"Cronuts, chicken and crocodile fat" - five to words that sum up the last month of eating and drinking in Sydney. See also "brisket, butter and banana crepes" and "Nutella, Noma and no meat." After a relatively quiet January, the Sydney food and wine scene roared back to life with a bevy of new openings, vegetarian menus, abalone schnitzel and dessert bars pumping out more ice-cream than an Oompa Loompa on weekend overtime.
Here are some of the best things our reviewers have scoffed and quaffed for you to put on your dining to-do list in March.
WHERE TO EAT
Butter
6 Hunt Street, Surry Hills, 02 8283 1329, buttersydney.com.au
You'll find Butter on the old Ko & Co site just down from the Hollywood Hotel in Surry Hills. The game here is fried chicken and sneakers, which are sold on consignment and are on display in a giant glass tower in the front window. You can't try them on, though. These are display kicks only. Myffy Rigby
Read: the full review
Pilu at Akuna Bay
Liberator General San Martin Drive, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Akuna Bay, 02 9986 355, piluakunabay.com.au
What is it they say? It's all about the journey, not the destination? Well, in this case, they're wrong. It's entirely about the destination. Set right on Akuna Bay in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, it's big country out here among the rolling hills, and tree-lined Hawkesbury River, where yachts sit patiently waiting for their owners. MR
Ghostboy Cantina
Dixon House Food Court; Little Hay Street, facebook.com/ghostboycantina
What looks like a soft white corn tortilla, slightly blistered, is actually a Chinese pancake. It's topped with shredded beef, Thai basil, bean shoots and chilli sauce – it's a little like a Mexi-Thai beef salad (Thaixican?) only all wrapped up in a carb cocoon. MR
Read: the full review
WHERE TO DRINK
Easy Eight
152-156 Clarence Street, Sydney, 02 9299 3769
A swell little 60-seater with plush booths, a white-tiled bar and low-hanging lights. Full marks to the soundtrack of toe-tapping blues, Motown and Merseyside beats from a time when John and Paul were still talking. Callan Boys
Read: the full review
Love Tilly Devine
91 Crown Lane, Darlinghurst, 02 9326 9297, lovetillydevine.com
There's not much to look at when you're seated in a prime position by the window, a wall of whitewashed bricks with clumps of flourishing ferns between the cracks is about it. But the summer breeze is wonderful and made all the better whenever gun sommelier Gabrielle Webster skips to the other side of the window with something delicious on the pour. CB
Read: the full review
Mistelle
16 Kiaora Lane, Double Bay, 02 9326 1900, mistelledoublebay.com.au
Double Bay has long been in need of a place like Mistelle, where you can swing by late at night, grab a glass of wine, a slice of cheese and discuss what time to book Catalina the next day. CB
Read: the full review
HOT AND NEW
Noma
23 Barangaroo Avenue, Sydney, noma.dk/australia
Rene Redzepi's Noma Australia pop-up is one of the most notable events to have popped up in the 50,000-odd years of eating in this great southern land. Given the focus on native Australian ingredients, much of the food isn't immediately recognisable. Some of it isn't even strictly enjoyable. Terry Durack
Read: the full review
As of February 17, Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt of the Bentley Restaurant Group radically altered the direction of their popular Potts Point bistro, Yellow, switching to an all-vegetarian dinner menu seven days a week. TD
Read: the full review
THE BUZZ
Tella Balls Dessert Bar
5/370 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill, facebook.com/tellaballsdessertbar
It's here, hazelnut-chocolate-spread fans. Sydney's first ever Nutella-themed dessert bar. There's crepes and waffles made to order, a Nutella 'lasagne" of layered mousse cake and fresh cream on a biscuit base, tiramisu pancakes, panna cotta, Ferrero cups, rice pudding, knafeh and a Nutella-injected ganache. The Tella Ball shake makes an appearance and is now joined by a cronut-topped counterpart. CB
Read: the full story