It’s here, It’s magnificent: Restaurant Hubert is the coolest place to open in Sydney for a long, long time

It’s the coolest restaurant to open in Sydney for a long, long time. But how good is Hubert? Very, very good, says chief restaurant critic Elizabeth Meryment

Chicken fricassee Restaurant Hubert in Sydney’s CBD. Picture: John Fotiadis

Hubert

Address: 15 Bligh St, Sydney

Phone: (no phone)

Web: restauranthubert.com

Food: French

Score: 16.5/20

A WOODEN door appears in the gloom of a rain-streaked Sydney street.

Inner-city types — men in suits, ladies in heels, the bearded, the manbunned, pretty young people — push it open and disappear behind it. Above the door is a sign humbly painted, Hubert. This is the place.

Descend the spiralled staircase that seems to go on longer than it should. The gloom intensifies, then, suddenly, you arrive in a cavernous, ruby-hued, wood-panelled space illuminated by dozens of candles whose twinkling glow dances on the vintage mirrored ads and wine bottles that line the walls.

A stage set idly with an old baby grand rests in one space, while the dining room floor shimmers with patrons. Sinatra’s You Make Me Feel So Young tinkles in the background and the air is thick with the scent of candlewax and sautéing chicken.

Inside Restaurant Hubert, Sydney. Picture: John Fotiadis

You might mistake yourself for being in a 1960s spy movie. But in fact this is Sydney dining 2016-style, as imagined by the exceptionally creative twentysomethings behind the Swillhouse Group. That would be brothers Anton and Stefan Forte plus Jason Scott, who have already gifted Sydney some of its coolest venues (the Baxter Inn, Shady Pines, Frankie’s). And now, Hubert.

It’s hard to think of a more hyped venue lately than Hubert, and why not? I can’t recall another restaurant this year that I’ve enjoyed sitting in as much, and that’s before the menu is viewed.

From left to right, the Hubert team of chef Dan Pepperell, Anton Forte, Stefan Forte and Jason Scott. Picture: John Fotiadis

And as we nestle into a cosy booth alongside a sparkling bar, our waiter, who introduces himself as Murph, and asks for and remembers our names, begins delivering things we really want to eat and drink. The enjoyment level ups notch after notch.

The menu is by chef Dan Pepperell (ex-10 William St) who says his culinary inspiration for Hubert comes from cookbooks that predate World War I. Really? Yes, it’s true.

It’s a French menu (“done retro style”) the likes of which can be so boring in the wrong hands. No such turgidity here, for Pepperell massages x-factor into dishes that could otherwise be dishwater dire.

Hubert’s chicken fricassee. Picture: John Fotiadis

The menu’s opening stanza focuses on cold plates, so eat like your great-great-grandparents (if they were rich and lived in Paris) from a table laden with, say, Merimbula oysters ($24, six) so gunmetal tangy they make your toes curl, to a still-life arrangement of crudités ($24), called Le Grand Aioli, of carrots, radish, pickled mussels, black tomatoes and more with a pot of thick aioli, to a funky little moulded jelly — ouefs en gelee ($14) — of egg yolk suspended in an umami-kicking jelly of bonita and trout roe. Retro? Positively. Lip smacking? Oh yes.

Murph tries to talk us into murray cod a la grenobloise ($84) — whole cod in brown butter, capers and lemons, but the price defeats us. We stretch our budget instead to chicken fricassee ($62), a whole Holmbrae bird that’s brined, dried, steamed then fried and served spectacularly avec head and claws. And it is an artwork, the bird bathing luxuriantly in a jus of buttery wine and forest mushrooms. Sydney’s best chicken? A contender. Diamond clams Normade ($29) proves another rich and buttery affair, the exquisite net of French fries on the side a highlight.

Diamond clams ‘Normande’ with fries. Picture: John Fotiadis

Is this complex, tricky, visually breathtaking food à la the high-pricing fine diners of Sydney? No. Rather, this is delicious, considered, real yet whimsical food done beautifully. It’s food you want to eat, served alongside great wines and vintage cocktails (a margarita, $20, for instance) done, yes, perfectly.

So Hubert is Sydney’s new “it” restaurant. It deserves to be. It’s a night out and then some.

twitter: @lizziemeryment