Just Open: Barrio burger pop-up, Kings Cross

• Just Open: Fei Jai Next Door

Darlinghurst's Barrio Chino has become a new venue - and it now comes with awesome sauce (literally). What was once a night-time taqueria has been revamped into a burger pop-up called Barrio. Its lunch-friendly trading hours allow co-owner Peter Lew to combat the drop in business that Barrio Chino suffered due to the lockout laws.

"There are definitely new faces now that we have opened in the day for the first time," he says of Barrio, which started two weeks ago.

Given the site's past, it was destined to attract burger addicts.

In 2012, the original Barrio Chino hosted an immensely popular In-N-Out burger pop-up, and Barrio Chino recently took part in a collaboration with Pub Life Kitchen at Deus Ex Machina that was all about buns, patties and fries. Lew's other businesses, such as Barrio Cellar in the CBD and Fei Jai in Potts Point, have burger-compatible elements, too.

"After the Deus x Barrio x Pub Life pop-up, we really started getting back into the cheeseburger, so we have been doing a variety of versions with the special sauces and the special buns and the specific ground meat," says Lew.

He's taken some of the chefs from the pop-up with him to Barrio's new incarnation and the menu also imports dishes from Lew's other businesses, too: the Sweet Bacon Blues ($14) and cheese-filled mushroom burger ($12) are from Barrio Cellar; the Barrio burger ($12) is a holdover from the Barrio Chino days and, "to even the playing field, we brought our fried chicken recipe from Fei Jai and created our Fatboy burger", says Lew. The rest are new creations.

These aren't straight-up burgers you'll see on any menu, either. The "killer weapon" in the Sweet Bacon Blues, for instance, "is a combo of dulce de leche - which brings the sweetness ketchup normally would - but then the blue cheese mayo evens out the sweetness by bringing a mild creamy blue cheese flavour," says the proprieter. "Our Barrio burger with our chimichurri mayo and chipotle mustard is such an awesome combo matched with pickled jalapenos."

Of course, fries are a big deal at any burger joint. Here, the Barrio fries ($6) are a triple hit of potato gems, sweet potato chips and curly fries; while the Awesome fries ($8) are shoestrings served with grated cheese and "awesome sauce" - the mayo-based special sauce you'll find in the cheeseburger.

If you miss Barrio Chino's old menu, don't worry - the tacos, quesadillas and barbecue corn and margaritas are still available.

"Our burger pop-up looks as though it's remaining until the end of June, with elements of Barrio Chino," says Lew. "We will reassess then - nothing is set in stone."

Open Tues-Thu noon-9pm; Fri-Sat noon-11pm; Sun noon-9pm

28-30 Bayswater Road, Kings Cross, 02 8021 9750, instagram.com/barriokx