SYDNEY | Poly is the much anticipated venue from chef and Ester owner Mat Lindsay. It’s a more casual, pared back affair than Ester, located in the basement of the Paramount House Hotel complex in Surry Hills. The Anthony Gill designed space is simple and suits the kind of food and drinks served here. Concrete floors, white painted brick walls, wooden chairs and tables, and an exposed ceiling. Towards the back is an open kitchen, filled with smoke from the charcoal fired cooking.
Lindsay describes Poly as a wine bar, and while there is certainly a focus on wines, there’s as much on the one page menu as many restaurants, and you can easily enjoy a full meal here. The wine list focuses on interesting drops from around the world. There’s a rotating menu of around 160 wines on offer at any given time, with an emphasis on bio-dynamic and minimal intervention wines. 20 of them are available by the glass. The smaller selection of beer, sake, spirits and cocktails takes a similar approach.
For food, it’s an ever rotating selection of mostly snacks and small dishes, with a few larger options for good measure. When we visited, head chef Isabelle Caulfield and her team were pumping out an assortment of delights which we loved. Beef and onion tartare with fermented chilli and capers is fantastic, as is the intensely rich blood cake topped with cider onions and a smoked quail egg. The crispy comte doughnut is a salty, cheesy delight. The ricotta gnudi with zucchini flowers and smoked whey sauce, meanwhile, is delightfully light and full of well balanced, subtle flavours.
Given the nature of the menu, none of the things we tried might be on the menu when you visit. Our recommendation is to simply pick what catches your eye, or ask the friendly, attentive staff what they’re liking at the time. That’s what we did and we enjoyed everything.
Poly
74-76 Commonwealth Street
Surry Hills
New South Wales 2010
Australia
Telephone: (02) 8860 0808
E-mail: [email protected]
Website
Open
Mon – Fri: 5:00pm to 12:00am
Sat: 3:00am to 12:00am
Sun: 12:00pm to 10:00pm