St. Alma — Restaurant in Sydney

St Alma in Freshwater is one restaurant where you should not offer to be the designated driver. The booze list, kicking off with a good range of margaritas, is well chosen, well communicated and well-serviced across wine, beer, cocktails, and spirits. Arriving to a charming hand-written card offering the first round on the house, we got into the spirit of this funky, retro-styled room with a spicy mango margarita ($20) offering good ancho chilli bite and a zesty jalapeño margarita ($19). It was hard to pick a favourite from the pair. Later we got cosy with an Espadin mezcal flight ($45) showing off four exemplars of the most commonly sourced sky-high agave varietal for mezcal. Made in a copper still in the traditional way, the Siete Misterios Doba-Yej was my favourite, with a locally-brewed Freshwater Secrets hazy pale ($11) as a chaser.

As you walk into the former Bendigo Bank building, pause to admire whole fishes dry ageing in the window. Executive chef Tim Christensen and his Mexican kitchen compadres extract the best from Australian seafood across blue fin tuna crudo ($26) with flawless avocado and warrigal greens draped over wafer-thin plantain chips and their catch of the day ($46): a beautifully cooked double-layer of crisp skinned snapper. The seamless union of Aussie seafood with the flavours of coastal Mexico in dishes like the octopus with pickled turnip scales on fruity prune mole ($39), kicks St Alma into Sydney’s best Mexican-influenced restaurant I’ve visited.

The funky blend of aguachile and seaweed salad make the Sydney rock oysters ($7/each) here a must-try. Soft tacos are messy but impressive across both tenderly cooked prawns with coleslaw and peanut mocha aioli ($9/each) and carne asana tacos ($9) where pink-centred flank steak melds with guacamole and nicely spicy burnt chilli sauce. This kitchen doesn’t even fax in the sides with golden cubes of potato pavé ($18) dragged though jalapeño dressing. Combined with floor staff who defy their relaxed clothing and ooze both personality and expertise, St Alma will attract my business again, next time with a local AirBnB so I can really hit...

We had our first experience at St. Alma last night. We were a group of 4 and one of us could not have garlic. The staff member went above and beyond to accomodate the menu and gave us few options. The food was served accordingly always making sure the non garlic options were well spotted. The drinks were great, I’m a fan of micheladas since my first visit to Mexico years ago. It’s hard to find a place that makes them so close to the original recipe ( and what a great surprise was to see them in the menu) I had mine with the non-alcoholic beer and it was perfect. The main dish was so tasty, delicate flavours mixed with well seasoned sauces. We had the chicken and fish. The winner of the night was the buttered fish taco, everyone loved it so we are looking fwd to come back and try the rest of the menu. It’s worth saying that two of us were on a vegetarian diet and we didn’t feel we were missing out too much since our dishes were very tasty and filling. The guacamole was perfect, made with good ingredients it had the right amount of spices. I would recommend to ask for the main dish at the same time as the entrees since they are cooked by the order so they take a bit to come into the table. Here is where the cocktails come in handy :) I recommend the michelada, best hangover cure some people may say, but for me it’s just an amazing summer drink. The music was a bit too loud for one of our guests as she has a bit of issues hearing but other than that, the stuff was helpful, friendly and attentive. The place has a nice vibe and it’s quite popular so make sure to make a...

I had diner here tonight with my wife. I have to say: the dinner was offered to us by the Bear Cottage in celebration of our twentieth anniversary together, so I might be a little biased. I’ll try to stick to the facts. From the moment we seated, we were greeted and treated with a world-class courtesy. We were asked - very politely, no pushy salesmanship - what we wanted to drink and, when we asked for recommendations, the waiter gave us options based on our preferences. We went ahead with those options and boy it was a good choice! The spicy margarita is from another world. We started with nachos and guacamole. Forget about everything GyG: this is the real deal, with chips as large as the palm of my hand. Then the dinner started (we went with the chef's choice) with abundant servings of mezcal cured kingfish, scallop tostada, fish taco, pork belly with potato pavè and we finished with a pan de elote with coconut ice cream. Everything was superbly cooked, with a solid and very well balanced mixture of flavours and spices that fulfill the palate without any overwhelming prevalence. From the relatively succinct but much intriguing menu to the wider and not less intriguing drink list that features some true gems in the vault and in the Mezcal sections, this place is not to be missed. The laid back and quiet atmosphere tops the stunning location just a stroll away from the beach (a much needed short walk to repent from the gluttony sins just committed!) turn an unforgettable experience into a...