Somer Sivrioglu to open bar-restaurant at redeveloped Menzies Hotel site

Turkish-Australian cooking star Somer Sivrioglu is joining the rush into the redeveloped Menzies Hotel site behind Wynyard station. The chef will open a bar-restaurant with a plant-heavy menu there later this year.

Sivrioglu, who owns Efendy in Balmain and Anason at Barangaroo, hasn't settled on a name for the venue. "It'll probably be the Turkish name of a vegetable," he told Good Food from the set of MasterChef Turkey, where he has just returned in his role as co-host.

Sivrioglu is now a massive name in Turkey with a stream of offers to open venues there, so his continued investment in his adopted home is a coup for Sydney.

"I want to highlight the vegetable-heavy part of Turkey that isn't as well known. You find lots of olive oil-braised vegetables on the coast," he says.

"I want it to be the sort of place you pop in after work for a glass of wine and some meze. We'll have a Turkish version of falafel. It's based on lentils, baked not fried; healthier."

Sivrioglu's signature at the development follows hot on the heels of The Point Group, which is putting multiple venues into the old Menzies site.

When Sivrioglu's plant-based Turkish addition opens in late October, it will be near Point Group's ground-floor Menzies Bar.