Food review

Seafood like you’ve never had before

This slip of a restaurant, easily missed among the shops in one of Sydney’s busiest retail strips, is a gamechanger, but it’s not game we’re talking about, it’s seafood.

With just 34 seats, the restaurant is comfortably packed most nights.

Chef and co-owner, Josh Niland, is re-inventing how Australians prepare, cook and eat seafood through his dry-ageing techniques and nose-to-tail philosophy.

Nose-to-tail is a euphemistic way of referring to offal. “But that doesn’t mean confronting guests with anything slimy or gross,” he says.

Instead, Niland’s menu marries experimental with traditional. An entree of John Dory liver with parsley on crusty rye sits next to round circles of fish blood black pudding and a pile of blue eye trevally chips. The chips look like gourmet prawn crackers, but are made from blended fish eyeballs. Far from gory, it’s a trio as pretty as any antipasto plate, and as tasty too. For main, I choose Mirror Dory that has been hanging for 22 days. Niland’s dry-ageing techniques are unique in that he doesn’t use salt, pickling or water, but a combination of cool and dry environments. This process gives the skin a crispy finish and the flesh a natural unadulterated flavour.

WHERE : 362 Oxford St, Paddington, Sydney, Australia PHONE : +61 (2) 8937 2530 Web: saintpeter.com.au STYLE: Australian seafood TYPICAL PRICE: $A18–52 for main course. OUR FAVOURITE DIS H: John Dory liver with parsley on crusty rye. IN A WORD : Game-changer