Not many restaurants boast their own art gallery, but Viand, which opens in Woolloomooloo on March 2, goes big on restaurant accoutrements.

A theatrical entrance of red velvet curtains reveals a kitchen so open and sprawling it feels like a film set. "My dream is having people in my kitchen," says the star of the show, Viand's owner-chef, Annita Potter. "I want people to have all their senses heightened."

Potter travelled the world as David Thompson's right-hand woman in restaurants from London to Bangkok. The Perth-born chef was parachuted into Sydney as part of the opening team at Long Chim and liked Sydney enough to put down roots.

"Everyone thinks Viand is French," she laughs. It's Thai. Serious Thai. Potter is aiming for a high Thai note Sydney isn't currently hitting.

"A supplier told me the other day there are 724 Thai restaurants in Sydney," she says.

Viand will be one of the few that doesn't offer green curry or papaya salad. Instead, it will launch with a $145-a-head tasting menu featuring spanner crab and puffed tapioca, salted duck egg relish with scampi and sticky aged pork, a clear soup of mussels, green onions and young ginger, and braised monkfish with pickled plums.

The vegan equivalent is $120-a-head and there are plans to add an a la carte menu in a few weeks.

The restaurant, which sprawls across an entire 1930s building (previously home to an Italian restaurant), has a Thai-feeling courtyard next to the kitchen, and a luxe private dining room with a metal curtain.

Potter used British designer Ab Rogers after being impressed by the restaurant he designed that replaced Thompson's London restaurant, Nahm.

Potter's artist partner, Mark Wotherspoon, runs the gallery upstairs, and they hope to turn the building into a local hub, with weekend cooking classes part of the long-term plans.

Lucky you, Woolloomooloo.

Open dinner Wed-Sat, 41 Crown Street, Woolloomooloo, viand.club