9

Bentley

27 O’Connell St,

Sydney

(02) 8214 0505

thebentley.com.au

Licensed

CardsAE MC V EFT

OpenLunch

Mon-Fri noon-3pm;

dinner Mon-Sat

6pm-10.30pm

PricesEntrées

$24-$40, main

courses $35-$90,

desserts $22

NoiseA happy

buzz

Wheelchair

accessYe s

MinusDoes

it need to be

this tricky?

PlusThe rare

example of

great food and

great wine on

an even footing

AND ALSO...

Details

SANDOS OF TIME

Sydney’s mania for the katsu sando:

social media-fuelled food fad, or a

natural step for a city that loves a

schnitty? Explore the question in

person atSando Bar, a Surry Hills

café dedicated to the worship of

the Japanese fried pork sandwich.

The house special (above) is served

with a slaw of cabbage, apple and

fennel, tonkatsu sauce and lotus-root

chips, but there’s also a curried egg

sando, salads and a grilled chicken

rice bowl for the non-believers.

1/226 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills

QUAN DO

Good examples of banh xeo aren’t

that hard to find in Sydney, but

what about the crisp yellow crêpe’s

lesser-known cousin, the banh

khot? Get your hit of these savoury

pikelets topped with pork, prawn

and split peas atCo Ba Quan. The

new Vietnamese kitchen, set on a

block of Pitt Street better known for

its Korean eats, breaks with the

cookie-cutter style of many a CBD

Vietnamese eatery, offering grilled

scallops, crab noodles and an oyster

gratin alongside its very decent pho.

377 Pitt St, Sydney, (02) 7901 0393

DOCK OF THE BAY

Bentley alumnus Thomas Gorringe

has given the menu atThe Gantry

a shake-up and the results are

pleasing. The food has ambition

(especially for a restaurant in a

hotel) but has more flavour and

less tizz than menus past. Agnolotti

burst with sheep’s milk ricotta,

for example, while the roast

sweetbreads and veal tongue,

teamed with black lentils and salsify,

are perfect for a cold night.11 Hickson

Rd, Walsh Bay, (02) 8298 9910

Sydney review

35

Despite the focus on service and

the unfailingly polite and informed

staff, I wouldn’t call Bentley entirely

customer-focused.The menu isn’t

a dare, but nor is uncomplicated

delight Savage’s goal. He likes

to zig where others zag, to weave

where other chefs might duck.

Under his watch, tomatillo

and a curl of guanciale enjoy a

rare meeting as the contrasts in

an airy one-bite parmesan tart,

while leaves of celtuce – usually

used for its stem – make a pretty

foil for pork neck with miso.

There’s beef on the dégustation,

but it’s chuck-tail flap. It’s a

flavoursome cut, but definitely

a cult B-side of a piece of meat

rather than one of the steak world’s

greatest hits. Pairing it with celeriac

and a matt smear of pickled walnut

sauce, and serving it in wide

swatches that give the diner a great

deal of the rare inside of the meat

and very little of the caramelised

cooked crust isn’t the easy path.

Savage wants the food to taste

great, but he’s not happy with it

justtasting great. I’d love to see

him interrogate that more closely.

I don’t think I’ve seen Savage

go out of his way to make his

Blacklip abalone

with hen-of-the-

woods mushroom

and roast-chicken

mayonnaise.

Above left: olive

oil ice-cream

with caramelised

lactose and

pineapple beer.

Below left: the

mezzanine.

food particularly wine friendly,
either. This makes Bentley a rarity
among restaurants with so great
a commitment to the grape. My
theory is that Nick Hildebrandt
is so fine a sommelier and so
good at what he does that he’d get
bored without the extra challenge.
What’s the natural pairing with
whipped cod roe, pickled onion
and bush tomato? With diced and
sliced Spencer Gulf kingfish spiked
with Cape gooseberries and pink
pepper? With the finger lime that
brightens a rock oyster dolloped
with electric-blue scampi roe? What
about when they all come at once?
Turns out the answer is a
blend of tamjanika and other
white grapes from Serbia, bottled
by Les Bongiraud. But perhaps
that makes Hildebrandt sound
more a contrarian than he really
is. Stunt-casting and chasing trends
aren’t his thing: good wine is.
Pulling bottles from a list that is
deep, wide and full of personality,
he and his team pick the hits time
and time again, pushing what’s
on the plate to another level.
If this is the new establishment,
the future of food in Sydney rests
PHOTOGRAPHY WILL HORNER in bold hands.●

GOURMET TRAVELLER