grant Books (Australia)
Ground Floor, Building One
658 Church Street
Richmond, 3121
www.hardiegrant.com.au

Hardie Grant Books (UK)
Dudley House, North Suite
3435 Southampton Street
London WC2E 7HF
www.hardiegrant.co.uk

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

Copyright 2011 Hardie Grant Books

EISBN: 9781742736754

Cover and Design Manager Heather Menzies
Text design by Susanne Geppert
Edited and project managed by Clare Brundle
Typesetting by Megan Ellis
Typeset in Agenda-Light 7.7/9.8pt

Hello and welcome to Eating and Drinking Sydney, the citys freshest and mostcomprehensive dining and drinking guide.

Now is the perfect time to launch a brand-new guide to Sydneys glittering restaurants, bistros, ethnic eateries, bars and pubs. Never before have the options for dining been so good or so extensive, with fantastic eating and chic drinking to be found across the city at all levels and at all price points.

Its also a time when the industry is in a state of flux as the lines between fine and casual dining are increasingly blurred. These days, some of the citys finest restaurants have opened in shopping centres and casinos, while hot pub bistros are taking on classy French restaurants for the mantle of the citys best eating spots, and cute small bars offer stellar eating and drinking.

With over 700 venues featured in this guide, Eating and Drinking Sydney offers the widest possible selection of choice for where to eat, drink and play in this fabulous foodie city, depending on your tastes and budget. This is not a guide about awards, hats or scores. Rather, its a celebration of great food in all its guises. Its a guide that recognises that many people enjoy eating at an authentic Vietnamese eatery in the outer west as much as they love to splurge on the occasional foray into expensive white-linen fine dining in the CBD.

And with more than forty fresh and original writers, including some of the citys most influential food commentators, contributing to Eating and Drinking Sydney, the guide offers a dynamic perspective on the citys culinary nuggets.

Enjoy and chin chin!

Elizabeth, Helen and Anna

Our team of dedicated reviewers has gobbled and guzzled its way through more than 700 bars, cheap and cheerful eateries and restaurants to bring you this annual guidebook to Sydneys finest. Venues have been carefully selected to represent a cross-section of each of Sydneys distinct locales from the CBD to the Blue Mountains with casual and schmick options in every area.

Unlike other publications, our reviews go beyond a single meal and typical menu coverage to focus on the whole eating or drinking experience, providing the low-down on the atmosphere, service style and type of crowd you can expect to encounter. For us, its not about rankings and star ratings, but showing off the unique, quirky and noteworthy elements that make these venues worth a visit.

On top of this, weve also compiled a number of Top 5 and Top 10 lists, which offer suggestions for specific occasions or experiences.

Our contributors are 100% independent, drinking and dining anonymously and paying their own way. Because we all know that if someone buys you a drink or dinner, they might expect a little something afterwards.

While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy in the latest venues, facts and figures presented, lets not forget that menus, prices, opening times, decor, ownership and even standards are subject to change. Use this book as a guide, but please dont hold any differences in details against us. Hey, if everything stayed the same, why would you need this at all?

Use this guide to search for what youre after in three easy ways: by geography and category, by venue name or by cuisine type.

First, the book is divided into area chapters, and then into the three categories of restaurants, cheap and cheerfuls and bars. However, dont assume that all restaurants are pricey or that you cant find decent food in a bar it might be worth looking at all the reviews in that chapter.

To look for the details of a particular venue or specific type of food, head to the convenient indexes at the back of the book, after the map section, where entries are listed by venue name and by cuisine type.

As you can imagine, the city and surrounding suburbs offer up masses of choice so these areas have been divided into smaller geographies. For example, the city has been broken into three areas: City & Woolloomooloo; Walsh Bay, The Rocks & Circular Quay; and Darling Harbour, Haymarket, Pyrmont & Ultimo. Similarly, the overwhelming options in Sydneys Eastern Suburbs can be found across three chapters: Eastern Suburbs (basically, Oxford Street to New South Head Road); Surry Hills to Bondi Junction & SE (south of Taylor Square, including Redfern, Randwick and Kensington); and Eastern Bays, Southern Beaches & The Shire (including Rushcutters Bay to Rose Bay, Bondi Beach to Maroubra, Cronulla and surrounds).

Each entry follows the same format, providing the basic need to know information first, followed by the review below. Everythings pretty self-explanatory, but price ranges for drinks relate to single units (a schooner or bottle for beers, a glass for wines) and all major cards accepted means that the venue does not accept either AMEX and/or Diners Club as a payment option.

Get your tastebuds ready for these hot new openings and changes still to come in 2011 and early 2012.

At the time of going to press, diners had just welcomed or were eagerly anticipating the opening of a number of new restaurants, in two unlikely locations the Westfield Sydney shopping complex in Pitt Street and Darling Harbours Star City Casino.

The first cab off the rank at Westfield was due to be Alessandro Pavonis Spiedo, an Italian venue specialising in Lombardian cuisine. Due for a mid-year opening, it was expected to be closely followed by the launch, next door, of David Tsirekass Xanthi, a sister Greek restaurant to Perama.

At Star City, David Chang was preparing an offshoot of his New York restaurant Momofuku for a spring launch. The luring of Chang to Australia was part of a major overhaul of the casinos food and drink offerings; also due to open were Teage Ezard, from Melbournes Ezard and Gingerboy; Stefano Manfredi, currently at Bells at Killcare; and the third Sydney incarnation of Chinese restaurant Golden Century. Before all this, Star City welcomed Rock Lily, an atmospheric bar serving up 100-plus different tequilas and hosting big-name live-music acts from home and abroad.

Elsewhere, harbourkitchen&bar was due to reopen late in the year after a seven-month refurbishment of the whole Sydney Park Hyatt waterside complex, and classic French fine diner Claudes was relaunching with a more accessible, Asian-focused menu.

Arias Matt Moran was hoping to breathe new life into Woollahra stalwart, Pruniers, with a bistro menu based on seasonal produce plucked from the propertys kitchen garden and glasshouse. Also in Woollahra, the future of Damien Pignolets Bistro Moncur was uncertain, with the hotel housing the restaurant being up for sale. The bistro was expected to continue trading but changes might be afoot.