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Squid ink fregola with frutti di mare at Matteo Downtown Sydney Melbourne Sydney Melbourne MATTEO DOWNTOWN LESA BRIX FUTURE FUTURE Inspired by the raucous It might be located in the heart Primarily a craft rum distillery, The group behind Collingwood’s restaurants of Milan and Rome, of Melbourne but this new joint Brix is also home to a chilled- Congress restaurant has the team behind Matteo in is all about beating the bustle. out bar serving sensational transformed an art gallery into Double Bay has opened this A set four-course menu with fare by Colombian-born chef this 130-seat Japanese eatery. energetic all-day city eatery. choices such as semi-dried Ivan Sanchez (ex Bodega Expect a cup of house-blend Food Italian chef Orazio D’Elia is potato cacio e pepe served at and Porteño). Try the crisp iced tea on arrival, followed at the helm, with dishes such a relaxed pace will encourage tostadas laden with ceviche by chef Atsushi Kawakami’s as osso bucco with saffron slowing down and savouring and the plantain chips with menu of donburi rice bowls and risotto and squid ink fregola. good food and wine. mojo picante. izakaya-style light meals. Select from a 300-bottle “wine The wine list is a compelling More than 150 rums from You’ll find a concise list of wall” containing everything mix of Old World gems and around the world, a good beers, sakes, wines and from bold reds to crisp white Australian drops produced selection of Australian wines whiskies, with a strong varietals or sample small-batch with minimal intervention. Drinks and craft beers, plus an array emphasis on natural and Italian liquors and craft beers. of rum-based cocktails. biodynamic varieties. The dining room is intimate yet An open kitchen with Occasional splashes of colour There’s a bar, two distinctive lively, with an open kitchen, a large woodfired hearth is at and paintings by local artist dining spaces (light and airy or while the bar area features the centre of the laid-back Space Nico Nicoson punctuate the more moody), private dining and 44 striking artworks. dining room. industrial concrete interiors. a courtyard with a relaxed vibe. Smack bang in the middle Melbourne’s CBD, above A minute’s walk from In Melbourne’s Richmond, of Sydney’s CBD. the wine bar Embla. The Beresford in Surry Hills. about 20 minutes’ drive from the CBD. Location 20 Bond Street, Sydney Level 2, 122 Russell Street, 191 Swan Street, Richmond matteosydney.com Melbourne lesarestaurant.com.au 352 Bourke Street, Surry Hills futurefuture.com.au Open Monday-Friday for Open Thursday-Friday for brixdistillers.com Open Friday-Sunday for breakfast and lunch and lunch and Wednesday-Saturday Open seven days for lunch lunch and Wednesday-Saturday Details Monday-Saturday for dinner for dinner and dinner for dinner Kai Leishman Kai 034 qantas.com/travelinsider QUISINE. Reviews What’s new Our monthly guide to exciting openings, upgraded offerings and changing chefs. Kristoffer PaulsenKristoffer IF YOU’RE GOING TO... Hong Kong Sara (sara-hk.com) brings the food of Japan’s Saga Wan Chai glamourpuss Pirata (pirata.hk) marries prefecture to a simply styled izakaya in Causeway Bay. a fit-out of industrial metalwork and chandeliers with Expect plenty of grilled and simmered dishes as well rugged Italian greatest hits such as arancini, calamari as the famous Saga Wagyu beef. fritti and beef carpaccio. Nonna would approve. 170 qantas.com/travelinsider KEY NEW RESTAURANT NEW CHEF NEW MENU NEW CAFÉ NEW BAR NEW LOOK VIC fried puck of porcine goodness LARISSA DUBECKI larded with chicken jus so explosively juicy it comes with ↓ a warning from the waiter. NATURAL HISTORY It’s thoroughly deserving of BAR & GRILL the accolades – but then so is the kangaroo done pastrami-style, 401 Collins Street, Melbourne the richly salty strips cut with (03) 9982 1811 naturalhistory a sweet-leaning cultured cream barandgrill.com.au Open and served with a rubble of fried Thursday-Friday for lunch and onion. And the brussels sprouts, Tuesday-Saturday for dinner the zero-turned-hero vegetable Come for the taxidermy, paired with an umami bomb stay for the steak. That’s of sunflower tahini and capers. the take-home message from This sleek, hyper-modern little this vast New York-style grill spot anchoring a new apartment in the heart of Collins Street’s block is so much more than business district, where you a residents’ pit stop: it’s a new can dine under the watchful Melbourne must-do. gaze of stuffed ibexes, peacocks and foxes. Uncannily, it’s as if ↓ a natural history museum ran CARLTON WINE ROOM headlong into Grand Central Station’s oyster bar – so get 172-174 Faraday Street, Carlton with the program and order (03) 9347 2626 thecarlton a dozen freshly shucked, chase wineroom.com.au Open them down with half a kilogram Thursday-Monday for lunch and of dry-aged rib eye and finish Wednesday-Monday for dinner with a Martini at the bar. Don An overnight success story Draper would give it the nod. seven years in the making, Carlton Wine Room – CWR to ↓ its friends – has gone from CONGRESS understudy to full-blown star thanks to the arrival of new Corner Peel and Wellington Streets, owners, a trio of restaurant Collingwood (03) 9068 7464 veterans finally joining forces. congresswine.com.au Open John Paul Twomey, a long-time roast chicken that effortlessly Congress, home of the Friday-Saturday for lunch and Andrew McConnell lieutenant, reaches Melbourne’s vertiginous pig’s head sanga (above); Monday-Saturday for dinner is behind a menu that bears standards, with golden skin potato focaccia with It calls itself a wine bar hallmarks of his time as Cutler and a drinkable jus. The wine stracciatella, zucchini but Congress has burst & Co. head chef. There are list mixes skin-contact and and chive oil at Carlton out of the Collingwood starting dishes you can call “produce more traditional drops, with Wine Room (opposite) blocks with a dish that has driven” without blushing, such sage advice dispensed by “instant cult classic” written all as an opening salvo of potato wine maestros and co-owners over it. We’re talking about the focaccia with stracciatella, Andrew Joy and Travis Howe. pig’s head sanga with mustard poached mussels with a herby Little wonder it’s been crammed Kristoffer PaulsenKristoffer mayo, starring a breaded and salad and garlicky aioli or a half since day one of the new regime. Singapore Circa 1912 (03-07/11 Shaw Centre, 1 Scotts Road; +65 Go the burn at Qi – House of Sichuan (qi-sichuan.hk), 6836 3070) is on a mission to revive “lost” Cantonese a Michelin-starred Hong Kong import bringing its dishes and techniques, including hand-chopped fiery braised grouper in chilli oil and bang bang dim sum fillings and artisanal ingredients. chicken to Marina Bay. qantas.com/travelinsider 171 QUISINE. WA ↓ ↓ MAX VEENHUYZEN OFFSHOOT COFFEE WINE ROOMS BY HARVEY LEIGH’S Hibernian Place, 480 Hay Street, ↓ HADIQA Perth Open Monday-Friday for 484 Beaufort Street, Highgate breakfast and lunch (08) 6478 0920 harveyleighs.com Hibernian Place, 40 Irwin Street, Perth The Mary Street Bakery Open Friday-Sunday for lunch and (08) 6277 0387 hadiqa.com.au crew has opened a micro- Wednesday-Sunday for dinner Open Monday-Friday for lunch roastery and takeaway café The Stables offers A cosy, Provence-inspired and Monday-Saturday for dinner stocking doughnuts, cruffins a slick new dine-at bar bistro and wine bar by one Home to the city’s first (a croissant and muffin hybrid), in Paddington (below); of Australia’s best sommeliers, Westin hotel (and Guy pies and other baked treats pipis with white wine Dan Wegener, Wine Rooms by Grossi’s Garum), Hibernian synonymous with the Mary and parsley at Surry Harvey Leigh’s is a new 55-seater Place has expanded the eating Street name. Hills’ Ortzi (opposite) with the same deep focus on and drinking options in the grapes that Wegener brought city’s east end. Serial publican to Quay (Sydney) and Print Andy Freeman (Varnish on Hall (Perth), only the vibe is King, The Flour Factory) has more fun dining than fine. opened Hadiqa, a Moroccan- While pinot and chardonnay inspired rooftop restaurant and fans go gaga over the wine list, bar doing a fine trade in mezze young Provençal import Loic and Levantine-accented drinks: Sorbier keeps things fuss-free think kebabs, cauliflower salad and tasty in the kitchen. “Bread flavoured with ras el hanout, & condiments” (charcuterie, and a heady Old Fashioned (on cheese, pickles) and a basket of the drinks list here as a Spiced salty, porky treats are the stuff Old Moroccan). of wine-snacking dreams, while cabbage parcels stuffed ↓ with pork and carrot are typical ARTHUR & CO. of the more substantial stuff. Dessert? Do it – the tarte Tatin Hibernian Place, 480 Hay Street, Perth with almond praline and vanilla (08) 9325 4886 arthurandco.com.au ice-cream is pure comfort. Open Monday-Friday for breakfast and lunch and Monday-Saturday for dinner NSW Journeyman chef Graham ANTHONY HUCKSTEP Arthur lends his name and bowerbird cooking approach ↓ to all-day diner Arthur & Co. LITTLE BISTRO Come along in the morning for house-baked pastries; return 52 King Street, Sydney (02) 9114 7365 after dark for craft beer and merivale.com Open Monday- thoughtfully chosen wines Friday for lunch and dinner with beef cheek pie or crisp There are few more school prawns and whitebait deeply satisfying dining with burnt onion aioli.