Poetica Bar & Grill

A North Sydney restaurant and bar with fire, wood and charcoal at its heart, Poetica Bar & Grill is a refined but relaxed spot by Etymon Group (The Charles Grand Brasserie and Bar, Loulou Bistro, Boulangerie & Traiteur, and Tiva).

With floor-to-ceiling windows, the light-filled 120-seat restaurant with four outdoor dining terraces, a 700-bottle wine wall, and 15-metre-long open kitchen has a culinary and front-of-house team bringing experience from Rockpool Bar & Grill Perth, The Bridge Room, Totti’s and Buon Ricordo.

In the kitchen, head chef Connor Hartley-Simpson is drawing from his experience at two-Michelin-Starred London restaurant The Ledbury and San Francisco’s three-Starred Quince to deliver a compact, multi-influenced menu spanning raw and cooked starters, wood- and coal-grilled meat and seafood, sides and dessert.

Applying the techniques of cooking over fire where they work to enhance local ingredients, Hartley-Simpson is dry-ageing sirloins, T-bones and tomahawks as well as seafood in house, and pickling and preserving using techniques learned from his time at Sweden’s two-Michelin-Starred Gastrologik.

As well as a premium beef selection, menu highlights include Sydney rock oysters with nduja and a guindilla pepper topped with melted beef fat, braised leeks with seaweed and smoked eel, and seven-day dry-aged swordfish that gets flash-grilled after sitting above the fire slowly cooking, served with a buttery roasted fish sauce poured tableside.

An adjoining 40-person bar with its own outdoor terrace serves a mostly-Australian wine list spans on-trend makers and an expansive selection of vintages dating back to ‘87, including bottles from iconic producers, plus Australian spirits and local craft beers.

There are also 12 signature cocktails featuring Australian ingredients, like the Poetica Martini with Four Pillars Olive Leaf gin, Tilde~ Raw Australian vodka, saltbush, and smoked eucalyptus with charcoal dill oil from the restaurant’s wood fire, or the Dawn: a sophisticated take on a Bloody Mary made in collaboration with Sydney’s Hickson Road Distillery, mixing their gin with apera, bush tomatoes, native pickle brine and house-fermented chilli.

The full restaurant menu, including smaller plates perfect for after-work or pre-dinner snacking, is available in the bar, plus a wood-fired toastie made in a campfire jaffle iron with an ever-changing filling.

A natural, textural interior style flows throughout the venue, which features a 15-metre-long acrylic mural by Australian artist Kristian Hawker at its entrance and a calming palette inspired by the Sydney foreshore throughout.

Now, check out the best steak restaurants in Sydney here or Sydney's best new restaurant openings here.

Image credit: Poetica (Steven Woodburn)