Harbour City home to hottest restaurant openings of the year
The Harbour City has become a rare bright spot for the nation’s diners with four splashy multimillion-dollar venues set to open this winter amid a cost-of-living crisis. Find out what’s on the menu.
Mike Eggert is palpably excited about the launch of his new restaurant, Good Luck Restaurant Lounge, in the Sydney CBD.
Despite a nationwide downturn in dining and restaurateurs pointing to a tightening of spending per diner, Eggert is confident Good Luck, which opened on Wednesday, will buck the trend. And it’s not just because the restaurant has the backing of hospitality giant Merivale and its mercurial boss Justin Hemmes.
“Sydney is buzzing, it’s booming,” the chef tells The Australian. “It’s exciting. The dining public of Sydney is amazing. They get out and support everything. They support great restaurants, great cafes, great bakeries, great bars. They go to Cabramatta, to Hurstville, to Chinatown. They will do everything, they will run the gamut and it makes our city move. The general public of Sydney understands the culture of dining and supports it.”
Sydney is proving a rare bright spot in a nation grappling with a cost of living crisis that in some places, particularly regional Victoria, is seeing the mass closure of restaurants and cafes. But across the Harbour City, a number of splashy multimillion-dollar venues are debuting this winter, traditionally the down season in hospitality.
Apart from this 200-seater, with its iconoclastic menu of global dishes that range from smoked pork spring rolls to “roasted eggplant, vege gravy”, others set to launch include Neil Perry’s dazzling Double Bay Asian offering, Song Bird — a complement to his hit mod-Oz fine diner, Margaret — and Josh Niland’s relocated Paddington extravaganza, Saint Peter.
On Friday, Niland announced his seminal seafood restaurant, Saint Peter, would open in July in the completely refitted heritage hotel, the Grand National, on Paddington’s Underwood Street.
The change will see his restaurant relocate from a modest space on Oxford Street to offer “capacity for 40 guests in the dining room and 30 in the bar (plus) a private dining room offering bespoke dining for up to 15 guests”.
As well, Niland and his wife Julie Niland will launch a boutique hotel project that will sit above the restaurant in the remainder of the old hotel space.
“The luxury accommodation has been so beautifully designed that you will think you are in Paris, until you see the quintessentially Paddington rooftops and beautiful gum trees out your window,” says Julie Niland.
Eggert says that despite the hard times for many, beautifully realised restaurants that offer a unique dining experience will continue to draw crowds, even in hard times.
“We are lucky to have this amazing underground space (for Good Luck),” he says. “There aren’t many underground spaces in Sydney, and they are cherished by Sydney. There’s a certain ‘je ne sais quois’ about them. It’s an honour to have one.
“And I think if you can get out there and create a bit of buzz about your restaurant, it will be okay. I’m very excited.”
— Find out about what else is opening in Sydney this winter in The Weekend Australian Magazine in this weekend’s special Gourmet Journeys edition
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Good Luck Restaurant Lounge
Hard times in hospitality? Not in the world of restaurant and bar king Justin Hemmes, whose Merivale empire continues to expand at pace. His newest venue is overseen by Mike Eggert, the chef behind the hugely successful Totti’s Italian brand. Good Luck is housed in a CBD basement site and inspired by the “rebellious and avant-garde 1970s Tokyo underground scene”. The venue also offers two wine rooms, private and semi-private dining rooms, and a bar.
11 Bridge St, Sydney NSW 2000
Price range: from $14 - $195
Tue - Sat: 12pm - 12am
merivale.com/venues/good-luck/
Neptune’s Grotto
From the sizzling team – Mikey Clift, Dan Pepperell and Andy Tyson, pictured – that brought Sydney a string of hits including Restaurant Hubert, Pellegrino 2000 (visited recently by Taylor Swift) and Clam Bar, is this quirkily named venue offering Italian dining. It’s due to open in May. Expect lots of hype
Young Street &, Bridge St, Sydney NSW
COMING SOON - MAY
Saint Peter
Josh Niland is usually an impatient man. At 35, the chef has built a restaurant empire, written cookbooks, won awards, had four kids and become a chef of international renown for his sustainable seafood ethos. But patience has been of the essence while waiting for his new Paddington restaurant to be built. The famed Saint Peter is moving from its current location on Oxford Street into one of the area’s heritage hotels, the Grand National, and the restoration has been painstaking. When the new Saint Peter opens in around June, Niland and his wife Julie will have shiny new premises in which to showcase the chef’s extraordinary skill with fish and fruits of the sea, in dishes such as salt & vinegar garfish (pictured). Plus there will be a boutique hotel above, so you will be able to eat and drink without worrying about how to get home.
New location: 161 Underwood St, Paddington NSW
Current location: 362 Oxford St, Paddington NSW
Price range:
Tues - Sun: 5.30pm - late
Dinner Menu // Lunch Menu // Book now
COMING SOON - JULY
Song Bird
Sydney chef Neil Perry is sinking $6 million into new restaurants and bars in the ritzy harbourside suburb of Double Bay, single-handedly converting this once depleted neighbourhood into a culinary playground. Soon joining his exclusive Margaret restaurant and the more recent addition Baker Bleu (a cafe and bread shop) will be Song Bird, his paean to modern Chinese cuisine. Expect the sort of hot, sour, numbing, tingling dishes made famous by his previous Asian diner, Spice Temple.
24 Bay St, Double Bay NSW
COMING SOON