Sydney’s working up an appetite for one-stop dining shops
Forget long, complicated menus. Diners are hungry for restaurants with a specific focus — from fried chicken for bagels and skewers. Here are 10 of the best:
NSW
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FORGET long, complicated menus — diners now want restaurants with a specific focus.
Eateries that specialise in one or two dishes rather than a broad range can offer a superior product — and they are now popping up throughout Sydney.
Chef Morgan McGlone may have done his apprenticeship with fine dining chef Luke Mangan but he’s best known for pioneering the popularity of fried chicken in Sydney through Belle’s Hot Chicken pop-up in Barangaroo.
“In the US I worked in a couple of restaurants in the south and fried chicken was something I really enjoyed,” he said.
“There are places dedicated to just burgers so why not give fried chicken the same respect? If we keep making it every day it continues to get better and more consistent.”
Belle’s Hot Chicken sells about 1000kg of chicken a week and McGlone looks at the recipe every few months.
“The chicken generally stays the same from the original recipe but it’s something that evolves, from the flour we use, to adding two or three spices to new frying units that clean the oil so you never get that fish and chips smell, which makes it better to cook the chicken in.”
Sometimes a product’s popularity is the catalyst for a specialist venture. When people would call Ameer “AJ’’ El-Issa’s family restaurant in Croydon just to order one takeaway dessert, he knew he was on to something.
With his background as an architect, he turned a shipping container into a mobile bakery in 2014 to sell knafeh, a Middle Eastern dessert, using his mum Nabila’s recipe.
“We served hundreds of people on our test night and knew it was a niche in the market that we could fill,” he said.
Knafeh Bakery now travels all over Sydney, from Bondi to Rouse Hill and sells, on average, about 1000 of the popular desserts a night.
“Being niche is a strength, we’re not just offering standard cafe fare,” El-Issa said.
“We have Moroccan mint tea and bottled water, in summer we do a home-style lemonade but as far food goes it’s only knafeh. We do what we do and nail it instead of trying to be everything to everyone.”
After enjoying the yakitori bars in Japan and being frustrated that he couldn’t find something similar in Sydney, Tin Shea opened Yakitori Yurripi in Crows Nest.
“My mate and I started grilling it in the markets about two years ago,” he said.
“In Japan a lot of it is done outdoors so it was a good way to start. We realised it was popular among Japanese people and the locals so we thought we’ll give it a crack and opened last October.”
The menu is simply a variety of skewered meats and offal with a few side dishes.
“It’s the authentic experience of grilling over charcoal, which makes the meat tender and there’s that smokiness that flavours the food,” he said.
“People come for the yakitori and it’s good to provide what they are looking for.”