Previous SlideNext Slide

Who knew that the great modernist architect, Marcel Breuer, designed a factory in the back streets of Penrith? (OK, quite a few people, probably, but try not to spoil my excitement.)

The Torin factory is the only Breuer building in Australia, its 1976 design and construction overseen by Sydney architect Harry Seidler, who had worked with Breuer in New York.

The link may be tenuous, but I am sitting in a restaurant called Marcel named in the Bauhaus designer’s honour. It is also in Penrith, on the first floor of a smart new Pullman hotel that is part of the $1 billion redevelopment of the 60-hectare Penrith Panthers leisure, entertainment and conference precinct.

Wow, Penrith, look at you now. It’s a striking curved space marked by great big columns, tiled floors and a subdued atmosphere; something interior designer Monique Franklin of Turner design studio has sought to remedy with a softened Bauhaus influence.

Breuer’s famous Cesca metal-framed, rattan-backed dining chairs are cushioned, the banquettes curved, and a private dining room is tall-ceilinged and timbered, given gravitas with black steel-framed glass doors. Form follows function room.

Korean-born executive chef Colin Chun has divided dishes into small, medium and large, which feels a bit retail, but is at least helpful. It’s a menu that wants to be fine dining but also have food for the people; given that it has to go across conference delegates, local celebrations and sporting folk. There’s fancy stuff such as burrata with green tomatoes and persimmon, and pearl barley risotto with cashew cream, and more straightforward dishes such as spatchcock with garlic labne, and 1 kilogram grilled T-bones.

After some great cocktails from Dylan Sweep in the adjacent bar, I’m deposited at a restaurant table and left for so long that I seriously consider crossing the road to Harry’s Cafe de Wheels for a pie.

Eventually, orders are taken, and very hot bread rolls arrive, but prove to be too crisped for comfort.

Oysters listed under small at $6 each are indeed small, topped with a mild Granny Smith mignonette.

Dishes from the medium section work best. There’s real life and character in three big, meaty king prawns ($28), split, slathered with a bisque-like butter and grilled until the shells are charred and smoky. Just a lemon cheek and a few crisp curry leaves; nice.

A dish of fregola is very together, strewn with littleneck clams and slivers of calamari, awash with anchovy butter ($23). There’s something considered and confident about this dish that most of the other dishes aspire to.

Breuer isn’t the only local influence, with greens and vegetables from Sun’s Fresh Farm and Heng Fresh Farm in Western Sydney Parklands playing across the menu.

Under large, a Kiewa Valley lamb rack ($48) is cooked as two big double chops, with a green chimichurri and unlikely pickled chilli accompaniments.

The habit of setting one’s knife and fork at the extreme edges of the table is odd, but once the junior floor staff hit their stride, they are universally bright, shiny and sweet.

Jack’s Creek hanger steak Fritz ($38) is crusty and carefully cooked (the fritz are frites, a mountain of shoestring fries), with enough flavour to not really need the mulchy Cafe de Paris butter. A bright, vibrant Settlement Pinot Noir ($89) from New Zealand’s Omaka Valley, on the other hand, is not at all gratuitous.

The pastry chef has been kept busy piping creme chantilly on top of a light, airy rum baba ($18), adorned with a louche purple pansy petal. Another good, confident dish, although I feel more could be done with it. (Setting it alight? Knowing the name of the rum?)

An ambitious western Sydney city poised for massive growth needs a fancy dining room, one that’s equally ambitious without being big-city pretentious. Marcel has the ideas, intent and drive to be that restaurant. It’s something new for Penrith, but then, there’s a lot about Penrith that’s new for Penrith.

Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to Monique Lane of Fellow Hospitality. It’s been updated to say Monique Franklin of Turner design studio.