King Clarence — Restaurant in Sydney

📍 King Clarence 171 Clarence St, Sydney NSW 2000

King Clarence is one of the most exciting new additions to Sydney’s CBD dining scene 🍽️, sitting right in the heart of Clarence Street. Led by celebrated chef Khanh Nguyen 👨‍🍳, the restaurant brings together a bold, contemporary approach to Asian-inspired flavours while keeping a strong focus on precision, balance, and creativity. The space itself leans modern yet welcoming, making it ideal for both intimate dinners 💕 and lively group outings 🥂.

One of the standout elements here is the wine list 🍷. It’s not the usual predictable selection — instead, it’s a carefully curated collection that surprises you at every turn. The pairings offered alongside the dishes elevate the dining experience and show real thought in the curation.

On the food front, Chef Khanh absolutely nails the execution of every dish 🔥. His menu is both innovative and balanced, drawing from tradition while reshaping expectations. My personal highlight was the Mapo Tofu 🍲🦐. I’ve never had a seafood-based version before, but the combination of royal red prawns, smoked marrow, and baby corn was nothing short of spectacular. It’s proof that this classic doesn’t have to be tied to minced meat — and it was easily the dish of the night ⭐️.

The service 💯 deserves its own spotlight. From the moment we sat down, the staff displayed impeccable attention to detail 👏. They noticed me struggling to cut meat with a standard knife 🔪 and, without needing to be asked, immediately brought a steak knife to the table. Drinks were constantly refilled 🥤, empty glasses were whisked away as soon as we finished 🍷, and fresh plates were provided for each course 🍽️. Having worked in hospitality for years myself, I can confidently say this was textbook fine service — polished yet natural, and worth every cent of the dining experience.

Overall, King Clarence is a shining example of what modern Sydney dining can be when it’s done right ✨ — creative food, an exciting drinks list, and flawless service ✅.

⭐️ Overall: 5/5

⭐️ Food: 8/10 ⭐️ Atmosphere: 10/10 ⭐️ Location: 8/10 ⭐️ Price: 8/10 ⭐️ Likely to return: 5/10

Menu Highlights 📝

🦐 Grilled King Prawns (3) Victoria Bitter & Fermented Shrimp Butter, Hot Honey Bread - $42

🍖 Slow Cooked Lamb Neck “Strange Flavour” Eggplant, Pancakes & Condiments - $78

🥩 Steak Tartare Ma La Tang, Peanut, Chickpea, Beef Tallow Doughnuts - $32

🥟 Steamed Prawn Dumplings Supreme Butter, Bacon Jam, Fried Garlic - $24

🦆 Duck Tsukune Water Chestnut, Hoisin Tare, Shokupan, Onsen Tamago - $20

🥔 Potato Okonomiyaki Bulldog Hot Sauce, Seaweed Ranch, Cured Yolk - $20

🍲 ‘Mapo Tofu’ Royal Red Prawns, Smoked Marrow, Baby Corn - $38

🦪 Goolwa Pippies (400g) Lemongrass XO, Bacon, Rice Vermicelli + Add Longevity Noodles 🍜 - $52 + $15

🍆 Miso Eggplant Shimeji Mushroom, Tenkasu, Grilled Tomato Dashi - $32

🥬 Wood Roasted Pork Belly Ssam Leaves, Pickles, Condiments - $70

🍚 Short Grain Claypot Rice Char Siu Pork Jowl, Garlic Chive, Egg Yolk - $38

🍊 Mandarin Granita Tofu Cheesecake, Sudachi, Cream Cheese Brulee - $20

🥭 Mango Pudding Coconut, Cultured Cream, Vanilla Bean, Passionfruit - $22

🍨 Fried Peanut Butter Ice Cream Banana Custard, Salted Hojicha...

Susan looked after our table of 4, she did great for keeping us comfy and enjoyed ourselves. We went with the set menu, everything was a teasing bite size until the duck comes up. The dumplings is pretty mid and not much component stands out, feels like it had to exist just because the restaurant it’s Chinese/Asian style, i have had better ones and im picky with my dumplings, its home food. We all agree the kingfish dressing went better with the beef tartare hence we all enjoyed the kingfish, classics, cant go wrong, and the beef dish is heavier on the seasoning and daikons, if the daikon is pickled, oysters mayo is salty, i d put less seasoning in the dressing but still tasty just wish they were accompanied with more crackers to balance out the saltiness, oh big ups for whoever made rice cracker, top tier rice crackers. Next up is the chicken liver on toast, this one is quite personal so i wont be the fair judge, not everyone enjoy the taste and smell of chicken liver, i had a bite then gave the skewers to my friend but the toast with the butter sauce is superb its a great balance to the liver with the tanginess. Fish collar, very smoky very very nice, wish they went harder on the glaze tho, or add a bit tamarind or some sort to the glaze. The salad its superb definitely brought me back somewhere in China, love. Duck, yum, more sauce pls, the cabbage is so so textural and with the plum sauce it definitely hit the spot and the crab rice was every one’s favourite hands down, my friend cleared a whole bowl to himself just because 💁🏻‍♂️ is that good. Whoever made the coffee parfait dish is soso brilliant, the umami/saltiness in the koji wafer is outstanding, great balance with the parfait itself and the meringue, can go a little bit harder on the parfait personal preference, i just adored that koji wafer soso much and i want a whole box of the wafer by itself just to snack on. Definitely my star of the night. I think the chefs have done a brilliant job and will definitely return for that duck, rice and koji wafer 🤰🏻

However, the bar staff need a bit more training on sitting positioning because yous are foh too and are running drinks, a bit disappointing considering the food was on point (also had high expectations since its Bentley Group) we had one guest doesn’t have alcohol due to mild allergies, twice the bev we ordered dropped in front of her from 2 diff bar staff, because of me and her had both ordered yuzu flavoured drinks, non of us noticed until half way through our drinks, she started turning red and feeling the burns on her skin, and i wasnt feeling a thing! Susan offered her a new drink(because i had almost finished her mocktail at this point) and made sure we weren’t charged for the extra one. i think KC had opened for over a month now theres no excuse still dropping drinks on the same table, twice to the wrong position, at the end of the day, if you are not sure, just ask! We dont bite, Its hospo you gotta speak to your guests one day🤷🏻‍♂️

Overall everything was quite high standard, will come back for sure! Cute bathroom...

If I had come here with just my wife and ordered the stand out dishes I may have given KC a five out of five. However we came with our staff and wanted more variety, and unfortunately we were let down by some poor dishes which brought the rating down.

Dishes that we would have given 5 stars were:

Oysters. Great gastric style sauce to offset the creaminess of the Sydney rock oysters Kingfish carpaccio. Thicker cut pieces of hiramasa (amberjack) kingfish in a delightful ponzu style sauce. The thicker pieces give a great mouthfeel and more flavour per piece as the subtle flavour of kingfish can easily be drowned by a salty sour sauce. Fish finger baos. Imagine a filet of fish, but instead of a steamed milk bun, replaced with a Taiwanese style bao instead. Add more fennel to the tartare sauce and then top with American style burger cheese and plump salty ikura. This was a favourite amongst our group. Beef tartare. Quintessential Sydney dish done well, served with a prawn cracker infused with seaweed and generous sprinklings of furikake.

Dishes we did not like:

Pipis. This was easily the worse dish. In hindsight we should have sent this dish back to the kitchen to see if the flavour delivered was what they were going for. It was way too sour, and tasted like a Thai larb salad. The pipis were over-cooked and very very chewy. Claypot rice. This was a straight up no. Once again way too sour and the lap cheong had nowhere near enough fat to offset it. There was also not enough crunchy bits of rice either.

Other dishes we had that were good but not GFG 2 hat restaurant good were: Prawn Dumplings. I enjoyed these hargows cooked with butter however they were not 2 hat quality. Duck Tsukune. These were fun and presented nicely to resemble a Bunning's sausage sizzle. Quite delicious Crab fried rice. Quite moist, even though it looks quite dry. Order this if you need the extra carbs. Wagyu steak. This was quite flavoursome and I would order this again. Siu yuk ssam. A fusion of Cantonese pork belly served like a Korean bo-ssam. The pork belly was really good and this dish would have been better served with some jellyfish salad and mustard dipping sauce. The gochujang and mayonnaise did not do the pork any justice. Also the use of radicchio looked nice but did not add to the enjoyment of the dish.

Getting two hats on the guide elevated my expectations. I expected my plates to be changed more often so I'm not mixing sauces. I expected the table to be wiped down periodically so spills are not just left there for the rest of the meal. And I expected every dish to be a winner.

NB For a group of 6, we did looks at the banquet menus. However the only option that included the fish finger bao was $158 pp. That would have been $948 before drinks. Our total meal was $913 including drinks.

2% surcharge on Amex, 1.5% on Visa and Mastercard

Hot tip!! Get a Bentley Group gift card (24hours beforehand)...