When Aalia restaurant opens its doors at 25 Martin Place on March 1, the newest kid on the block will give a design wink to its older neighbours.

Co-owner Ibby Moubadder explains that the brief to designer Matt Darwon (Automata) was that the restaurant blend in with the Harry Seidler-crafted buildings on the site.

"The way the bar curves, even the grey concrete we've used on the kitchen wall matches the Seidler-designed mushroom building in front of us," Moubadder says.

Good Food first tipped Aalia and Botswana Butchery would join the redevelopment back in 2020, and that former Fish Butchery chef Paul Farag would run Aalia's kitchen.

Even in those early days Farag was playing around with a recipe they found for fermented soy bean that predates Asian soy sauce.

So, how will it differ from Moubadder and Jorge Farah's innovative Lebanese-scented Nour restaurant, in Surry Hills?

"At Nour you can identify the dishes pretty quickly," Moubadder explains. "Aalia digs a little deeper, and inspiration for the food stretches from Lebanon to Syria, Egypt and Iraq, and it's a little more refined than Nour."

Aalia's opening menu has a Murray cod version of Masgouf, a seasoned and grilled fish many consider to be the national dish of Iraq. There's a sea urchin dish that diners roll up in sesame leaf, and caviar served with malawach, labneh, shallots and chives.

"In the same way you assume a Mediterranean restaurant is going to be bright and fresh in flavour, this is truly the same principle for Middle Eastern cuisine," Farag says.

"The idea behind the menu itself is to start with a few raw dishes and mezze, followed by mains and sides, with each dish crafted to represent a particular region, or specific era of Arabic culture."

Open Tue-Fri lunch and dinner, Sat dinner.

Ground level, 25 Martin Place, Sydney, 02 9182 5880, aaliarestaurant.com