121BC

Good food, great wine list, awesome atmosphere. It provided it a pretty perfect Thursday night

Not my first visit definitely won’t be my last. This tiny hole in the wall gem in Surry hills offers an array of carefully selected Italian variables available by the glass, bottle or to take home from the adjoining cellar.
Whilst the wines are the draw card for this intimate venue the seasonally crafted menu will have you lusting after an accompaniment to your beverage. Options on offer will vary but has a distinct Italian influence to go with the wine. Best thing about the communal table is that you can scope out the options before ordering.
The wine list is diverse with plenty of depth and rare gems on offer. The other night we were treated to the sensory pleasure of a 1990 Nebbiolo which has a rich and fruity aroma and yet light delicate flavour that tantalised the palate at every sip. We wanted to savour this flavour and bring a bottle home but alas it was the last glass of this magical elixir.
If there is something that tickles your fancy make sure you try it out. What you find today may not be there tomorrow.

Concept: on point. Wine selection: lovely. Customer experience: terrifying. Our party of 6 was using 5 seats for 45 minutes. 2 seats opened next to us. We were denied use of the seat, so they could seat 2 people who just walked in. With little communication, we were told to get up and «tough luck» on the seat situation. I have never been met with such hostility and anger from staff at a bar/​restaurant in Sydney. We were threatened to be kicked out. We were scolded. And we were eventually forced to leave. I will never go back. WE will never go back. Good luck 121bc!

Great wine, and food — but a little too pricey for what you get IMHO.
TL;DR
Incredible wine list, and the food was great. However, at the current price point, you could get a better anti pasti sustain from Thomas Dux.
Waiters were pretty good /​attentive to keeping your glass always at the right level (for me = full).
Intimate décor, however, little awkward for bigger groups.

Tiny bar with good wine list from Italy. The service was courteous and prompt. Although we had to wait half an hour for our food, it was well worth the wait
The pork ribs were tender and succulent. It falls right off the bones as you eat them. The cauliflower was average, not as great as the other reviews.
It was one of the smallest wine bars I’ve been too.

The wines are excellent but this place was desperately under-​staffed. Two waiters working the crowded (and too cramped) space feels like a money grab. Put more people on.

This is a slinky little wine bar. Very little and very slinky. Im all over the communal table lately, and this one is very cool and intimate.
The Italian-​only wine list is chalked on the wall in a way that invites you try a few different varieties. Small plates of simple Italian food will tie you over nicely to tea time.
Best to go in a twosome. Bring a crew and you’ll ruin the vibe.

We went here last night, it’s a tiny bar /​eatery with a bunch of tapas dishes that range from beetroot salads to roasted lambs ribs. The wine selection is the selling point — it’s all Italian which the owner personally selects on visits to Italy. Never brings back more than a few cases, so it’s quite unique wines. There is only one long single shared table and a couple of waiters (including the owner), plus there is a bottle shop through the glass door where you can buy the wines if you have one that appeals.
We found this one with some difficulty, given its up a side street, off a side street in Surry Hills, just near Movida. The wait staff are very friendly and get that I didn’t know what wine I wanted. They were happy to select for me and they made great choices (though I couldn’t say now what they were after three glasses).
The dishes, a beetroot, lamb ribs, potato bread rolls, tomato salad and an octopus dish were well chosen. They were all delicious, though of course I love ribs in all their guises, so it was my favourite. They bake and deep fry them. Drool. They potato bread rolls came with a brown butter which tasted like caramel and melted in your mouth.
We stayed here for a while before moving onto the next stop and would revisit — if I can find it again.

121 BC was love at first sip and bite ! And by the looks of it the affair is sure to continue. It’s a cosy wine bar that serves up some great food too without the trappings of a pretentious place. The staff is friendly and guide you through a selection of wines on offer, if you chose to. The wine list (by glass only) and minimal food menu is scribbled on the wall. You could be tricked into thinking you are in a bar in Milan :) we had a couple reds which were all good and recommended as per our individual tastes. The food was lip smacking good with pork ribs falling off the bones tender and roasted carrots with almonds and ricotta flavourful and tasty. The share plates have been thoughtfully designed to share between two people which means that there will be no awkward moments about who should get the last piece ! All in all a cosy cute little place, pretty packed but you don’t feel crowded.

This place just slipped on like a glove. The wine was great and so was the food. I also really loved the idea of most of the bar being one big communal table. I can’t help but wonder if this would make it rather conducive to meeting people. At the same time, the fact that you are all sitting at a table could make it a less than ideal place to go to alone, and it seemed that everyone there was catching up with old friends.
Come here for a bit of this and a bit of that. The food seemed to be mainly share plates, and the wine menu was fairly all-​encompassing too.

Are you looking for the perfect date-​night spot? Look no further…121BC is it! Tucked away in a discreet Surry Hills alley (made less discreet with busy Movida around the corner these days) this place is the perfect cosy and dimly lit wine bar to hunker down at the large communal table and order from their by-​the-​glass-​only wine menu. They also have a small food menu with enough variety and a few heavier options if you decide you want to make it into a meal. Do not miss the ribs — excellent flavour. The steak was also perfectly cooked.
The place was so dimly lit, in fact, that we couldn’t even take any photos! But take my word for it… this place is fabulous.
Pro Tip: Get there early. They don’t take bookings and the place is TINY. If you aren’t able to get there early enough… put your name down for a table. They will take you number and call you when it’s ready. Try heading over to Vini (their sister restaurant around the corner) which is a bit more spacious so you may be able to get a bar seat in the back while you wait for your call from 121.

Super cool.
121BC takes the wine bar thing to a whole new level.
about 30 people (not all with a seat) can fit around the long, narrow bar/​table. You choose you wines by the glass off the blackboard behind the dimly lit bar (or bring a bottle in from their wine shop next door and add $ 15 to drink it in the bar). Food? Sure, their ever changing menu is scrawled across another wall, or written on the back of the staff’s order pads which they happily hand you to examine.
We tried 5 wines each (all fantastic) and because we know nothing of Italian wines we asked the staff for recommendations which they were keen to provide. With each wine we ordered a share plate off the menu. Everything was great, and portioned perfectly for nibbling between sips of vino. Olives & salami, chicken liver pâté, balsamic ribs, potatoes with goats cheese and sardine bruschetta (to die for!) were our choices. In the end 10 glasses of wine + 5 dishes + 2.5 hours of amazing service and atmosphere = $ 140. Not bad at all!
This is a perfect spot for a date. We’ll be back!

We were having a glass of wine waiting for seats at Movida. And waiting. So we kept drinking stunning Italian wines that were chosen for us by the lovely staff. Then we waited some more. Then we ate some incredibly tasty tapas. The sardines were a standout, as were the pork ribs. The menu changes often so eat whatever they’ve got. It was all good!
Then we waited some more, drank some more and ate some more. Finally, a bottle or so of red having passed our lips, we got a call from Movida — our table was ready. No thanks, we found somewhere better.

Explore the wine list, it’s divine.

Fantastic small-​bar/​tapas type bar. Small attached wine shop as well, so you can purchase a bottle there and have it served at the restaurant. Limited menu, I would say only about 10 items on the menu. We had the roasted cauliflower, chili garlic broccoli, the pork ribs and the chicken liver pâté. The ribs were the most notable of the evening, they apparently cook them for 18 hours, overnight. Slight spice on the ribs, but crispy on the outside, they fall off the bone.
We also tried 4 different wines, all good, all on the lighter end of the reds. I really enjoyed the barbera, but all the wines were good.
This is very tiny space, maybe 20 – 25 seats (not tables). Highly recommended, but be prepared to be turned away. If so, they’ll point you to their sister restaurant around the corner — Vini.

Love this place! I mean yes, it’s ridiculously tiny, but it works — great vibe. And MAN do they serve some good wine. The food is a perfect compliment to the Italian wine– which you can handpick, if you so choose, from the gorgeous wine cellar adjacent to the cantina. The pork ribs in particular were delicious and the food was actually well-​priced, albeit I suppose the portions were mini for the price (but I’m okay with that). It’s also remained consistently good each time I have been (which wins major points for me in Sydney).
One tip — get there early on the weekends, the place probably holds 15 – 20 people max and with all of that beautiful wine, people tend to linger!

Damn. Don’t walk. Run! I For my last night in Sydney, after meeting the Chef, Luca, at the Wine Library two nights before, a friend and I headed over to 121BC to fulfill a promise to try it out. The scene inside is pretty cool; there is a chilled wine cellar that you may pick a bottle from (all Italian), or you may opt to order wine by the glass. The restaurant is dimly lit and everyone sits around a long table, which collectively creates an inviting atmosphere.
The food is amazing and some of the best — from beginning to end — that I have had in a long time. I won’t go into detail about each dish because each of them are special. Two dishes, however, that really stand out were the braised ribs and the king fish. My friend and I agreed that the ribs were the best ribs we had ever tried; they are THAT good. The king fish was amazing as well.
I was very impressed with this place and if ever given the opportunity to visit Sydney again this place will be on the list. You don’t have to always try a new place when you find a 5-​star gem like this.

121BC is run by Giorgio, a man who knows his Italian wine, and serves it with humble, understated style. The wine is not specifically matched with the food, Giorgio says, «It doesn’t have to be matched, it’s all good, just enjoy it!»
It’s dark and cosy inside, and you sit on stools at a long table /​bar. The waiters talk in Italian and except for the people next to us bitching about CityRail, you could almost be transported elsewhere.
121BC emphasises quality Italian wine, accompanied by small-​plate dishes with sophisticated Italian-​style. The wine is all Italian … and much of it is organic or «biodynamic», … I’m not really sure what the latter means, but hey… that sounds good, right?
Now — here’s the trick. Wine is only sold by the glass, but we were a party of 3, so we went to the enoteca next door (still part of 121BC, it’s their little bottle shop), and chose one of the bottles there. We chose by region — but it’s ALL good, and Giorgio is happy to help you decide. Giorgio then took the wine back to the cantina, and served it to us. So. you pay ‘bottle shop prices’ for the wine, but the corkage charge is $ 15 (per group, not per person). So for the wine we are still talking «restaurant prices», even if they do a bit of a weird BYO-​but-​not thing.
If buying by the glass, the prices vary from about $ 7.50 to $ 15 per glass.
The food is not as expensive as we had anticipated. We had a stunning hot watermelon and bresaola plate, as well as mussels in a highly flavoursome broth, fall-​apart-​pork ribs, and an innovative shredded brussels sprouts with pecorino. It was all fantastic, in that delectable, good-​olive-​oil sort of way. The menu changes regularly, based on whatever is in season and whatnot, so it’s just written up on a board. The serving sizes are small but shareable, and at the end of the evening we were satisfied without being full, which is such a nice feeling. We had a fantastic night, no complaints at all.
It is not as expensive as the Unilocal «$$$$» seems to suggest — we paid about $ 40 a head, including the wine and pricy corkage fee. This place is sure to impress foodies and wine connoisseurs, and is great for an intimate meal.

This place is super cool, intimate, classy, yet easy and low key. It’s hard to find around the corner up a lane way, which adds to its mystique. It’s tiny and the lights are dim so you don’t even know if it’s open for sure. But go inside and you’ll love it. Everyone sits around a long communal table. The kitchen is at the back and there’s a bottle shop down the side. It seimilar. riously feels like you’re no longer in Sydney.
All the food and wine are well priced, but the portions of both are commensurately small. I didn’t have a problem with this. The menus are small and written in chalk up on the wall. It makes it seem like the menu changes seasonally or with farmers market finds (very LA!), but I’m not sure because both times I went the menu was s
About a third to a half of the items were vegetarian. There are things like a cheese plate and different roasted veggies with different accoutrements. You defo don’t pig out, but eat a few small plates slowly while sipping wine in a cool place and you go away completely satisfied.
The staff is cool and helpful with the unfamiliar territory of italian wines. We chatted with the guy in charge and he said 121BC is the first wine vintage on record, so hence the name.
The bottle shop has an awesome selection of italian wines, which the guys working there will help you navigate.

I was recently taken to 121BC on a first date, and MAN did my suitor score major points for good selection. Absolutely everything about this place has class and style. From its minimalist outside appearance to large communal table inside, 121BC keeps its allusive promise down to the last detail.
When we first arrived, we were walked through the wine shop to get to the far end of the table. Although I didn’t take a close look at the selection in the shop, I can only assume that is boasts the greatest Italian varieties, as does the by-​the-​glass menu.
Looking at the wine listing on the blackboard was a little perplexing (only in my wildest dreams do I speak «fancy wine»), but luckily, the staff was prepared with excellent recommendations. We tried the lighter pinots first, and guided by our waiter’s expertise, moved onto spicier and fuller bodied reds as the evening went on.
The food was tapas /​shared plate style and offered some interesting and original flavor pairings. My favorite dish was the kingfish sashimi with mint, orange and celery root. It was completely delicious. I think we would have been better off ordering a couple more plates to share (note: portions are quite small), but instead chose to drink our calories in luscious wine. Always a solid choice!