WILDER AT HEART
The celebrated Wild Harvest menu at
Harvest, just south of Byron Bay, is now
available for dinner every night, changing
weekly on Wednesdays. Chef Ally
Waddell (above, left) and forager Peter
Hardwick (above, right) build the menu
around foraged and feral ingredients,
whether it’s the finger lime and seaweeds
that elevate cobia ceviche or the pickled
plantains and pandanus vinegar that
frame sardines on a rye cracker.
18-22 Old Pacific Hwy, NewrybarCENTRAL BUSINESS DELI
Martinis in tins. The finest Gilda tapas
in the state. Killer cold cuts and canned
fish. An outstanding hot sauce. Just
about everything you like about
the original Newtown branch of the
Continental Deliis present in its new
CBD spin-off down the Hyde Park end
of Phillip Street, only augmented with
a (much) larger wine list, and an enriched
(and rather pricey) sandwich menu. Check
out the grilled broccolini, peppers, semi-
dried tomato and mozzarella (yes, that's
a sandwich) for $18 or go all-out with
the French dip, listed for a cool $26.
167 Phillip St, SydneySAINTS ALIVE
Chippendale keeps on keeping on, with
new venues popping up left and right,
but few more central thanSaint George,
an all-day eatery from former Bécasse
chef James Metcalfe just a few doors
down from Railway Square. If the likes
of the omelette Arnold Bennett served
at breakfast, all cheese sauce and
haddock, is any guide, the kitchen is
not shy of flavour.822 George St, SydneyAND ALSO...
DetailsSáng by Mabasa
98 Fitzroy St, Surry
Hills, (02) 9331 5175,
sangbymabasa.com.au
Licensed and BYO
CardsAE MC V EFT
OpenLunch Tue-Sun
11.30am-3pm; dinner
Tue-Sat 5.30pm-10pm,
Sun 5.30pm-9pm
PricesEntrées $11-$18,
main courses $18-$34,
desserts $12-$15
VegetarianSix entrées,
two main courses
NoiseNot bad
Wheelchair accessNo
MinusFitzroy Street
Plus“Taste of hand”by a counter lined with
jars of house-made pickles.
The other half of the room
is taken up by a bare few
refectory-style tables. It’s the
little things – the more, shall
we say, easily stolen touches
- such as the ceramics made
for the Korean booze, and
the brass vases, as well as the
pleasing lines of the copper
light fittings, that create an
atmosphere of quiet chic.
There’s plenty here that
you just don’t see in other
Korean restaurants in Sydney.
For every bulgogi, bibimbap
and piece of fried chicken
on the menu, there’s a plate
of braised pig’s feet, or
steamed clams served with soybean paste.
Moon-eo sook-hwe translates at Sáng to a
cool, invigorating salad of slices of octopus
tossed with red radish, coriander and a
healthy helping of hot chilli. And when
was the last time you saw mackerel pike on
a menu? Sáng serves the long, thin fish
grilled with charred spring onion, rice
and pickles for $15 at lunch.
The classic kimchi pancake is made
creamy and splendid, but then so too
is the lesser-seen jeok of Napa cabbage,
battered on the one side and fried. I’m
yet to try the potato pancake, but it’s only
a matter of time. See also the gu jeol pan,
“a wrap platter of nine delicacies”. It’s a
good idea to come hungry.
Sáng’s poached pear dessert is
a pretty, restrained little thing, the
crescents of nashi studded
with three pink peppercorns,
the poaching liquor garnished
with three pine nuts. The
cakey fried honey biscuits
called yakgwa seem positively
giddy by contrast, set on
dollops of black sesame cream.
Co-owners Kenny Yong
Soo Son, his partner Youmee Jeon and his
parents, chefs Jin Sun Son and Seung Kee
Son, say that their mission is to present
a contemporary setting for authentic
flavours. In Sáng they’ve created a place
that undersells and over-delivers in all the
right ways, a dream of a hole-in-the-wall
eatery that repays repeat visits and expands
the definition of what Korean dining in
Sydney can be, even as it keeps things
real as an everyday neighbourhood eatery.
It turns out those highly covetable objects
scattered around the restaurant were
made by none other thanKenny himself,
who designs under the Studio Kyss
brand, so it might be an idea to resist
any lingering urge to pocket them. Stay
those light fingers, and fill yourbelly
and your heart instead.●The open kitchen. Right: janchi
guksu – noodles, egg and
vegetables (left) and baechu
jeok made with Napa cabbage,
(right) with seasonal sides and
pickles; doraji tea made
with bellflower roots and
ginger, and poached nashi.GOURMET TRAVELLER 45Sydney review