King Clarence might be the most against-type Sydney restaurant opening of 2023. The “fun and loud” Asian restaurant, expected to open in October, is the next venture from the group behind a stable of award-winning restaurants – Bentley, Monopole and Brasserie 1930 included – that typically lean on Euro finesse with an Australian twist.

Back in March, Good Food reported Bentley restaurateurs Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt had quietly lodged a development application for a site on the corner of King and Clarence streets.

The King Clarence moniker is a cute play on its location. “This one was Nick’s idea,” Savage says of the name.

After a couple of decades of running gastro temples at the top of Sydney’s dining tree, Savage says they are looking forward to doing something “young and fun”.

“Restaurants are more than food and wine,” he says. “We’re going to have the same [attention to] quality, but it’s going to be loud.”

An Asian restaurant is a clever addition to a hot precinct with plenty of European cuisines on offer at The Charles, Sammy Junior and Palazzo Salato.

King Clarence will focus on the northern cuisines of China, Korea and Japan.
“Dumplings, lots of things on skewers. The whole city loves eating Asian food,” Savage says.

Much of the food will come off the barbecue. And King Clarence’s barbecue has lineage: it’s the very one Noma used at its famed pop-up. Savage and Hildebrandt inherited it when Cirrus restaurant slid into the former Noma site at Barangaroo, and they have kept it in storage for the past seven years, waiting for the right project.

Hildebrandt will curate a wine menu that traverses the globe, but focuses on the wines’ suitability alongside Asian food. They expect to serve 40 wines by the glass, and even some Asian-inspired cocktails.