Sixpenny — Restaurant in Sydney

We started with Fresh Sydney Rock Oysters with blueberry vinaigrette - fantastic start, fresh and delightful. These were an option extra to start off with. Next were two snacks, Cruller with Mascarpone And Kombu Tart with Smoked Eggplant. The cruller was so delicious and sweet, and paired with salmon roe - little pops of freshness, it was zany! A portent of what was to come. The Kombu tart was scrumptious, and an equally tantalising combination of sweet and savoury.

We also had two different types of bread on the side - a fresh sourdough, which was perfectly crusty, airy and tangy, slathered in marscapone butter. Then, later on, a sourdough made with coffee grounds and golden syrup, which was incredible. The chef explained they take the left over sourdough, rebake it, and turn it into flour for the coffee and golden syrup bread for the next day. Truly innovative.

Next was a degustation of mains. Each as mouth watering as the next. The Cured Bonito with Cucumber & Citrus was amazing. So fresh and delightful. The Pepper Kangaroo Tartare with Sweet Potato & Dried Cheese was fantastic. I am not usually one for a tartare, but the kangaroo was melt-in-your-mouth and brought to another level with the dried cheese. The Spencer Gulf Squid with Mushroom & Smoked Squid Broth was perfect for a cold July night. It was so earthy and bursting with umami. The squid was so delicately cut and tender, I didn’t realise it was squid at first! The John Dory with Sour Beer & Lemon Myrtle was another victory for Australian ingredients. I loved this fish. Finishing the mains with Borrowdale Pork Loin with Malted Barley & Black Garlic (pictured). I’ve never had a cut of pork like this before. It was so juicy and silky.

For dessert we had one menu item and replaced the second dessert with a special they had on offer that evening. The Mead Vinegar Custard with Frozen Raspberry & Strawberry was amazing. I could have eaten it by the bucket load. Light and fresh and delicious. Finishing the evening with a Hazelnut cream pie with black truffle and custard cream profiteroles truly defeated me. The serving size is huge, compared to the delicate servings of everything else that preceded it. The truffle is so rich, the pastry is to light and flaky, and the cream is so smooth. I couldn’t finish it. My eyes were bigger than my stomach.

Before we finished for the evening we were brought two freshly baked Madeleines. I couldn’t fit in another morsel, so they popped them in a bag and I had them with my coffee the next day which was a real treat.

While we didn’t have the wine pairings, we did enjoy a few different glasses with our meal. The drinks menu is extensive and also gives you a chance to explore flavours you’ve not tried before - such as the Fallen Pony and tonic, a fermented quince tea spirit, which was a wild flavour journey. Not sure I’d have it again, but it was very fun to try!

The staff are exceptional - professional, friendly and knowledgable.

It’s not a cheap dinner, but 100% worth the experience. This is a fantastic example of modern Australian cooking and if you like good food, you’ll LOVE...

So this is one of those reviews that I am loathe to write about... When you come across a local restaurant that is this good one generally should want to keep it to one's self so that bookings are easy to get any you can feel like you are in-the-know. Once I have gotten over this extremely selfish motive (and the desire to continue to speak in the third person) it is a simple matter of listing the astonishing array of positives at this relatively newly opened bolt hole. If this is the direction that inner Sydney/suburban dining is heading then we are in very good hands. From a team that was directly involved in that other bastion of great inner-west Sydney dining, Oscillate Wildly, comes another shopfront restaurant based in rapidly-gentrifying Stanmore that softly speaks to a confidence in their vision and capabilities.

In a time when a number of the big name restaurants are imploding under their own gravitas (not to mention $50 mains, $100 wines and $10 mineral waters) hopefully this restaurant is an indication what is supportable under the new global austerity.

Our meal was Sunday lunch, degus-style. The food was unashamedly locally focussed with produced sourced from NSW (including their own backyard) and featured a number of wild and native ingredients that spoke to a pride in the quality and uniqueness of Australian fare without becoming kitsch or jingoistic. Each little course was exquisite in its detail, presentation and flavour combinations with a great balance of technical preparation and flavour complexity yet still accessible.

The service was impeccable, attentive and informed. We were lucky enough to have the private room for our party with its observation feature-window. We could watch all the activity in the kitchen, the movement and flow in the kitchen, all of which was balanced, restrained and rehearsed and spoke to a Chef in control of their team and environment. (Side note: when did tweezers and pipettes become more common in kitchens than knives?).

At $115 for the 6 (small) course menu this could never be considered cheap, however the quality of the produce, the excellence of the service and atmosphere, not to mention that there were at least four other small courses slipped in as part of before-dinner and after-dinner amusements (I seriously lost count), all point towards a very good value meal. Strange as it may seem, and I hope other establishments are listening, the fact that all bottled water (still and sparkling) is FREE is an amazing step forward. They filter and bottle their own water on site and it just adds to the overall positive experience and you don't end up feeling like an idiot for wanting to switch out to tap water after your third $10 bottle of mineral water. Like always, it is the small touches that make the subtle difference between a good restaurant and a great one.

This, make no bones about it, is a...

Very surprised at such high ratings - perhaps the usual Chef and servers were on leave when we went.

Location: cute, cosy, homely (it appears to be a converted corner terrace property).

Food: below average for restaurants at this price point. The server gave up asking me what I thought of each dish in the degustation after I gave her honest but polite feedback, and she gave no offer to change or replace any of the dishes we returned uneaten. Instead of curiosity, she decided it would be better to ignore me!!

My partner doesn't drink. She offered a juice. Gave him what we both thought was a taster (same quantity that a sommalier would give before filling a glass). When she eventually came back, he asked for more (thinking she'd top the glass up to the normal size), she gave the similar amount. We both found it amusing in an astonished way. I was glad I was drinking the paired wines which were 3x the quantity per glass! To add insult to injury, she commented how much they had of it in the kitchen!! And further, when we got the bill and noted we were charged over $20 per glass (or rather, shot) of juice.

During one of the courses, a neighbouring table took a photo of each other which caused the flash to go off (the room is dark, so it did catch attention). However, we were stunned when the waitress turned up at our table and told us that the third (and only other) neighbouring table didn't like people taking photos, and that we should not take photos in the dining room. I told her we had not taken a photo. She made no comment, nor approached the other table. It is ridiculous for a supposedly exclusive restaurant to tell people (who clearly were celebrating a personal event together) not to take photos of their special occasion in the restaurant. If that is their policy, put that on a notice and make it clear at the point of booking. If it was because of a health issue of the other table, request only photos without a flash. No rocket science.

By the end of the very disappointing courses, the server was very off with us (despite us remaining polite).

The whole experience was put down as the worst we'd had in years, and came at quite a cost. I really wanted to be able to recommend this small business in the tough industry of hospitality, but simply cannot recommend this one. Staff need training on how to handle the more challenging feedback. They could easily have turned this experience around, but instead chose to ignore to the point of disregard.

In summary: there are significantly better restaurants at this price point (like Catalina and Nel) who offer higher quality dishes with the impeccable service you'd expect of such an establishment. Oh, and their competitors also allow photos as mementos of your special occasion....

(and of course, it means we don't have photos of the food to share...