Automata at the Old Clare, Chippendale - Clayton Wells’ triumph of originality

Sydney’s hippest eating precinct finally has a restaurant worthy of the hype. Better still - it’s more fun than pretentious.

Smoked eel, leek, black garlic and malt vinegar. Picture: Stephen Cooper

Chippendale, Sydney’s hippest eating precinct, finally has a restaurant worthy of the hype. Better still - it’s more fun than pretentious.

The pitch: Seriously hip and happening new restaurant in seriously hip and happening inner-city Chippendale in Sydney. Part of the newly redeveloped Old Clare Hotel on Broadway, Automata (emphasis on second syllable, please) is the first solo venture for former Momofuku Seiobo chef Clayton Wells and the launch pad for the hotel’s trio of hotly anticipated restaurants — Silvereye, with ex-Noma chef Sam Miller, also opened in September, while British celebrity chef Jason Atherton’s Kensington Street Social is due January. Automata’s name derives from the pre-electronic machinery deployed in the light fittings — check out the mezzanine chandelier, built from an old aircraft radial engine — that lend the industrial space so much of its swagger and steely good looks. Menu is set five courses, prix-fixe ($88 a head, food only) and the culinary style is progressive.

The reality: Hip it may be, self-consciously hip it isn’t. Dammit, Automata is simply a triumph, a heady blend of exciting and original modern food, winning service and contemporary dining mores in a fun, relaxed environment. (Oh and did I mention the wines?) I’d go back tomorrow. For more conservative types, the restaurant may not seem such an easy sell: nearly all the dining is communal, at a long, beautiful timber table (one upstairs, one down); the wine list is crammed with names you’ve likely never heard of unless you’re immersed in the natural wine movement; and the menu is not a populist document: on the night of our visit it begins with storm clams, ends with pumpkin seed sorbet, and has wagyu tongue and lamb neck between. But there’s something about the warmth and professionalism of the service, led by Abby Meinke, that inspires immediate confidence. Then there’s the food, from a team of young chefs in such close view of the table they’re really part of the show.

Steamed hapuka, cured roe emulsion and seaweed - an early contender for Hottest Dish 2015.

The cuisine: First to the New Zealand hapuku, the only dish Wells has been unable to shuffle off the otherwise constantly changing menu. Play it again, Clayton. The steamed fish gets a cured roe emulsion beneath and a square of seaweed (laver) lain over the top, like a black shroud. There is sea blight in there somewhere, too, and oceans of umami flavour. If you’re not convinced of chef’s genius by this — an early contender for Hottest Dish 2015 — try the bread and butter, or maybe just the butter: the soft sourdough rolls are merely a vehicle for butter whipped with roast chicken jus and anchovies, if you don’t mind. Value-adding, indeed, and they don’t even charge for it. Those storm clams, served in the shell, are bathed in a frothy dashi-rosemary cream (Wells has a way with fresh herbs); to a dainty bowl of smoked eel, leeks, black garlic and thyme is added a broth, poured at table, made of smoked eel-bone; wagyu tongue is first brined 12 hours, cooked for 24, then sliced and seared on the plancha grill before serving with witlof, green sauce and fried capers; thick, not chewy strips of lamb neck come with eggplant puree, shiitake, tamari and brown butter.

Smoked eel, leek, black garlic and malt vinegar. Picture: Stephen Cooper

Drinks: There are only a few sommeliers with the level of knowledge, combined with relaxed enthusiasm, necessary to sell what is — on paper at least — a daunting list of 100-odd natural-leaning wines. Luckily, Tim Watkins is one of them. Not for him obscurity for obscurity’s sake: the producers are solid and he works with good importers; that is, ones who don’t include stocking-fillers in their portfolios. And if your tastes are as definite as your opinions? He may offer to show you a few bottles “from my cellar” — that is, off the list — that will surely fit the bill. Elsewhere, there’s a nice selection of aperitifs and sakes, too.

Highlights: Food. Service. Value. The room. The sense of being in a restaurant that matters. I think that just about covers it.

Lowlights: Some have taken issue with dining at the communal table. Didn’t bother us, but if it’s intimate conversation you’re after, head for one of the tables near the arched windows. It should be noted, though, that on a return visit for a postprandial drink propped on a high swivel chair at a back bench, service was a tad slow, as if we had exited The Zone. And a qualified comment about the dessert: while the pumpkin seed sorbet with bitters meringue and freeze-dried nuggets of mandarin won points for texture (nicely slushy) and temperature (unlike most sorbets, it wasn’t teeth-achingly cold) it didn’t, as a whole, match the excitement levels of the savoury courses.

The pumpkin seed sorbet with bitters meringue and mandarin gets points for texture and temperature.

Will I need a food dictionary? Unlikely with such a clipped menu. A beginner’s guide to organic wines, on the other hand …

The damage: By Sydney standards, especially at this level of accomplishment, the bill at Automata represents pretty good value.

The last word: The emerging Central Park precinct in Chippendale gets a restaurant worthy of the hype.

Automata: 5 Kensington Street, Chippendale, Sydney, phone [phone], automata.com.au, [e-mail]

Open: Dinner from 6pm, Wednesday-Saturday. Lunch from midday Sunday

Food: Set menu, contemporary and creative

Rating: 4.5 out of 5