Henrietta Supper Club

It's like Groundhog Day. Every winter, the temperatures shift down a gear and we all get a big surprise and start calling it ''freeeeezing'', while news presenters report a sudden run on electric heaters.

It was cold last winter, and the year before that, if I recall, yet we live in denial, sustained by unseasonal restaurant menus of tomato and basil salads, raw fish crudo, asparagus and berry smoothies.

So how nice it is to walk up a flight of stairs out of the cold and sit down to a menu of oxtail croquettes, jerusalem artichoke soup and rhubarb and ginger crumble.

Even the cocktails at this new supper club in not-quite-the-Cross Darlinghurst are built on warm-your-cockles elements such as salted caramel syrup, xocolatl mole bitters and house-made falernum, a Caribbean spice syrup.

So-named because Darlo was once known as Henrietta Town in honour of the governor's wife, Elizabeth Henrietta Macquarie, Henrietta Supper Club is a charming spot above Tigerbakers, put together by Simon McGoram and the team from Bondi's Neighbourhood, home of the cheeseburger jaffle.

This is a more grown-up affair, with its parlour dining room, loungey back bar and supper club ambience, complete with wingback chairs, antler chandeliers and Billie Holiday singing As Time Goes By. I can see what they're trying to do, but there's a bit of a disconnect between the you-must-remember-this ambience and the modern English and Irish menu.

In the kitchen is young Irish-born chef Kim Douglas, whose CV stretches from glam steakhouse (Rockpool Bar & Grill) to wholefoods canteen (Bread & Circus). Her dishes play with tried-and-true combinations, such as seared scallops teamed with crisped, firm blood sausage ($21) that are then hit with modern notes, such as a smoked apple butter.

Clean-tasting pickled sardines ($19), done escabeche-style with carrots and onions, get a bit confused sharing the plate with a big mound of terrific pickled beetroot, topped with a poached egg and a quenelle of horseradish cream.

A fairly concise wine list is divided between ''nouveau'' and ''traditionelle'', with a 2013 Shadowfax Minnow from Werribee ($69) falling somewhere between the two.

One of the hardest acts for a small kitchen team to pull off is simply getting the disparate elements of a full order together at their ideal temperatures. They're not there yet, with a hot confit duck Maryland ($32) atop a bed of relatively cold grilled endive, which comes with its own pour-over of orange and star anise jus.

Slow-cooked beef shin ($27), boned, pressed and formed into an urban castle ($27), is more warm that hot, the meat served with a life-saving gravy, turnips and the cutest, crunchiest (and hottest) little pop-cake of a Yorkshire pud. A side-serve of colcannon, buttery mashed potato with shredded kale ($8), could also be hotter.

A prune and sultana suet pudding ($15) is a dome of pleasantly fruity innards held together by an oddly thin, stretchy membrane, topped with nutmeg creme fraiche.

To come down too hard on Henrietta would be like shooting kittens, so let's not. It's a good effort from a young and possibly under-staffed kitchen, and an agreeable place to be, with nice-as-pie staff and well-intentioned, slightly old-fashioned food. If the menu doesn't yet feel fully formed, that's something that can only improve, as Billie Holiday might say, as time goes by.

THE LOW-DOWN
Best bit: Very winter-friendly.
Worst bit: Food runs a bit hot and cold.
Go-to dish: Roast confit duck, prune, grilled endive, $32.

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.