Saint Peter: blessed are they that do seafood well

Saint Peter will reel in those who appreciate our oceans’ bounty.

Chef Josh Niland at his new venue, Saint Peter, in Paddington. Picture: Jenny Evans

Scales, gills, tentacles, roe … For reasons probably no more than coin­cidence, 2016 seems destined to go down in Australia as the Year of Our Seafood Mojo. As evidence, may we cite publication of the Australian Fish & Seafood Cookbook, a manual, text and ­inspirational guide written for and by Australians. We love it. Then there’s the new seafood place at Sydney’s Barangaroo, Cirrus, destined to be a great Australian restaurant. Poten­tially, anyway. There’s serious talk of a Neil Perry seafood restaurant at Crown Perth. And, at the other end of the corporate scale, a new, standalone, husband-and-wife restaurant devoted to seafood and named for our favourite edible swimmer, the san pietro (john dory). Suddenly, in a nation surrounded by waters full of fish, seafood is front of mind.

The Pitch: Chef Josh Niland is a young man who has specialised his cooking career around seafood, most ­notably with Sydney’s (if not Australia’s) acknowledged prince of the piscatorial, Steve Hodges (formerly of Fishface). With his wife Julie as business partner, Niland has taken that first, well-worn path into business with a small restaurant of his own, and it’s a model for which we have a great deal of (possibly nostalgic) affection. He calls Saint Peter “an Australian fish & seafood restaurant”.

The reality: With an entrance right on the street (which plays havoc with those tables close to the door where expectant diners hover), SP is very Sydney: beautiful, massive sandstone bricks one side, blasted bricks liberated of render the other. The lighting is concealed and clever, tables bare, napkins paper, an amenity slightly at odds with the service, cooking and pricing here. A nicely put-­together collection of wines, with plenty of younger producers represented but by no means a “natural” focus, does a good job of complementing the hero proteins and sauces.

The cuisine: “Modern/Mediterranean” would seem a fair descriptor. Quality seafood prepared simply and in a way that shines a light on the produce would be an accurate mission statement.

Sweet and sour albacore tuna. Picture: Jenny Evans

Highlights: With a strong personal following, and by tapping into latent demand in the district for this kind of produce-first bistro, SP is already pumping and the vibe is very agreeable. Good service keeps things on track. One of SP’s strong points is the frequent use of fish bits rarely seen on the plate. Scales. Liver. Trimmings. A small dish — “Albany Hapuka & all its Parts” — sees “wing”, liver, cheek and milt (roe in its sack) all cooked differently but in a delicious, dense squid sauce. Fresh Horse Island oysters, from Tuross Lake in NSW, are pretty damned good solo but add a lobe of uni … Wow.

Grilled Flinders Island (provenance varies) calamari makes for the perfect squid salad, tossed with pickled ­julienne of kohlrabi, saltbush and a piquant dusting of native pepper berry. And even simpler, but excellent, is Spanish mackerel very gently seared skin-side down to produce a crisp crust while ­remaining translucent inside, and served with aioli and a pickled onion/parsley salad. Boiled new potatoes in a spanner crab butter are delicious, but rich. Share.

Lowlights: Something traumatic happened to our whole flounder between being caught and being eaten: served with a butter/fish stock/roasted garlic sauce and garnished with saltbush and chives, it had mysteriously turned to mush. Radically overcooked? I don’t for a moment think the flounder was anything less than perfect when the order went in. But it was not good at all. And we’re happy to pay for quality bread — but it needs to keep-a-comin’.

Will I need a food dictionary? No, there’s a refreshing simplicity and maturity to Saint Peter’s ­entire demeanour, including the menu’s wording.

The damage: What you’d expect — the upper mid-level price range: $22 starters, $36 mains.

In summary: Needs a holding bar but, aberrations aside, this is the kind of place where you know the owner is cooking your fish dinner. And that’s a good thing.

Saint Peter: 362 Oxford St, Paddington, Sydney | Phone: [phone] | Hours: brunch/lunch Sat, Sun; dinner Wed-Sun | Score: 3.5 out of 5 | More: saintpeter.com.au