Sunday lunching at Alpha Restaurant

If you've ever walked through the Sydney CBD on the weekend, you'd notice it's pretty dead outside of Pitt Street shopping mall. I always wonder what tourists think of our empty city centre; and how uneconomic non-office city rent must be.

Further in CBD south Alpha Restaurant is going against the grain and actually making the most of weekend crowds, introducing a Sunday lunch service to its all-week trading earlier this year.

Dining tables at Alpha Restaurant, Castlereagh Street, Sydney

It's been a funny year for modern Greek restaurants: while there have been a few casualties and gyros are trying to become the next big thing, Alpha appears to be going gangbusters with the corporate crowd through the week, and large families and groups around that, both drawn in by head chef Peter Conistis' generous menu of traditional and modern shared Greek dishes.

The stunning, bright, contemporary fitout helps, presenting both a traditional and modern Greece, as do the high ceilings of the ground floor Hellenic Club building and the fresh, modern approach to Greek cuisine in a part of town that doesn't have many higher-end restaurants.

Bar and seating

Having sat at the marble-topped bar for ouzo on a previous occasion, I was excited to be trying 'Yia Yia's' tasting menu to share among the table, with a few extras thrown in for good measure (denoted in the caption with an *).

Pita bread with taramosalata (back) and melitzanosalata (right, centre)

We started with some of my all-time favourites in Greek food: warm triangles of soft, fluffy pita bread with a taramosalata white cod roe dip and a chunky melitzanosalata smoked eggplant dip.

The pale taramosalata was the winner of the two with well balanced acidity against the creamy flavour of the roe, while the soft dice of eggplant in the melitzanosalata could have been smokier for my liking.

Baked kalamata olives

A large serving of kalamata olives joined the starters, baked warm with an array of spices enlivening the saltiness of the olives.

Sesame leaf dolmades*

A classic Greek dish of dolmades was next, featuring an almond and herb rice wrapped in sesame leaves rather than the more common vine leaves.

As un-photogenic as dolmades can be, Alpha ups the presentation stakes by serving the leaf-wrapped rolls in a pool of foamy preserved lemon avgolemono sauce, garnished with micro herbs.

Falafel with chickpea hommous*

I was impressed by the perfectly smooth and golden surfaces of the falafel, hiding hot and well-seasoned innards of crumbly ground chickpeas.

While they're more commonly known as Middle Eastern fare, Alpha's piping hot falafels were too tasty for argument along with the chickpea hommous with tahini sesame paste and plenty of garlic.

Haloumi saganaki, ouzo, lemon, oregano

There was a collective murmur of appreciation when the frying pan full of haloumi was put down on the table. The slices of pan fried cheese were joined by sweet grape tomatoes, lemon juice, oregano and lots of olive oil.

Any ouzo addition must have cooked down as I couldn't really taste it in the salty, trademark squeaky cheese that's some of the best in town and simply gorgeous with lemon and ripe tomatoes.

Octopus twice-cooked, spinach, white beans, red wine vinaigrette*

While octopus isn't one of my favourite seafood types, the grilled offering at Alpha may have me converted. The twice-cooked tentacles were impossibly tender, finished on a grill for colour, flavour and a touch of char crispness.

Eaten with a squeeze of lemon and soft white beans which added richness, the octopus was an absolute star dish of the lunch, even if it's not what I know as traditionally Greek.

Moussaka of eggplant, seared scallops, taramosalata*

Chef Conistis' moussaka of eggplant is something of a legend - developed as a dish in 1993 and enduring time and appearances at all of his earlier restaurants since, the eggplant tower is a stunning to look at and devour.

Two thick rounds of slow roasted eggplant sandwich taramosalata and plump scallops grilled to perfection. Topped with diced and herbed tomatoes and garnished with salmon roe pearls, it combines soft and creamy textures with perfect specimens of seafood in an absolute explosion of flavour.

I, and most at the table with me, would happily eat this as a main meal at Alpha and call it a day. Legend status maintained.

Spanakopita - spinach pie, leeks, fetta, dill

I adore most savoury pastry varieties and so was pretty chuffed to see the spanakopita spinach pie, served whole at the table.

Cut spanakopita

The delicate, golden filo pastry held a finely chopped filling of spinach, leek, fetta cheese and lots of dill; the latter which added a new and refreshing flavour to a classic vegetarian filling.

Horiatiki salad - tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, red onions, olives, fetta

As the food continued to roll in, I was glad to see a vibrant salad join the offerings. Greek salad can be found at almost every salad and sandwich shop these days, but Alpha's version was worlds away in quality.

The kitchen has clearly gone to the trouble to source the very best quality vegetables to differentiate their Horiatiki salad from the masses: perfectly ripe and flavoursome tomatoes, sweet-as red capsicum strips and then, a smartphone-sized hunk of salty fetta cheese to break over it all.

Greek spiced slow roasted lamb shoulder, roast potatoes, tzatziki

The salad was served as more of a side to the piece de resistance: a slow-roasted whole lamb shoulder with aromas of oregano and rosemary, amid other Greek spices. The lamb roast was served with roasted kipfler potatoes and my favourite condiment of tzatziki mint, garlic and cucumber yoghurt dip/sauce.

Roasted lamb shoulder being served

The lamb was ridiculously tender, falling off the bone with a mere push, and seasoned beautifully and relatively exotically with an array of spices. Traditional Sunday roasts may well have a new Greek home in Alpha.

Loukamades - Greek doughnuts, spiced honey syrup, candied walnut ice cream

The long lunch was rounded off with a shared dessert of loukamades Greek doughnut balls. Even as a non-fan of doughnuts generally, these two-to-three bite-sized balls had a lovely chewiness within their golden fried surfaces, although it was the rich candied walnut ice cream that did it for me.

Light features at Alpha

It was such a nice feeling to sit back and admire the gorgeous fittings at Alpha post meal, and perhaps escape to a Mediterranean-inspired food coma.

The restaurant offers generous food that you want to dig in to with friends and family, and a unique and classy ambience (despite the occasional fire engine departure, sirens and all). For a beautiful and thoroughly satisfying Sunday lunch in the city, Alpha has to be one of the best, if not only, choices in town.

Food, Booze & Shoes dined at Alpha Restaurant as a guest, with thanks to Wasamedia.

Three Blue Ducks in a row

Bronte's not really known as a food destination, other than perhaps fish and chips by the beach, but Three Blue Ducks is certainly lifting the game. If the weekend late lunch queues are anything to go by, the one-hatted restaurant/café known for its sustainable approach to food and dining is being well appreciated by the locals.

The venue is split into two parts with additional outdoor dining on the footpath and their famed kitchen garden out the back. Seated in a snug booth right next to the kitchen during a recent lunch visit, it was impossible not to salivate at the tempting aromas from the kitchen while we nursed hangover-friendly fresh juices.

Steamed mussels at Three Blue Ducks, Macpherson Street, Bronte

There are plenty of tempters on the lunch menu so we happily shared among four, starting with a generous dish of gloriously saucy mussels.

Served with crisply toasted sourdough bread, the perfectly steamed mussels swam in a creamy and pleasantly spicy sauce of coconut sambal, dressed with plenty of fresh herbs, cherry tomatoes and extra dessicated coconut.

Steamed mussels with a herb and coconut sambal with chilli toast

The spice and zing of the sambal gave the soft molluscs the most incredible kick, while I could have basically drank the sweet, rich sauce in which we dipped the sourdough. Simply divine – this is certainly a contender for mussels of the year.

Steak sandwich

Declared by a table guest as "the best steak sandwich ever", Three Blue Ducks' steak sando certainly didn't skimp on the steak, with a thick, medium-rare grilled slices of beef sandwiched between a crusty, white bread roll.

The other sandwich fillings were as complementary as it gets: tomato slices, sweet onion marmalade, some greenery in the form of rocket leaves and a colourful red pepper mayonnaise, adding to the overall juiciness.

Spicy chorizo, cuttlefish, chili, tomato and basil with squid ink fettucine

The pasta-inclined will be happy to see the inky black squid ink fettucine on the menu, in a simple sauce of grilled chorizo pieces, tender slices of cuttlefish, chilli, tomato segments and basil. While it wasn't the type of rich, meaty pasta dish I adore having in winter, it was certainly a lunch-appropriate dish.

Coffee and cumin crusted brisket with roast potatoes, radish and apple salad

The brisket dish was the all-out winter lunch experience. Alongside roasted potato skins, filled with potato and other vegetables, was a brick of tender and lusciously fatty beef brisket; slow cooked though a little light on flavour from its coffee and cumin crust. It was some pretty seriously fatty meat so the refreshing radish, apple and coriander salad served with the dish was more than necessary.

We raided the remainders of the cakes cabinet for dessert as the lunch menu doesn't feature any desserts, though after quite the substantial, restaurant quality lunch, I'm not sure we really needed the super fudgey brownie or the raspberry friand.

It's taken me a little while to get my ducks in a row for a visit to Bronte's Three Blue Ducks but now that I have, I'm lining up for another visit real soon.

Get on the Express Lunch to China Republic

For me, and I suspect a lot of other rat racers out there, lunch is the highlight of my day. After my morning coffee and the news, my thoughts turn to lunch as a way to get through the morning.

World Square's China Republic has introduced Express Lunch sets for those who don't have the time or luxury for the full banquet menu at lunch, but still want something a bit more special than a desk or food court lunch.

Peking duck set - Express Lunch at China Republic, World Square, George Street, Sydney

Ranging from $25 to $35, the Express Lunch sets are multi-component meals - almost like a Chinese version of a bento box - with appetisers, a main and even a small dessert.

Peking duck kitchen

While there's certainly a time and occasion for the private dining banquet lunch in the beautiful upstairs space, we were Express Lunch-ing in the bar area seats with views of the dedicated Peking duck kitchen lined with bamboo steamer baskets, all used for pancakes for the Peking duck.

Beijing-style spicy and sour cucumber, spicy beef spring roll and vegetarian spring roll 

Each of the Express Lunch sets starts with a quartet of of appetisers, including the fantastically refreshing, lightly pickled cucumber slices, all crunchy in their thick sliced, slightly wrinkled state.

The sets each have two golden, crisp spring rolls included, with a cabbage-based vegetarian one for the herbivores. The others all feature the thin, elongated signature spicy beef spring roll which takes on a Sichuan perspective on spiciness. It's real spicy, but makes for a unique spring roll experience that sticks in the mind.

Eggplant and coriander salad with garlic dressing and spring rolls

The Peking duck spring roll is also an eye-opener, with plenty of shredded duck meat that tastes like it's come freshly out from the Peking duck oven.

The fourth appetiser is the saucy and garlicky eggplant and coriander salad, served cold in a creamy, pungent sesame dressing. I adore this dish and the dressing which goes well with steamed rice, though watch out for the subsequent garlic breath if you need to talk to clients after lunch.

Crispy sweet and sour prawns

The $30 Express Lunch set offers diners two choices for the main: wok-fried wagyu beef with fried garlic and black pepper or crispy sweet and sour prawns, both served with steamed white rice.

The latter comprises large, tail-on prawns in a seriously crisp batter, even beneath the sticky sweet and sour sauce. The not-too-thick batter hugs some great crustacean specimens that bounce and revel in the sauce that has a honey-like consistency, with a classic garnish of capsicum and shallot.

Peking duck condiments

The most extravagant of the Express Lunch sets has to be the $35 one featuring Peking duck as the main course.

The condiments arrive first with the traditional cucumber, juliennes of the white part of shallots and sweet bean sauce also accompanied on a tray by white sugar (for dipping duck skin into), minced garlic, raw Spanish onion, a pickled mustard vegetable and mild mustard sauce.

Peking duck with Mandarin pancakes

And then comes the star of the show: a steamed basket of five pancakes and a dish of roast Peking duck slices; meat, skin and all. I like that there's plenty of lean meat included in the course and not just skin, to wrap quite liberally within the thin, warmed pancakes.

While the 'new' combination with pickled vegetable and mustard sauce make for a nice change, there's no beating a duck pancake with cucumber, hoisin sauce and shallots. With five pancakes per serve in the Express Lunch set, it's quite a generous, filling and reasonably priced meal with a completely luxurious feel.

For a high end lunch experience away from the desk at decent price points and with the all-important speed of service, don't stop on your way to checking out Express Lunch at China Republic.

Food, Booze & Shoes dined at China Republic as a guest, with thanks to The PR Partnership.

Gungnam Spoon style Chinese

I was a bit saddened to discover one day that my favourite little northern Chinese eatery in Hurstville had disappeared, and in its place stood the oddly named Gungnam Spoon.

Easily one of the flashiest fitouts on the street, the bustling late lunch crowd seemed to indicate that Hurstville's main road is ready for a more modern food offering, even if it's still Chinese.

Pork and prawn wonton soup from Gungnam Spoon, Forest Road, Hurstville

With a dumpling craving that couldn't be swayed by the popular whole grilled fish offering that seems to be a signature dish of Gungnam Spoon, I had some of the best wonton dumplings I've had for a while.

Filled with a super-tasty coarse, pink mixture of minced pork and the occasional prawn, the egg pastry-wrapped wonton floated in a flavoursome broth topped with strips of omelette and seaweed, both adding flavour and texture.

Pan fried pork dumplings

The crisp-bottomed pan fried dumplings had a similar pork mince filling; perhaps even tastier than the soup dumplings. With exceptionally thin house-made pastry and vinegar dipping sauce, these went some way in easing the pain of losing a former favourite eating place.

Mapo tofu

However, there was pain to be had in the mapo tofu which we ordered with a side of steamed rice. It looked the goods on first appearance; a generous serving of tofu cubes with minced meat in a shiny, chilli-spiked sauce.

The first mouthful alerted us to the abundant presence of whole Sichuan peppercorns, literal handfuls of them. With more burning than numbing, it was painful eating as well as meticulous picking out of the peppercorns to get through the dish. Soy bean milk was also called for.

Leaving the restaurant a bit sweaty and pained, there was enough on the menu to tempt me back another time for Gungnam Spoon style Chinese cuisine.

Parlour Lane Roasters: A hidden weekday lunch gem

Hidden off a particularly busy section of Market Street in the heart of the city, Parlour Lane Roasters is a bit of a weekday lunch haven away from the hubbub of rat racers and shoppers.

Entrance to Parlour Lane Roasters, Market Street, Sydney

Located right next to the QT Hotel street level entrance, and just up from the State Theatre, Parlour Lane Roasters is a café by day and wine bar by evening with an art deco meets 1950s diner feel.

Sauvignon blanc and sparkling water

It's a substantial space with quirky diner style mashing with the unique QT boutique styled lift lobby which both certainly up the ante on weekday work lunches. The brief wine list helps too.

Counter stool seating

Cakes and pastries

The café offerings run from espresso coffee, cookies and cupcakes to ready-to-go, refrigerated sandwiches to made-to-order salads and winter warming hot dishes.

Ready-to-go sandwiches

The selection of five pre-made sandwiches all looked and sounded pretty good, and make for a easy grab-and-go option for quick desk or park lunches.

Our Reuben roll

Parlour Lane Roasters' version of the Reuben is set on a brown rye roll with several slices of corned beef joined by sauerkraut, pickles and seeded mustard. I probably should have accepted the toasted option but I sure did miss the cheese of a typical Reuben.

Chicken soup

Current hot menu items have been updated for the beginning of winter, with minestrone, sausage rigatoni and lasagne on offer, among other plates that far surpass my usual work lunches. But I couldn't help but order the chicken soup with matzah or matzo balls, which I've never tried up until now.

The twice-cooked organic chicken broth was sweet but rather buttery in flavour while the matzah ball soup dumplings were light, fluffy but ultimately pretty bland. There were sweet, organic carrot sticks in the soup but none of the promised sorrel.

Parlour beef burger with fries

The burgers are another lunch great option, either beef or chicken on a brioche bun, served with fries or salad respectively.

The appropriately petite beef burger, somewhere between a large slider and standard burger in size, had a juicy pasture-fed beef pattie with melted cheese and rather classic additions of fried onions, shredded lettuce and tomato slices.

With house made cucumber pickles and fries on the side, it was the complete meal and a very decent burger at that.

Counter seating

While the space is absolutely perfect for post-work drinks, aperitivo and watching passersby, Parlour Lane Roasters is also a fabulous hidden gem for weekday lunches a few steps up from the norm.

Food, Booze & Shoes dined as a guest of Parlour Lane Roasters, with thanks to The Mint Partners.

Chur Burger: where the burgers are chur, bro

It's taken me this long to get to Chur Burger in Surry Hills. I suppose I'm not that much of a burger person, but perhaps there was some underlying emotion for chef and restaurateur Warren Turnbull's former fine dining space that has held me back.

That said, the small space works well as a burger bar with low round tables, high communal tables and window bench seats offering the queue of diners a range of options, as well as takeaway, for burger scoffing action.

Beef burger from Chur Burger, Albion Street, Surry Hills

The classic beef burger has to be the benchmark for any burger. Chur Burger's version features a thick, medium-rare pink beef pattie with melted cheese in a grilled brioche bun. Well-considered condiments are a house tomato jam, thin-sliced pickles and a mustard mayonnaise, upping the richness.

While I probably could do without the mayonnaise (and brioche tends to overwhelm me), the beef burger gets a tick for its comfort-food flavours, juicy and tasty beef pattie, and overall size - more than sufficient for me.

Fish burger

I've got a thing for fish burgers so it had to be the crumbed (and unnamed) fish burger as well, served in the same buns with a cabbage slaw, pickled cucumber ribbons and a lemon mayonnaise.

With great flavours on paper, I found golden crumbed fish burger a little dry despite the oozy mayonnaise and slaw, and no competition to the beef burger.

Sweet potato fries

To our lunch burger order we added a salted caramel milkshake - which seem to be amazing anywhere I have them - and chunky, skin-on sweet potato fries served with salt but no additional condiments. With a mix of crisp and soggy ones, the sweet potato fries went sadly unfinished between two and two burgers.

Having finally visited the original Chur Burger, I can say it's definitely a place I would return to for a quick and casual burger fix, and after a taste of the beef burger, I may have to become a burger person. It's pretty chur, bro.

The High Table at Hotel Centennial

The very recently renovated and revamped Hotel Centennial, opposite Centennial Park in Woollahra, has seen former fine dining chef Justin North head up the pub's restaurant kitchen.

His high-profile return to the restaurant game has attracted as much media attention as the relaunched posh pub itself, which targets the well-heeled locals with a modern approach to comfort food.

The High Table meal at Hotel Centennial, Oxford Street, Woollahra

Having not been your average, dingy pub in recent times anyway, Hotel Centennial's new look exudes a luxe casual feel, spanning several large, airy spaces.

The main dining room and bar, which will soon serve weekend breakfasts, are light and bright, with leather furniture and modern art upping the comfort factor.

Pre-lunch dining room at Hotel Centennial

Here, the extensive menu reads of pub classics with a modern touch, joined by Woollahra's must-have salads. The kitchen's grill and wood fired oven is put to good use especially across the mains and share mains, not to mention the flat breads/ pizzas and pre-ordered roasts (currently whole suckling pig, pheasant(!) and Indian spiced goat - 48 hours' notice required).

The cocktail bar, past the warm open kitchen where chef North holds charge, has a gentlemen's club and lounge feel, and more leather, with an extensive menu of bar food on offer, while the front room features The High Table.

The High Table

Seating 30 diners on one continuous, custom-made table, The High Table concept aims to bring people together to sit down and share a meal - whether it's with friends, family, workmates or complete strangers.

The High Table is offered from Monday to Wednesday nights where at 7.30pm the kitchen serves a daily full course for the entire table for $24 per person (an additional $10 gets dessert and tea/coffee and $2 from every diner at The High Table is donated to the local Holdsworth Community Centre).

With a changing menu, Mondays are 'Meat and Three Veg', Tuesdays themed as 'Favourites' and Wednesdays are 'By Request' where chef North will cook up a diner's dinner suggestion for the entire table.

Marinated tuna salad with miso & toasted  sesame

Inspired by the perhaps increasingly alien idea of eating at a dining room table, and in the days of everyone's overly busy lives and the emergence of mobile technology - everywhere and all the time - it seems that Hotel Centennial wants us to remember the ritual and sense of sharing food at the dinner table.

At a preview lunch, we got a peek at Hotel Centennial's dining room menu in The High Table style, shared amongst a large group. We started with flutes of Chandon Rosé NV and an additional small entrée of raw, marinated tuna slices with a soba buckwheat noodle salad, served on custom Hotel Centennial plates.

Whole roast John Dory

For mains, we were treated to three of the menu's main dishes designed for sharing, all emerging from the wood fired oven.

I dug straight into the whole roasted John Dory, bones and all but served headless and prettily with a lemony herb butter. The thick, succulent fish flesh was well cooked, with plenty to go around.

Wood roasted Holmbrae chicken, roast gravy, greens

The aroma of the wood roasted chicken was the epitome of comfort food, served with the best roast gravy and wilted greens. Served pre-cut into portions, the tender chicken was so full of flavour, all the way from the bronzed skin down to the bone, it was one of those dishes I could have for dinner every night.

5-hour slow cooked lamb shoulder

When the roasted lamb shoulder came to the table, it was hard not to draw comparisons to another restaurant in the same suburb, not that any one restaurant 'owns' a cut of meat.

Falling from the bone with ease, the lamb was a hearty dish that would certainly please several carnivores (although it's listed on the menu as serving two) and was lovely with Cloudy Bay pinot noir.

Royal blues roasted in duck fat

We had a range of sides to complement our shared mains, with the easy favourite being the crisp, duck fat-roasted royal blue potatoes, followed closely by the creamy and surely naughty potato puree.

Aromatic wood roasted vegetables, cardamom & goats' curd

The wood roasted vegetables presented baby beetroot and radishes as some more unusual roast specimens, with a delightfully creamy addition of goat's curd to the colourful vegetables.

Salad leaves with classic vinaigrette

The classic leaf salad apparently paled in comparison to a broccoli and almond salad that I'll have to try next time, as with all the passing and sharing of plates and dishes I seemed to skip it.

And that's the thing about communal dining like this, there's chatter and hospitality between diners that is perhaps, more and more, missing from our dining tables at home. Indeed, things and times change but it's nice to see the intimate act of breaking bread between humans conserved in some way, shape or form.

Raspberry frangipane tart with crème fraîche Chantilly

Our dessert was probably something I'd request again next time: a slice of crumbly-centred raspberry frangipane tart with lots of sauce, served with the most perfect quenelle of vanilla bean Chantilly crème fraîche, whipped lighter than any cream I've ever had.

The High Table at Hotel Centennial

Good food, good wine, shared with good company - it's the makings of a great meal, and chef North doesn't seem to be aiming for anything less at Hotel Centennial. See here for more details and bookings.

Food, Booze & Shoes dined at Hotel Centennial as a guest, with thanks to Drysdale Communications.