The Sydney Morning Herald logo
Advertisement

Foveaux St Dining

Terry Durack
Terry Durack

Love me tender: The lamb rump with peas, pea shoots, baby gem and nori crisps.
Love me tender: The lamb rump with peas, pea shoots, baby gem and nori crisps.James Alcock

14.5/20

Modern Australian$$$

Different chefs respond to changing economics in different ways. Some go and flip burgers. Others shelve the dream of owning their own business and work for someone else. Others, like Foveaux's Darrell Felstead, take a hard look at what's not working, dismantle it, and start again.

So downstairs is a new Deli & Wine bar, with booths and LPs and jamon by the gram, and upstairs is Foveaux St Dining. The stripping-back process also applies to the interior, barely more than sandstock brick walls, naked globe lighting, and uncovered wooden tables. Graphic metal wine cages framing walls and doorways reference monastic cellars – or, perhaps, a licensed prison. Cutlery, glassware and napkins are brought to the table when relevant rather than set in place, in an effort not to be proscriptive.

The menu is just as flexible, with Felstead and head chef Paul Gordon listing dishes embedded in classic modern French but dated-up with clever, low-key, contemporary touches. It's hard to resist a $5 starter/nibble of crisp, tanned little torpedoes of deep-fried okra on a rich almond cream - and no doubt worth another fiver to find out what the cryptic "pork, apple, skin" means in the flesh.

Advertisement
The interior is almost monastic in its simplicity.
The interior is almost monastic in its simplicity.James Alcock

For a first course, crisp-skinned, confit chicken wings come with bug tail ceviche, robata-grilled baby sweetcorn, corn "chowder", and a sprinkling of micro herbs and corn dust ($26). Chicken and corn are old pals, soul mates, in it for the long-term. Do they need the bugtail? It's not that it's incompatible - more your awkward first date; sidelong glances, that sort of thing.

Dedicated offalistas should go for the rich, shreddy terrine of slow-braised pig's head ($22); the meat fashioned into a perfect round and topped with a cute, glossy baby toffee apple that has a remarkable ability to stick to your teeth no matter what. It's pig heaven, blow-torched at the last minute to get the fat moving, with a frill of fermented red cabbage for cut-through.

Main courses keep the drama coming. What looks like an igloo of red rose petals is actually a roof of shaved beetroot tiles, beneath which lurk two fleshy fillets of lightly cooked brook trout, lush little logs of smoked eel and squelchy fermented beetroot ($32). It's a bit of a murder scene after five minutes, but fun.

Angel food cake with strawberries, peppermint jelly and ginger sherbet.
Angel food cake with strawberries, peppermint jelly and ginger sherbet.James Alcock
Advertisement

Ah, but the lamb rump ($34). Seared then roasted and rested and insinuated into an elegant composition of things I imagine lambs would like to eat – fresh peas, pea shoots, baby gem, nori crisps – it's a frolic of sweet, grassy, tender meat.

One of the great pleasures here is to do wine-chat with sommelier, Belinda Mackie, formerly of Sokyo. So many somms know their wines backwards, so few prefer to be helpful rather than show off their knowledge. From a list that divides its favours between France, Spain and Australia, she suggests the 2010 Cervoles Colours Negre ($70), a silky, rich blend of tempranillo, garnacha, cabernet, merlot and syrah (!), that's very supportive of the lamb.

Dessert is an arty concoction of fluffy, egg white-based angel food cake ($15) punked up with strawberries, peppermint jelly and a scoop of ginger sherbet.

The slow-braised pig's head.
The slow-braised pig's head.James Alcock

If anything, Felstead could continue to strip back and hone in; the simpler, single-minded dishes work best over the attractive compositions of fashionable, seasonal ingredients. With its enjoyable space, accommodating staff and sensible prices, there's a lot to like about a newly flexible and more relaxed operations strategy from a proven player. Another good chef saved from flipping burgers.

Advertisement

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system

THE LOW-DOWN
Best bit: Fine dining getting more flexi
Worst bit: Finding the bar's back lane entrance
Go-to dish: Lamb rump, green olive, baby gem lettuce, charred pearl onion, pea, seaweed crisps $34

Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.

Sign up
Terry DurackTerry Durack is the chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and Good Food.

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement