Last year was all about deconstructing your dinner – nose to tail dishes that pulled the beast apart and let you put it back together. This year it’s just about the whole pig. The “theatre of swine” is what they’re calling it and vegetarians, go home now.
Swine & Co is the brand new restaurant from The Urban Purveyor Group, aka the team behind Sake, Ananas and The Cut and you guessed it, the main menu item is pig, straight from the spit.
Now split into champagne bar, deli and restaurant, the old Bank of NSW (and more recently a Bavarian Beer Café) has been restored into an art deco masterpiece. Sip French bubbly by the glass on the Mezzanine level, sequestered in an old bank manager booth, grab a pork belly roll or a proscuitto and Provolone Jaffle, yes a jaffle, in the Deli and then head downstairs for dinner.
The restaurant is in the basement, where the mood lighting and the tongue and cheek décor sets the scene for an intimate meal or an important business lunch.
Put the suckling pig at the top of your ordering list – cooked to perfection on the beechwood charcoal rotisserie, you will swoon over this swine.
There is more than pork on the menu, with organic spatchcock, steak, king salmon, corned beef and even gnocchi to choose from. But at the end of the day, Head chef Robert Taylor knows that vegetables are better with bacon, well speck. Try Brussel sprouts, blue Lentils and speck, perhaps washed down with a Swine Smash? The verdict is still out on the Pancetta, Havana, mint and Pineapple concoction but hey, this place is all about doing one thing right and boy oh boy have they mastered the pig.
Swine & Co
16 O’Connell Street, Sydney 2000
Monday – Friday 9am – late
02 9009 0990