The Mouth: Why Balmain’s The Dry Dock Hotel is Sydney’s best new restaurant opening

Balmain might be the suburb Sydney loves to hate, but a renovated pub is giving people a reason to visit. And The Mouth says it’s worth the trip.

Chefs at work at the revamped Dry Dock. Photo: Supplied

Ah, Balmain, the suburb that Sydney loves to hate.

Sure, it’s unfair, but an old waterfront wharfies suburb turned lefty millionaire’s row was always going to attract some unkind attention in a city as obsessed with politics as it is with property.

It’s even been blamed for the housing crisis, as if bulldozing a bunch of sandstone homes to create Zetland-by-Sea would fix the problem.

One commentator recently even said the place was dull and boring and “not equitable”, which presumably means not enough vape shops and kebab joints for some peoples’ liking.

To test this proposition – is Balmain dead? – The Mouth recently Uber’d over to the insular peninsula to check out the new Dry Dock, which is quickly becoming a new hot ticket in town after a recent renovation.

The much-loved community pub in the heart of Balmain, Dry Dock has re-opened to the public from November 2023.

Well, on a recent Friday night, every pub we passed seemed to be doing a good trade. And there were a lot of them.

Meanwhile, the newly refurbished Dry Dock was pumping. Rocking up for a table unannounced led to an hour or so wait, easily managed with several Negronis in the buzzy front bar.

Eventually our able hostess – who should get an AO for services to managing hungry idiots like us who didn’t plan ahead – brought us to the far end of the dining room, which is simple, white, eschewing all the crap on the walls so many restaurant groups obsess over.

The interiors of the dining room at the Dry Dock.

And the food? Somewhere deep in the bowels of the kitchen a lonely man is precisely mincing eschalots for a mignonette sauce entirely superfluous to gorgeous, plump shucked to order Merimbula oysters.

Our table also went in hard for salt cod croquettes and anchovy toasts, pepped up with a tangy garlic cream.

Mains, too, did not disappoint.

The Mouth’s highlight was the oysters.

We had gone in all sceptical noting the number of recent openings where a corporate chef hides behind a Josper grill.

Not here: chef Ben Sitton turned out a cracking roast chicken with a sweet and savoury pan sauce, and a massive pork chop crumbed and deep fried and tender enough to eat with a fork.

In short, it was the kind of warming fun food we love to eat at home and generally do better and for less money than most restaurants.

And the bill for two with a nice bottle of Kiwi chardonnay was relative value at a bit over $300.

Calling it now, this is the best new opener we’ve been to in a while. Just make sure to book ahead.

— The Mouth is an undercover critic and bon vivant who pays his own way around Sydney and beyond.