Food. We eat it. If we don't we die. So lucky for us, this necessity of life can be one of the most awesome things ever. And, as we are on a constant and unquenchable hunt for the world's awesomeness, it only makes sense that we bring it to you in the form of food.
Enter Duke Bistro; Purveyor of said gastronomical excellence and the edible other half of Sydney's institutional late night joint The Flinders. We've made friends with Duke and we want you all to meet them.
Tucked up two flights of stairs and wielding an interior that resembles what you'd get if old world colonial got mixed up with Tim Burton's dining room in the transportation device from
The Fly, Duke's vibe straight away has you in the right frame of mind (and stomach) to get comfy, get your drank on and chow down.
Newly appointed head chef Nik Hill who's fresh from a jaunt as right hand man to renowned London eatery The Ledbury's Brett Graham, is spearheading the left of centre, inside out take on traditional bistro fare that was initially established by ex-Tetsuya sous chef Thomas Lim and what gave Duke its mad props and a much lauded Chef's Hat. It's share plate style munching that's all about eating and hanging out with your mates. Just the way we like to do it.
The food is ridiculous and we can vouch for that as we've eaten there a bit and most recently on a trip to Sydney, got to smash some of Hiil's latest creations like Jurassic Quail... yeah, seriously. You get shown a roasted quail big enough to make Jeff Goldblum crap his pants, which is then whisked away to be deconstructed and brought back with added awesomeness. We destroyed some crazy taleggio risotto that instead of rice uses little pieces of potato and some sweet and sticky kingfish wings!?? Yep, not chicken wings, fish wings...so good.
Another killer dish was the lamb shoulder. It's just a straight up slow cooked piece of lamb that you could pull apart with just the power of your mind, served with some dried olive crumble stuff and some goats milk. We shit you not, it was face meltingly delicious. Topping off the meal was one of the best deserts we've eaten. Seriously. No joke. We've eaten a lot of yummy sweet stuff, but the Earl Grey tea granita with poached quince was absurd. A dynamite way to finish the meal.
The best part about all of this is that yes it has a la-di-da Hat and yes the food sounds like it comes straight out of a ritzy restaurant, but the reality is that Duke was and is the lovechild of young chefs who don't necessarily give a shit about that stuff and just want to bring awesome food to all those who want to eat it. And this is why we wanted to give these guys a permanent home on Lifelounge; their accessible, playful and progressive philosophy on eating and drinking is how we'd like to think we do things.
Each week as part of the Lifelounge Eats Duke collaboration, we'll be featuring the latest weekly eats from the kitchen's Tuesday Tastings in Duke's very own blog section.
So without furthur adieu, Loungers meet Duke, Duke meet Loungers. Food. Fuck yeah.
Lifelounge Eats Duke
more at
dukebistro.com