Omage

All those hip, streetwise publications and websites are missing a trick. They're so busy concentrating on the buzzy inner urban areas of Surry Hills and Redfern, Darlington and Darlinghurst, they've completely ignored the zeitgeist of the moment: the business park.

There are more people in these commercial and industrial hubs than are riding their bicycles down Crown Street. Norwest Business Park in Baulkham Hills sees more than 17,000 people on a normal weekday. They're working, shopping, drinking coffee, strolling along the foreshore of the lake, doing laps in the heated swimming pool … and dining out.

Norwest is a spry six years old, with well-established restaurants enjoying views over a man-made lake and 30 hectares of parklands. Trevi, at one end, is the old-timer, while at the other, newcomer Omage has taken over what was the modern-Australian Iso Lounge.

Chef Darryl Martin, who previously cooked at Quay, Foveaux and 3 Weeds, opened Omage with his father-in law, Sam Barakat, in an effort to bring big-city dining to Baulkham Hills. It's such a noble aim that I'll overlook the absurdity of the name with its mysteriously errant H. It's remarkably pleasant on the open terrace on a sunny Sydney winter day, although my inner-city lungs are a bit confused without the usual toxic tang of carbon monoxide in the air. The rest of the body is fine, however, with a little shot glass appetiser of mulled wine, lemon balm and beetroot.

Inside, the restaurant is attractively furnished and fitted out, if relatively quiet over my couple of weekday lunches. It must be like Surry Hills in here on Friday or Saturday nights, when it's completely booked out, with twinkling votive candles lining the wall, the back-lit bar aglow and booths and banquettes filled.

The opening menu pays 'omage to the 'iddle East after Martin's recent trip through Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Cyprus with his wife, Gabby, and six-year-old son. There's a fun treatment of ''aromatic duck cigars'' ($20), in which two crisp, deep-fried, brik pastry-wrapped spring rolls filled with spiced, slow-cooked duck, protrude like canon barrels from a bowl of sweet chestnut puree with shavings of sweet persimmon. It's street food, dressed up for the dining table in style.

Equally dressy is an artistic assembly of chicken wings ($19), deboned, confited and formed into patties, crowned with slices of lovely, toasty Jerusalem artichoke and sticky warm dates; richness piled upon richness. The plate is criss-crossed with speeding tadpoles of parsley puree.

Omage's wine list is just two-dozen bottles strong but it's a nice, quirky mix of affordable and dependables, including a plummy 2007 B3 GSM (grenache/shiraz/mourvedre) from the Barossa ($40).

More Middle Eastern promise is delivered in a dish of chargrilled swordfish served under a colourful tumble of satisfyingly well-cooked Israeli couscous (the big pearl-like moghrabieh), halved red grapes and cherry tomatoes ($30). A baton of crisp pork belly ($32) is Mod Oz on a plate, topped with a good crunch of crackling and bottomed with smooth cauliflower puree, borlotti beans, wilted turnip greens and jewel-like slivers of mustard fruits. It's a very smart, polished presentation of what is essentially comfort food, although a lack of sweetness in the flesh suggests it was from a male pig, not a female.

For dessert, it's back to the Middle East for another baton ($14), this time of pistachio cake topped with bobbles of rhubarb sorbet and dates and accompanied by creamy mint ice-cream. A little plate of well-made petits fours follows, including that latest darling of the Parisian patissier; a square of snow-white, soft-as, freshly made marshmallow.

Martin has talent and technique, but what he probably has most of all are the moral virtues of hard work and diligence. He overcomes the problem of having few kitchen staff by putting a lot of dishes through several processes - pureeing, slow-braising, confiting, etc - that add flavour and buy him time. It makes for a certain lack of spontaneity and a forceful richness that might not be on-trend in the inner city - but we're not in the inner city any more, Dorothy.

It's always good to find a decent, hard-working ma-and-pa-restaurant - especially one with ma- and pa-in-law on the floor, providing warm and courteous hospitality. Could Baulkham Hills be the new Surry Hills? You read it here first.

tdurack@smh.com.au

Address Shop 2/8 Century Circuit, Norwest Business Park, Baulkham Hills. Phone 9894 6499, omagerestaurant.com.au

Open Lunch, Tues-Fri and Sun; dinner, Tues-Sat

Licensed Yes and BYO ($5pp)

Cost About $120 for two, plus drinks

Rating: 13/20