Maydanoz Restaurant Bar — Restaurant in Sydney

Exquisite food! Interesting and perfectly seasoned and beautifully presented fare. One of our favorite restaurants we visited while living in Sydney for a month. Read on for a very detailed review of what we ordered and some tips. Oh, and don’t miss out on the happy hour food and drink specials! More info below.

We had read about this restaurant, and it was on our list, but it was not until it was pouring rain one day and our plans for walking around town were canceled that we had to pivot and eat somewhere nearby. I thought we would have to take a ride to something on our list, but instead we were standing a couple of blocks from this place… on our list! How fortuitous! And, even though we were not planning on eating dinner that early, we had not eaten a big lunch, so we ducked in and discovered the happy hour specials and then just continued having dinner. I imagine it would be difficult to get a reservation, but since we ate at such an odd time, probably around 4 PM, the place was virtually empty. Good for us!

Here is a breakdown of what we had. Bread (happy hour menu). This was crunchy perfection on the outside with a soft inside! It paired beautifully with the feta.

Whipped Feta with pistachio (happy hour menu) but also featured grapes. And the dill was really interesting in it. Certainly, it says ‘dill’ on the menu, but the flavor combination was unexpected.

The hunkar begendi (the smoked eggplant puree with a lamb loin). The eggplant alone was extraordinary!

The leek eggplant macadamia dish. A beautifully-plated colorful dish, served with a mushroom eggplant XO. (The restaurant clearly knows their way around eggplant). I could bathe in the artichoke cream and macadamia nuts. This was also sublime.

Tilba haloumi served with thyme honey at the table on a hot mini-stove. Halloumi seems to be everywhere. It’s very good, but when the server told us it was a really big seller, I expected something more exquisite. But that’s not really the star here. Good…But some of the other dishes were so much more beautiful, that I was surprised that this was one of their big sellers. Perhaps halloumi is not that popular yet in Australia, but it’s just everywhere in the states. Certainly, the treatment of it was interesting. How it was served at the table on the little grated stove. But some of the other menu elements wowed me far more than the halloumi did, although it was a good version.

We paired the food with a beautiful glass of Sevilen 900 Cabernet. This was an outstanding Turkish wine. I had not tried Turkish wine before, having lived on the West Coast for 10 years, but I was completely enchanted by this wine. The server did a great job of recommending it. It was just a very straightforward drinkable red.

We also had other drinks. A couple of margaritas, a vodka drink. They were pretty standard, but they were on the happy hour menu, so they were...

Starting with the positives, they provided us with a complementary round of mocktails as we were celebrating. The lentil kofte was amazing, the presentation was minimal yet eye catching, and it had the right balance between textures. The flavors all stood out yet didn't overpower the whole dish, I would 10/10 recommend this dish. The halloumi wasn't anything too special, I would recommend a different appetizer over this. The whipped feta dip - incredible, this is a necessary item to order, absolutely necessary. The basil and the mint with dill and grapes all in a bite with the whipped feta was just amazing, we savored this dip until the end of our meal. The bean salad (Piyaz) was interesting and refreshing but nothing too mind-blowing.

Onto the not great parts, including the main course. We asked the waiter if the chicken dish was thigh or breast meat, he informed us with confidence that it's breast meat. So we ordered this dish, it comes with thigh meat. Normally this isn't such a huge issue, but with people who have sensory preferences, the chicken was inedible for one of us. We had asked what meat it was particularly to avoid food wastage like this. The same staff member had earlier poured water for me, spilled a lot of it outside the glass, said sorry and didn't return to wipe the spillage. I had to call for someone to please clean the table.

After the meal was finished, when they asked how everything was we complimented all but the chicken. I informed them what the issue was and the response is what turned the evening sour. The manager was very dismissive about it, saying 'is it an allergy or?', upon being told its an issue with the texture, she said 'oh I see, that's not something anyone has asked us before so just a tiny mistake sorry'. While I understand this may not be a question commonly asked, I do think all staff should know what cuts or parts of meat the dishes are comprised of, if they don't know, they should ask the chef or the kitchen staff instead of giving an answer they think will sell the dish, food wastage is not ok. They said it's a new staff member so, sorry his bad. This would have been ok if they weren't implying that the question about thigh vs breast meat was very unusual or odd.

I definitely recommend this place, however I would also have them double check with the kitchen for any preferences or questions if you're going with someone who doesn't love all cuts of meat and would rather avoid certain ones. The highlights are definitely the whipped feta and the lentil kofte. The mocktails were actually quiet nice too, we really appreciated the complementary round...

When searching for something a little different on a rainy weekend, I came across Maydanoz's website. I'd been looking for a place that had a blend of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes, and the menu looked intriguing.

I booked a table on line and looked out at the steadily worsening weather, wondering if heading out for a meal was a good idea in such foul weather.

Happily, it was. Even the torrential downpour that was Sydney's weather on the night didn't dampen my experience.

Maydanoz has a lovely ambiance, courtesy of the location adjacent to Wynyard Park, the high ceilings, and its choice of seating styles. Since I booked online and having not seen the place before, I had played it safe and opted for indoor table seating. Upon arrival, I momentarily regretted not taking a chance and booking at the Chef's counter area, which is roomy, pristine and elevated. That being said, the table seating was very good, not too tightly packed together and of a comfortable size.

The staff were lovely. In fact, the gentleman who explained the menu was not only polite, he was both thorough and very well informed indeed on the ingredients in each dish. He made the ordering that much easier.

After a short space of time, the food arrived.

The stone baked bread was piping hot, and delicious enough that I had to restrain myself from eating more than my fair share.

If you're not sure what to try from the bite-sized portion menu, may I suggest the Kabindah Kofte? Exquisite.

On a hunch, I had ordered the cacik dip, which is a coconut based, lactose free dip. I personally have no food allergies and lactose free isn't a thing for me, but this dip sounded novel. Even so, I wasn't quite sure I'd chosen wisely. Happily, I stand corrected. It was extremely good. Lightly aerated, not too overpowering, refreshing enough that it went well with the flavours of basically everything that I'd ordered.

Woodfired oyster mushrooms and the Kingfish collar kebab for shared main meals. Both were extremely well presented, with great flavours and done to perfection. The portion size on both was quite decent, enough that we couldn't finish both.

The wine menu. Simple, but still quite decent. A bottle of Kaelser's "Reach for the Sky" GSM rounded things out nicely, bringing out the spices in the food whilst being light enough not to overpower the meal.

I passed up the desert menu, not because it didn't look similarly interesting as the main, but merely because I literally couldn't imagine fitting anything more in, much less surpassing the meal.

Maydanoz is now on my list of 'must go back, soon' choices. Highly...