Hotel Centennial

The chips are good. Lightly golden and fleshy, with a crisp crunch and decent flavour. So I ask about them, expecting the usual ''organic, hand-cut, heirloom variety, triple-cooked'' answer. "Edgell Super Crunch" comes the reply.

Ha! It's a reminder that you're in a pub after all.

Woollahra's Hotel Centennial has always been a linchpin of the eastern suburbs at play, but this year, new owner Anthony Medich, of Halcyon Hotels, has appointed a big-name chef to do down-home pub food, and briefed hotshot design team Luchetti Krelle to pile on the comfort factor.

The chef is Justin North, former head of the once high-flying Becasse restaurant empire and chef of the year in 2009. With head chef Tom Deadman, he and the team are flat out keeping up with demand by the local matriarchs, young families, dating couples and cashmered foursomes ramming the place.

Their menu, perforce, has something for everyone, from wood-fired ''flat breads'' (pizzas to you and me) topped with prawn, tomato and green chilli ($24), to well-judged, contemporary compositions of crisped pork belly teamed with braised octopus ($26). In a nod to the success of nearby Chiswick, there are hearty share-plates of whole, wood-roasted chicken and pre-order feasts for four or more.

Start with a little $5 sardine tart on an oblong of almost-too-rich pastry, or stick with simple comfort food such as prawn cocktail, chicken schnitzel and a pavé steak and chips.

In line with the current residential approach to commercial design, the big space flows from living room to dining room to kitchen, toned in buff and beige and anchored with striking photographic art. The seating is fabulous - opulent, even - from squishy wrap-around studded leather chairs to upholstered sofas and ottomans. The front bar has the air of a country estate library, featuring a long, 30-seater communal table that acts as a fund-raising initiative for the local Holdsworth charity.

But it's a pub, right? So have a burger ($24), with house-made tomato sauce and pickled cucumber. Coarsely ground Rangers Valley black angus beef is topped with darkly glazed onions and melted fontina, inside a grill-marked and sesame-seeded Fuel Bakery potato bun. It's more your rich, out-for-dinner burger than pub food, with no reprieve of freshness coming from lettuce, tomato or beetroot, but it comes with THOSE chips in a mini frying basket.

Shepherd's pie ($26) is even richer, with generous nuggets of slow-cooked lamb shank and shoulder under a cloud of buttery mash and the crunch of garlicky toasted breadcrumbs. And yep, on Sundays there's a roast ($35), a must once you've seen the mighty standing ribs stacked up on the pass. The soft, giving meat is sliced off the bone before being sent out with confit roast vegetables and silky mash. Why? Because this is restaurant food more than pub food - even if it's in a pub that's more luxurious than most restaurants.

A solid wine list runs from zippy, zesty whites to big, bold, brash reds, with a characteristically plummy tempranillo, the Edulis 2011 Rioja ($64), lying somewhere in-between. To end, a slab of chocolate ale cake ($14) served with trickles of treacle, kisses of chocolate cream and salted caramel ice-cream is like eating a glass of Guinness - not subtle, but satisfying.

Much has been written about the trend of once-hatted chefs turning their hands to flipping burgers. But when ostensibly ''simple'' food such as fish and chips and shepherd's pies are considered worthy of thought and refinement by somebody with decent training accustomed to using good produce, that's a step up, not down.

THE LOW-DOWN
Best bit: Opulent seats, stools and sofas.
Worst bit: Tendency towards richness.
Go-to dish: Eight-week, dry-aged beef burger with fontina $24.

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.”