Bistrot Gavroche opens in Chippendale

Chippendale's Kensington Street is quickly becoming Sydney's food equivalent of a diplomatic quarter.

Chef Frederic Colin, a Frenchman via Singapore, opened Bistrot Gavroche later this week opposite British celebrity chef Jason Atherton's newly arrived Kensington Street Social, on a strip being transformed by Asian hotel and restaurant developers.

Colin told Good Food in July last year that he was lured to Australia by one of his customers, businessman Dr Stanley Quek.

And while the Frenchman has transplanted about 70 per cent of the menu from Brasserie Gavroche in Singapore, he's had to adapt to the local produce. His signature fish quenelle with crayfish sauce has been tweaked "because the crayfish you get here are so different from the European ones we get in Singapore".

He's filled the historic Sydney building with furniture from France, and has done his homework on his local French competition. And the verdict? "Felix [on Ash Street in Sydney], along with Balthazar in New York, are two world-class brasseries outside of France. It's the whole package really, and the Felix wine list is amazing," he says.