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Pomegranate

Kirsten Lawson

Duo sorbet of orange and passionfruit, and pomegranate and raspberry.
Duo sorbet of orange and passionfruit, and pomegranate and raspberry.Elesa Kurtz

14.5/20

Middle Eastern

The iterations of this space in Kingston, opposite Silo Bakery and in the ground floor of an apartment block, have been many. Artespresso was here, under various chefs and owners, then Danny Tosolini​ did a sultry steel and grey revamp and opened it as the European, which wasn't here long at all before Erkin Esen​ left behind years in the employ of Ottoman Cuisine to branch out on his own in the form of Pomegranate.

Esen did an exceptional job of keeping standards tiptop at Ottoman when he was put in charge of the kitchen while owner Serif Kaya cooked in his Sydney restaurant, and while he was cooking Kaya's menu, his understanding of that menu and handling of food, technique and seasonal specials was impressive. So when he strikes out alone, he's the kind of chef you look out for.

It looks like they've kept Tosolini's fit-out at Pomegranate, and why not? It was new and the look is sleek, sophisticated, smoothly industrial, and yes European. The smallish space is nicely divided into yet more intimate areas, and Esen has given it a Middle Eastern look with the help of a few ornate fittings and decorations. Low light, white tablecloths and tealight candles contribute the right night-out atmosphere.

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Lanterns add a Middle Eastern look to the restaurant. Pictured are owners Erkin and Ziba Esen.
Lanterns add a Middle Eastern look to the restaurant. Pictured are owners Erkin and Ziba Esen.Elesa Kurtz

It's a long time since I've seen wine offers at $9 a glass, let alone an entire page of them, but that's the approach to by-the-glass wine here. It's a relatively extensive offering – a couple of bubblies, four whites and five reds, serviceable and broad ranging in style and country of origin, if perhaps a little uninteresting in the choices. Although at $9, you shouldn't be expecting the highly boutique and deeply fashionable. A bigger range is there by the bottle, with the same eye on price and on a broad and pretty sensible offering. There's a smattering of decent locals that look again to have a view to price: trying to keep things low priced, Ravensworth sangiovese​,  Brindabella Hills and Nick O'Leary rieslings, 2013 Clonakilla Hilltops shiraz, Long Rail gully pinot gris​.

We order both entrees from the specials list tonight – pan fried sardines with rocket and walnut salad and prawns wrapped in eggplant, burned butter chilli and yoghurt sauce. The butterflied sardines have a light crust of, I think, polenta and are served with nuggety walnuts and a vinegary cut-through sauce – just what you need with the richness of sardines, onions and rocket. It's understated, fresh and sophisticated; refined but simple and confident, a good start.

The prawns have the same striking confidence and simplicity. The big prawns are wrapped in thin slices of charred eggplant, an odd pairing, but why not?  There's a lovely heat in a chilli sauce under the prawns and a subtlety in the yoghurt, plus a salsa which might be parsley and appears, we think, on each of our savoury dishes tonight. There's restraint in this dish and we like it also.

Fresh sardines with walnut and rocket salad and balsamic.
Fresh sardines with walnut and rocket salad and balsamic.Elesa Kurtz
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Unable to forget the beautiful way Ottoman handles eggplant, we're straight to the eggplant ($25) on the mains list. Sadly, when it arrives, this feels very much like the token vegetarian dish. It looks good – a hotpot of vegetables inside an eggplant "boat" of potatoes, carrots, beans – but the flavours are boring. It tastes under-salted to us, and certainly under-flavoured. Oh okay, if you are being careful what you eat and wary of the tendency of restaurant food to load up the flavour by adding dairy and fat, you will be happy with this dish. It feels worthy.

The duck ($32) is much better. Two big legs with dark falling-apart meat, with a creamy celeriac sauce, sauteed spinach and a faintly citrusy pomegranate sauce. This is a very bistro-feel dish, simple and relying on the gutsiness of duck meat to carry it – there's not a lot else going on here – but that's the glorious thing about duck legs, you can get away with minimal treatment for maximum flavour.

Desserts are astonishing, clearly a love and a strength of someone in the kitchen. Sorbets appear to be the signature sweet and it's easy to order a dessert that promises "duo sorbet – orange passionfruit and pomegranate" ($12). Both are startlingly coloured and intensely flavoured, the deep red pomegranate tasting also of raspberries and the orange beautifully citrusy. They're with some lovely little homemade marshmallows and equally likeable  honey-tasting wafers. Chocolate mousse cake with chocolate ganache and pomegranate sorbet ($14) also has that gorgeous sorbet and marshmallows. The mousse cake is not wildly rich, nor intensely dark, but holds its own. 

Char-grilled king prawns wrapped in eggplant.
Char-grilled king prawns wrapped in eggplant.Elesa Kurtz

It wasn't easy to get a booking at Pomegranate, given our inability to plan more than a day ahead, and we tried over several weeks before finally securing a place. It's clearly popular and if it retains a focus on the clear, strident Middle Eastern flavours we found in the entrees and a not-too-fancy bistro style, hopefully it will cement that popularity and be here for some time to come.

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