First look: Chin Chin Sydney

First look: Chin Chin Sydney

Could Chin Chin Sydney be this year’s most talked-about restaurant opening? As Chris Lucas’s first restaurant outside Melbourne – and his first extension of the wildly popular Chin Chin – there was always going to be some healthy curiosity. Add to the mix a location in one of Surry Hills’ most recognisable buildings and a tentative opening date that’s now been and gone several times, and you can see why the buzz has reached rambunctious levels – not unlike being inside a Lucas restaurant.

Ahead of the actual opening on October 2, we spoke to Chris Lucas about what to expect at Chin Chin Sydney.

Chin Chin Sydney, 69 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills, NSW, (02) 9281 3322, chinchinrestaurant.com.au

Interview by Emma Breheny.

Photo by Tom Ferguson.

Twice-cooked beef short rib with shaved coconut salad and prik nahm pla

Although this was a signature dish of the original Chin Chin in Melbourne, Lucas says the kitchen will be taking full advantage of a charcoal pit and rotisserie to give the beef short rib and other classics a “Sydney twist”.

“The rib is normally cooked for about eight hours before being glazed to finish it off. In Sydney, we’re going to finish it off in the barbecue pit so it gets a beautiful crustiness and an added dimension of smokiness,” he says.

Photo by Tom Ferguson.

The restaurant is housed within the Griffiths Tea Building

“When we first visited the building, back in late 2014 or early 2015, it had basically been empty since 1971, when it was used as a factory. It had been vacated and left completely unoccupied during that whole period. Everything was covered in cobwebs; there were sewing machines still there, and even original notes from 1971 left on the desks.

“It was a surreal experience walking into a place that had literally been untouched since 1971. But you could see the bones of the building – the ceilings, the enormous pillars, the floorboards, the windows – were beautiful. There are not a lot of buildings like that in Australia.”

Photo by Steven Woodburn.

Dragonfruit cocktail

Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz gin headlines the tangy Dragonfruit – a mix of lemon, Angostura bitters, fresh dragon fruit and a sunflower kernel orgeat that’s made to mimic the distinctive flesh of its namesake.

Chris Lucas recommends trying all the cocktails. “Michael Chiem [of PS40], who’s regarded as one of the top cocktail guys in Australia, has curated the cocktail list for us. He’s come up with some very unique tropical Asian flavour profiles.”

Photo by The Lucas Group.

Seafood

Lucas has taken care to point out that Chin Chin Sydney isn’t a replica of the original Melbourne restaurant.

“Our cooking methods – cooking over charcoal, using the rotisserie – are more conducive to the warmer weather in Sydney and we’re going to be offering a lot more seafood, too,” he says.

Squid, trout and salmon get the kiss of the grill, while on the fresher side there’s a salmon tartare with sambal oelek and turmeric leaf oil. The Sydney kitchen – led by executive chef Graeme Hunt – also plans to offer a special crab banquet over summer, to complement the usual “Feed Me” menu.

“We’re going to do a feed-me menu of Singaporean-style mud crab cooked in our giant woks. You can choose to have the chilli mud crab or the pepper mud crab or both, and we’ll structure the meal around that as the highlight,” Lucas says.

Expect lots of sweet buns to mop up the juices, plus greens and noodles on the side.

Photo courtesy Chin Chin Sydney.

Bentwood chairs and marble table tops

There are three different styles of Thonet bentwood chairs for the three spaces of Chin Chin. Custom pink-hued chairs adorn the basement function space, Chii Town, black chairs are the go in GoGo Bar, while in the restaurant, raw and unfinished blond wood – unique to Chin Chin – is offset dramatically by a pearly seat cushion, designed by George Livissianis, on each chair. The seat cushions reference the marble accents throughout the space.

“I chose the marble because I wanted to have a natural material that’s in keeping with the natural finishes of the rest of the building. I chose a stone that’s simple, but also quite beautiful,” Lucas says.

The rest of the table tops are made of recycled timber beams original to the building.

Photo by Tom Ferguson.

Chefs Graeme Hunt and Benjamin Cooper

“The really exciting part of Chin Chin Sydney was creating a kitchen from the ground up. In Melbourne, the building is beautiful, but it had lots of limitations in terms of space. In Sydney, we didn’t have that and so we built a huge charcoal pit in centre of the kitchen. About 30 per cent of the menu is new dishes created around the pits,” Lucas says.

Photo by Steven Woodburn.

The dining room, designed by George Livissianis

“During the day, you’ve got this beautiful light in the dining room. The restaurant faces due north and because the building is a flatiron shape, you get the morning light on one side then in the afternoon, the light streams in the other side. In the evening, the room’s got a beautiful glowing feel to it, with all the light from the city coming in.”

Photo by Tom Ferguson.

Roasted pumpkin satay with peanut sauce, red chilli and Thai basil

The charcoal pits come into play once again with the vegetable dishes, which make up a larger section of the Sydney carte. Along with the roasted pumpkin finished with a satay-style peanut sauce, there’s barbecued cauliflower with curry-coconut cream and cabbage charred on the grill and served with peanut relish.

“There’s going to be a lot of vegetables – all organic – that have the charred-ness of the barbecue and are finished off with beautiful sauces. Cooking vegetables over charcoal gives them that interesting profile.”

Photo courtesy of Chin Chin Sydney.

The drinks list

“Philip Rich, our general manager of wine, has designed a really accessible, fun list that focuses on varietals we think go really well with our food. We’re also doing a whole new tap wine program that, quite frankly, I don’t think Australia has seen before. We’ll be able to offer some great wines at a really accessible price.”

Brokenwood, Yabby Lake and Jim Barry have created wines especially for the tap offer, which includes riesling, pinot noir and a red blend by Brokenwood made using Beechworth grapes. Punters will be able to order by the glass or choose a carafe, which comes by the litre or half-litre.

Photo by The Lucas Group.

George Livissianis’s design

“There are actually two palettes for Chin Chin Sydney,” Lucas says. “The restaurant is light and airy with white walls and natural finishes of timber and stone. Then the bar has dark brick and a dark timber ceiling, so it’s got a much more sophisticated, cosy feeling. The building is naturally split into two spaces and we’ve reflected that.

“The third space – our function space – is in a beautiful basement with soaring five-metre pressed metal ceilings. We’ve reinstated the original cement floor and so it’s a very urbane, cool, funky space.”

Photo by Tom Ferguson.

The kitchen

“Because we’re a restaurant, we’ve been able to maintain virtually all the original features of the building, which is heritage inside and out. With the exception of the kitchen, we haven’t touched much. We’ve kept the original floorboards and restored them, we didn’t really touch the walls; they’re quite distressed.”

Photo by Tom Ferguson.