Sydney Eat Street: What to eat along Longueville Rd in Lane Cove
Once a sleepy North Shore suburb, Lane Cove has seen its main street, Longueville Rd, evolve into a collection of fabulous foodie finds for people who enjoy a wide range of culinary delights.
Eat Street
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LITTLE RED ROBIN RESTAURANT AND WINE BAR
It took years working at other venues and then in a sales position before co-owner Allesandro Nelli and partner Michelle Warren came to see that running an elegant restaurant was about more than just dim lights and fancy food.
“There is a certain beauty to fine-dining,” Allesandro says.
“It’s where hospitality meets entertainment. It’s the romance of pulling the cork out of a bottle of wine, the theatre of an expertly filleted fish at your table.”
“It’s not where you go just because you don’t want to cook at home,” adds Michelle.
Growing up on a vineyard in Italy, Allesandro was always around food, whether it be picking grapes and olives or picking up work at one of the area’s wine festivals, which he says, was actually “more of a social thing. You’d go there to work with your friends”.
All of those experiences led Allesandro and Michelle to open this edgy yet intimate restaurant and bar, Little Red Robin.
The share style menu features Mediterranean-inspired dishes with an emphasis on local and regional ingredients such as kangaroo and parsnips with espelette pepper, a capsicum cultivated in the Basque Country. Or welcome spring like a Venetian with vibrant green peas, basil and broth.
“The dinner table is where all the stories come together,” Allesandro says.
“Stories about where things are sourced from, how they’re prepared, the artistry behind the plating and the customers’ own stories. At the dinner table all these come together.”
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Though Allesandro and Michelle first thought of opening a more casual eatery, this refined setting and meticulous service suits their attentive approach.
“We need to make sure that what we deliver is special in its own right,” Michelle says.
“If people have chosen to come here, we need to make it special. It’s all part of the story.”
And if you were wondering how the Little Red Robin got its name: Back in Tuscany his mother used to feed the birds, mainly the little red robins.
— 4/85 Longueville Rd; littleredrobin.net.au
POTTERY GREEN BAKERY & CAFE
Do as I say, not what I do didn’t really turn out how Aimy Hoang’s mother, Tam Tran, envisaged.
“Our mum told us to go to uni so that we never had to work in a bakery because it was such hard work.”
Aimy and her brother William Tran did so and excelled in their careers but in 2011 quit the corporate world and bought a bakery.
Their foray into the cafe world though is quite a bit different from that of their parents’ who had come to Australia as Vietnamese refugees.
Penniless, they asked themselves “What can we do to make money?”. Tam Tran had baked bread in the refugee camps — that was the extent of their experience so they bought a bakery and before fully taking it over, the previous owner taught them everything they needed to know.
“Everything on the menu is a reflection of ourselves,” Aimy says.
The glass cases are loaded with stunning pastries and the shelves hold baskets of fresh bread.
The breakfast menu ranges from light and healthy juices to stuffed omelettes and stacked corn fritters with lunch options that include, salads, burgers, pho and other noodle dishes.
“We always had a multicultural dinner table — beef noodle soups one day and steak the next,” Aimy says.
For the whole family, it was rather poignant giving it the name Pottery Green Bakery — not just because they used to be able to open the back door and see Pottery Green oval but because they and wanted a name that would “show the community how we are really connected to the area”.
— 112 Longueville Rd; facebook.com/PotteryGreenBakersLaneCove
LILLAH
Thousands of years of taste-testing have gone into the menu at Lillah. In Australia, often Middle Eastern food means Lebanese but Lillah has more to offer.
“Instead of one Middle Eastern country, it’s a blend of them all including Tunisia, Yemen and Iraq,” owner Trevor Blye says.
“The flavours that have been around for centuries and recipes that have been passed down for generations — all collected here and reinvented.”
Although Trevor notes how he grew up around food he admits that he was drawn to hospitality for the excitement where “things are always changing and moving parts need to be managed”.
For Lillah (meaning “beautiful night” in Arabic) to work, Trevor knew he would have to literally build it from the ground up, so gutted an old noodle shop, lifted the ceilings, and added skylights to create the look and feel of an open courtyard.
For the menu, he deferred to Roy Ner, executive chef at Nour in Surry Hills, to create dishes that would suit this casual restaurant’s relaxed lunches and livelier evening service such as their hummus bowls with house-smoked zaatar lamb or eggplant, their signature laffah wraps and crowd-favourite, the slow cooked lamb with pumpkin tahini.
“The wonderful thing about hospitality is that when you serve great food and offer a great experience, you have the power to change a person’s day,” he says.
— 128 Longueville Rd; lillahkitchen.com
SHORTIES BAR & DINING
Stop in for a cocktail, but be surprised by the great food — and that is the long and short of it.
Why Shorties? On Longueville Rd there is Longueville Hotel (Longy) so they’ve called themselves “Shorties” #Straya.
From the owner of The Hayberry in Crows Nest, Steve Jones, and Small Bar Kirribilli, Phil Jensen, Shorties is a cosy spot with dark woods, smoky blue walls, quirky nods to 80s music icons and one of the only places in Lane Cove where you can come in just for a drink.
But while it’s party in the front, the back section is geared more towards dining with share-style Modern Australian dishes such as pumpkin gnocchi, cider braised pork, seared scallops, gin cured salmon and of course, chocolate lava cake.
“It’s comfort food done well,” Phil says.
Be sure to try out their signature cocktails, particularly the Gin the Cove — named after In The Cove, Lane Cove’s community website that encourages people to “shop local”. Coincidence? I think not.
— 96 Longueville Rd; shortieslanecove.com.au
FOUR FROGS CREPERIE
Sweet things are made of these, but crepes — the famous French import normally associated with scoops of ice cream, berries and chocolate — has a savoury sibling called a galette.
A popular breakfast and lunch item in France, these crepes are slightly denser than the dessert version as they are made with buckwheat. And in lieu of sugar, a galette is filled with the likes of ham and Swiss cheese; bacon, egg and cheese or prosciutto, goat cheese and walnuts.
Florian Guillemard, owner and founding chef of Four Frogs Creperie, suggests balancing the savoury flavour of the meats and cheeses with a glass of French cider.
It’s delicious and filling but like the old saying goes, “there’s always room for dessert” and fortunately, they have quite a selection of the sweet treats.
— 115-119 Longueville Rd; fourfrogs.com.au
MUST TRY
KASINA KOREAN EATERY
That crunch you hear is the sound of Korean fried chicken. The chicken, which had already been seasoned with spices, sugar and salt, is fried twice, which makes the skin much thinner, less greasy and just perfect to take on the flavours of different sauces that are “handpainted” onto it.
Best enjoyed with a cold beer, pickles and radishes, at this hip Korean restaurant, you can choose from their eight different flavours including, sweet and spicy, hot and spicy, honey butter, soy garlic, spring onion, hotter than hell and snow cheese that’s dusted with cheese powder.
— Shop 5, 79-83 Longueville Rd; facebook.com/kasina.eatery/
LONGUEVILLE HOTEL
Pub grub meets posh with chef Jeremy Powis heading up the brand new kitchen. A local favourite since 1929, the menu is filled with classic dishes that reflect his experience in hatted-restaurants.
Think and chips made with battered barramundi, roast chicken and leak pot-pie, or chicken schnitzel with a basil aioli.
— 80 Longueville Rd; longuevillehotel.com
ENCASA RESTAURANT
Welcome to the family. At this comfy Spanish restaurant and deli, the whole idea is to make you feel right at home. It’s even in the name, Encasa which translates to “at home” and with friendly staff service serving up generous portions of delicious share plates you’ll leave satisfied and set for a fiesta.
There are so many wonderful options that you could just run your finger down the menu and land on a winner, but be sure that the abondigas, beef meat balls with almond sauce are on your list.
— 132 Longueville Rd; encasa.com.au
LILLANE EATERY
Lane Cove is making quite the name for itself as a cafe-loving mecca. A relatively recent addition to that list is this bright and airy cafe that offers batch brews of Five Senses coffee along with many breakfast and lunch favourites that have been given a Japanese inspired twist.
The menu changes seasonally but you can expect the likes of the Ohayō Pancake made with chorizo and mayo, the chicken katsu hotdog or for a sweet touch, try the waffles toped with berries, mascarpone, vanilla sugar, Canadian maple syrup and popping candy.
— Shop 1/152 Longueville Rd