Posted by Liz Niland on April 7, 2010
Trendy haircuts, top-notch pad thai and uniquely jazzy threads are all part of the landscape in Sydney’s Newtown, but it’s been quite a while since a destination restaurant reared its head in the city’s inner west. Down the other end of King Street, past the Bank and past the Townie, Bloodwood, the brainchild of a handful of Sydney’s finest chefs, is a place to which you can just as easily take a date, your mother, or a whole party posse for both eats and drinks.
While there’s plenty to choose from on the drinks list – from South Australian shiraz to the Bloodwood’s own alcoholic iced tea – the food was what we came in search of. The lauded spiced lamb kibbeh with silken eggplant, kale and bullhorn capsicum sauce got the nod from our crowd, as did the lucky last-minute inclusion of the herby chickpea pancake with zucchini, pumpkin, and Persian fetta.
To accommodate a fellow diner’s health kick, we opted against the polenta chips with gorgonzola dipping sauce, but by the looks of the other tables, we were certainly in the minority with that move, and promise that we’ll try them next time. (I mean really, who can say no to a fried crispy good time!) Instead, we munched through a decadent duck dish consisting of juicy duck sausage, exotic spiced plums and plum sauce-drenched vivid broccolini. Literally lip-smacking.
And although health kick mate didn’t dare look at the dessert menu, we gave in to the frangipani tart: a perfect balance of sweetness and light with white nectarine and Cointreau cream.
Bloodwood doesn’t take reservations for smaller crews so be sure to get in early to score a table – or be ready to sniff the delights streetside.
Bloodwood Restaurant & Bar is at 416 King Street, Newtown. Ph: 9557 7699
bloodwood, newtown, restaurants