Duke Bistro

Hands down our best meal in Australia. The restaurant has an eclectic, homey dining room feel. We had the best table in the corner. We started with the radish with dashi butter and bread rolls, which was delicious. The potato risotto with taleggio was the star of the meal. The spatchcock dinner special was also excellent and perfectly cooked. For dessert, we had the donuts, which were like creamy golden air, and the rice pudding was like nothing we had had before. The service was excellent; James the maitre d was awesome, and we met chef Nick too. This place is a must if you are coming to Sydney.

Food was ok but it was nothing special. The small selection didn’t help.

I didn’t love it, but it seems like every guy I’ve talked to who has been — loves it. Guy food for sure. Definitely get the fried chicken served with a mini bottle of siracha… do not get the beets.

I recently had the best dinner I’ve ever had in Sydney at Duke Bistro. We made a booking (I suggest you do) for 8pm on a Saturday night. My date and I scaled the stairs to our table and were seated underneath the rice patty hat lamps. Good thing we didn’t opt for a bar seat because one of five was occupied by a pig bust (or a cow bust?). Vintage bird cage lamps softly lit the dining room and I couldn’t help but feel like part of a secret society.
Menus came next and we both hunched over like we were reading a creative work of fiction. Salads of peas and honeydew mellon? A dish of radishes in a butter soup? Nothing was commonplace and for that I loved Duke early on… and it only got better. We ordered both the aforementioned dishes and both were amazing. I suggest you don’t skip the radishes, if you know what’s good for you.
For the mains we chose the bonito and char siu pork neck. The bonito came seared atop a pumpkin purée with– brace yourself– coffee grounds and macadamia nuts. It was a wildly creative and utterly perfect dish. The young chefs behind the Duke menu have really stepped outside the Mod Aus /​Asian Fusion box and for that we can certainly thank them.
After mains we opted for dessert and chose the macaroons and donuts. Four tiny macaroons came in a row, two raspberry and two green tea. The donuts were a work of genius. With a custard-​y inside and sitting on brown cinnamon sugar and a banana purée, it was the most decadent and delicious dessert I’ve had in a while.

Dukes Bistro was an unexpected surprise and if we had any expectations to begin with then this experience would of exceeded all.
Arriving within the dark green walls with big oversized low hanging lamps one would think they were preparing for an interrogation. There is a element of fun right through the décor from the hogs head on the high chair, Verve champagne bottles crafted into chandeliers and little pots of piped orchids scattered around the restaurant and through to the bathroom. What I love about it the most is that the heritage of the venue has not been stripped back to a slick new fit out, it makes fun of the existing. Finally I exhale… we have left the mainstream and entered into unusual.
If the décor is anything to go by then the food is the perfect marriage. I start with a Kingfish gin tonic. It arrives in a glass tumbler with curly paper thin curled slices of sashimi twirled around curls of cucumber and lightly covered in gin and tonic jelly. Oh my what a surprising kaleidoscope of flavours this dish is to the palate. I share with my other half the fried chicken wings with coleslaw milk. The biggest surprise is a dish I can’t even remember all the ingredients for so I hope the photo does it justice. It was a watermelon salad a WARM watermelon salad with two sizeable squares and fresh seasonal vegetables on top. It ends with a dessert which is a glass-​full of layers. Layers of mango jelly, rhubarb, beetroot meringue and panna cotta ice cream and the only thing I see all night that is not unusual and that is macaroons. Heaven! (with high inflection at the end).
The young men in charge of this renegade is Thomas Lim (ex-Tetsuya’s) and Mitchell Orr (ex-​Sepia) I hope they continue to push the boundaries and serve up cuisine to challenge the normal. There is no praise that can do this restaurant justice.