- The Latch
- Food & Drink
- Everywhere Nigella Lawson’s Dined While in Sydney
Everywhere Nigella Lawson’s Dined While in Sydney
When a chef recommends a restaurant, we listen. Even better when they’re one of the world’s most influential and the restaurant doesn’t require an international flight. Ahead of hosting three dinners as part of Vivid Sydney, British TV chef and food writer Nigella Lawson has been dining out often — and sharing her thoughts on Instagram.
Alongside photos of the dishes she’s tried, Lawson’s been writing lengthy captions with her take on the restaurant’s vibe, service and, of course, food. If you’re looking for inspiration on where you should dine next in Sydney, look no further than Lawson’s recs.
Ante
Lawson visited Newtown sake bar and restaurant Ante over a weekend, calling it a “site of sensational food”. The restaurant opened on King Street in December 2021 as one of the city’s only dedicated sake bars.
Dish highlights for Lawson were the fried potato mochi, beef tartare with caramelised Jerusalem artichoke and casrecce pasta with prawns and Japanese fermented chilli paste. She also had tagliatelle with fermented shitake, Murray cod with chicken fat and charred baby leeks in a spiced sauce that “made their smoky sweetness sing”.
“Then came the melting, fatty richness of pork neck with vinegar-sharp, bitter puntarella, salty with anchovy,” she wrote. “And somehow I managed the Tete de Moine cheese, blooming like a cross between a chrysanthemum and coral on the plate, its delicate nuttiness perfect with the sharp, soft persimmon jelly.”
She wrote that she couldn’t list all the sakes she tried — though a red sake was a standout — but that all their flavours paired beautifully with the food.
Fratelli Paradiso
Fratelli Paradiso in Potts Point was Lawson’s first restaurant stop in Sydney. She wrote that after visiting a year ago, this time, it felt like coming home. She said she loves its great people, mood and food.
She started with antipasti dish olive ascolane. “My every-time, on-arrival order,” she wrote. “Those fat and juicy green olives stuffed, here, with sharp cheese before being breadcrumbed then deep fried.”
Next was veggie dish, puntarella — “that bitter zigzaggy chicory tangled with anchovies” – and Fratelli’s signature scampi spaghettini and a pork chop dish with agretti and white polenta. She finished with a bombalaska.
“I don’t expect to eat a better pudding while I’m here,” she wrote. “It’s got a base of hazelnut praline, and beneath the flame-bronzed Italian meringue is mounded pistachio semifreddo and lemon curd.”
Sean’s Bondi
Also on Lawon’s Sydney restaurant hit-list is Bondi institution Sean’s. Opened along Campbell Parade in 1993, the restaurant serves set menu only, fitting just 45 guests at a time. The menu changes daily, but on her visit, Lawson had a roast chook, which she wrote epitomises the perfect “Sydney Sunday” for her.
“Much happiness provided too by the exquisite cruditées and fennel chowder with blue claw yabbies that came first, as well as just dreamy dessert of crostoli with pistachio cream, kumquat, quince and persimmon.”
She also raved about Chef Sean Moran and the staff “radiating gorgeousness” and the restaurant’s “blackboard of joy”, which displays the menu for the day.
Palazzo Salato
A dish Lawson’s been thinking about since last year is Palazzo Salato’s anchovy-anointed stracciatella, served with little cubes of toasted bread. By hospitality group Love Tilly, the restaurant opened in a heritage-listed building on Clarence Street in 2023.
Lawson also enjoyed the venue’s “absurdly luscious” spaghetti with brown butter, salted anchovies and Aleppo pepper, alongside an anchovy-less vodka martini.
Baba’s Place
While Lawson considers Baba’s Place in Marrickville one of her favourite Sydney restaurants, this visit, it was a one-night takeover of the restaurant by chef and restauranteur Thi Le she raved about.
Le owns Melbourne Vietnamese restaurant Anchovy, opened in 2015, and when Lawson saw the chef would be at Baba’s Place for a night to promote her book Viet Kieu, she wrote that she couldn’t book a spot fast enough.
“A glorious night it was too: it felt wonderful to celebrate Thi Le and her book, and a true joy to eat her food again,” Lawson wrote. “I failed to photograph the many sensational courses but I managed to get one of the perfectly pitched balancing act that’s her prawn and papaya goi.”
Small’s Deli
Lawson visits Small’s Deli in Potts Point nearly every time she’s in Sydney. The deli opened on Victoria Street in 2020 and is known for its sandwiches, though it’s got salads, cookies and house-made sodas too. This visit, Lawson ordered the “Toto” sandwich, which she wrote was “outrageously good”.
“Spread with lemony butter bean puree and pesto, it’s bulgingly stuffed with mortadella and mozzarella, exuberantly sprinkled with chopped toasted almonds and topped with peppery rocket,” she wrote.
Saint Peter
Lawson called her experience at Saint Peter at the old Grand National Hotel in Paddington a “miraculous voyage”, so memorable she was still entranced by a week later.
“Josh Niland is, simply, a genius,” she wrote. “It’s a wearingly overused term, but in his case, it feels shabbily inadequate. His inventiveness, delicate touch, exquisite care and joyful gift for flavour and texture just bowl me over.”
She wrote that she always goes to his restaurants with the highest of expectations, and every time, his food exceeds them. She also praised the décor of the dining room, calling it the perfect place to taste his cooking. Among her many highlights were the salt and vinegar line-caught blue mackerel, coral trout bone noodles with maitake mushroom broth and calamari “with a meaty, gutsy yellow fin ‘nduja”.
Juno and Sons
Lawson was recommended Elizabeth Bay neighbourhood café and corner shop Juno and Sons by Sydney chef Christine Mansfield – and so she went. “Popped in for bread and chocolate — the essentials — and, following a greedy prowl around, also grabbed a packet of pork dumplings from a treasure trove of a freezer,” she wrote.
She cooked the dumplings in her Sydney accommodation in a frying pan with a little oil and water and then adding soy sauce and crispy chilli oil. Mansfield commented on the post, praising the café and shop: “Fab addition to our ‘hood”.
Related: How Bartenders Are Using Ingredients to Connect
Related: Shishito Peppers Are So Hot in Australia RN
Read more stories from The Latch and subscribe to our email newsletter.