This week saw the Logies of the Sydney dining scene, the SMH
Good Food Guide (GFG) 2014
awards night, come and go. I always follow the awards night quite closely by
getting regular updates from their Twitter feed. All the different food
awards (Michelin, San Pellegrino world best restaurants etc.)
intrigue me, in particular seeing who the winners and losers are. There was
certainly a lot of blood spilt in this year’s GFG awards, most notably Est. and Marque, who both
lost their 3rd
hat. Of course there were winners too with Guillaume Brahimi being the
biggest winner on the night as he was the recipient of the Legends Award and
his restaurant Guillaume at Bennelong, which will be closing in a matter of months, won a coveted 3rd
chef hat.
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| The new edition of the Good Food Guide or Dining Bible (??) |
The other big winner of the night was Mr Wong, who
were awarded the Best New Restaurant and two-chef hats in its first year. Which
brings me to my thought of the day: How do Sydney’s Chinese restaurants
fare compare to the rest of the world? Obviously Sydney is not going to
compare to places like Hong Kong, where you will find Tim Ho Wan, which
I think is unmatched for quality and value anywhere (I ate there for $A 10 a
head, I was stuffed and it was absolutely amazing) or Lung King Heen for
their exquisite dumplings in a 3 Michelin star, luxurious setting.
Well, Terry Durack,
the chief reviewer of the GFG,
believes that Mr Wong has revolutionised
Chinese food in the Sydney dining scene. In a video clip in which Terry Durack and Joanna Savill discuss the winners and losers from the awards night (unfortunately
this clip has since been taken down), Mr Durack pondered, “Why are all
the other Chinese dim sum / yum cha places in Sydney crap (besides Mr Wong)?
And why do my siu mai at other places look like they are on steroids?". I am paraphrasing here as I am not
able to find exact quote, but he definitely used the words, crap and Chinese,
in the same sentence. I am not going to engage in this conversation any further
except to say that I certainly don’t agree and he has managed to insult every
other Chinese restaurant in Sydney.
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| Bar counter |
Anyway, that was a rather long introduction to my post for
today, which is about my visit to Bar H (80 Campbell St, Surry Hills) last
night. Bar H serves modern Chinese cuisine and happens to be one of the losers
from the GFG awards night, having lost their one chef hat from last year.
Bar H is not your traditional Chinese dim sum place, the closest it comes to
this is the Asian guy they’ve employed to wash the dishes. Bar H is kind of a
cross between a bar and a restaurant. It’s a cool little space (that seats
about 40) where you can enjoy a few drinks and some seriously good food, which
are designed to be shared.
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| Hamish Ingham and the open kitchen |
One of my favourite things when dining out is the open kitchen and watching the chefs
prepare your feast before your very eyes. At Bar H, you can pull up a bar stool and be seated
at the bar counter, which gives you a perfect view of the ‘kitchen’, which is
absolutely tiny – probably the smallest kitchen I have seen. There are just 2 chefs in the kitchen
including head chef and Bar H owner, Hamish
Ingham (former GFG Young Chef of the Year winner and former head chef at
Billy Kwong). It was fascinating watching Hamish Ingham operate his kitchen; it
was like clockwork. It was a busy Friday night and the dockets were flying off the
table, so the kitchen was under the pump, a small task for the head chef. Hamish
is able to multi-task like no other and do what seems like 10 different things,
including stir frying, steaming, deep frying, plating up and heck even taking
dishes out to customers. I struggle to do more than 2 different things without
setting the kitchen on fire, so I was quite impressed.
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| The banquet menu |
Tonight I came to Bar H on a Groupon voucher, which entitled us to a banquet menu of 8 tasting
plates for just $79 for 2 people (this menu is normally $79 per person, so this
was tremendous value). Today I am dining with my brother, Mr AMY, and since my
vegetarian partner in crime is not joining me today, we had the normal banquet
menu, which didn’t bother me as I was able to get my dose of seafood and meat
courses.
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| Gin chi ($10 during happy hour) |
It has been a long busy week so I needed something to
recalibrate. The Gin Chi, which was
a gin with lime, house pandan syrup and sesame leaf, was the perfect drink for
this. I really enjoyed this drink as it was zesty, tart and refreshing. So good
that I ordered two of these.
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| Crisp fried oldman salt bush with chilli mayo |
Our first plate was the crisp
fried oldman salt bush. Having these was like picking leaves off the branch
of a tree and eating them. This was a highly enjoyable snack as the leaves were
nice and crisp from the thin, light batter that the salt bush had been dunked
in before the deep fryer. There was a great kick of heat too from the dusting
of Sichuan peppers and from dipping
the leaves into that addictive chilli
mayo on the side. Now that’s good bush tucker!
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| Crisp rice noodle with sweet soy, peanuts and bonito flakes |
One of my favourite yum cha dishes are rice noodle rolls
(either steamed or pan fried) and Bar H does a good version of these. These were pan fried and were crisp on the
outside and nice and soft on the inside. The rolls were coated with a delicious
thick, syrupy sweet soy, and topped with peanuts and fishy bonito flakes.
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| Cucumber and black fungi salad |
This was a simple yet enjoyable salad of fresh cucumbers and crisp black fungi. The soy based dressings that Bar H use in a number of their dishes are so incredibly addictive, so be careful. Otherwise you will find yourself wanting to lick the plate clean. This was a soy dressing with some chilli and shallots.
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| Steamed pork and prawn wontons with chilli dressing |
Wontons are another one of my favourites at yum cha. The wontons here are fat, slippery parcels that were quite generously filled with pork and prawn and served swimming in a pool of soy chilli dressing and a sprinkling of pepper on top. This made for some delicious, classic flavour combinations.
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| Deep fried tofu with five flavoured sauce |
The deep fried tofu
had a lovely crisp batter and a warm, soft, wobbly inside. I loved the five flavoured sauce. It was not as
hot as the previous chilli dressings, but a nice complex flavour profile from
the five spices. This sauce is best
enjoyed with a bowl of soft, fluffy jasmine
rice.
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| Spatchcock with ginger and shallot |
The spatchcock
was an impressive dish. The spatchcock meat was moist and succulent. And you
can’t go wrong with a good ol’ Cantonese ginger
and shallot dressing. I love the combination of soy sauce, shaoxing wine
with the freshness and zing of ginger,
shallots and coriander. Just so simple, yet works every time.
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| Caramelised beef short rib |
The caramelised beef short rib was our favourite course of
the night. The beef was so nice and tender and full of flavour. The beef was
coated in a lovely sticky, sweet caramel sauce and garnished with fresh peppercorns, fresh chilli and mint. Mr AMY
commented that he is not normally a fan of beef or big chunks of meat like
steak yet this dish just tasted great and was his favourite. That is proof
enough to me that this dish was a winner.
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| Rhubarb sorbet and apple sorbet |
The last course of the banquet menu was these housemade
sorbets, rhubarb and apple. Both were great but my favourite was the apple. It
was just a pleasant sorbet with nice refreshing apple flavour. This would make
a perfect palate cleanser.
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| Bay leaf custard with caramel ($10) |
Our waitress asked us whether we would like to look at the
dessert menu and we were happy to take this offer. Despite feeling quite full,
we somehow managed to find enough space in our stomachs for more sweet treats.
We decided to get the bay leaf custard with caramel. It looked like a simple
dessert, but it was so tasty. It was an eggy, creamy custard that made me want
to come back for more after each bite. The caramel was quite sweet but was
balanced out by its bitterness.
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| Chocolate truffle with passionfruit ($8) |
And to finish off a great feast, we also ordered some chocolate
truffles that were infused with passionfruit flavour.
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| Wall art, shaoxing wine and Bar H relish |
Verdict
Highlight: I love open kitchens and watching Hamish Ingham
crank out all those sharing plates from that tiny kitchen whilst barely
breaking a sweat was a spectacle in itself.
Lowlight: Sitting on a bar stool for 2 hours is not the best
thing for your back.
Overall: Bar H is a trendy little space that is ideal for a
fun night out and catching up with a group of people. There’s a great drinks
list, delicious food and the atmosphere is buzzing and casual. Sydney could do
with more places like Bar H. 7/10
(Great)
