Five Dishes You Need To Order at Leigh Street Wine Room, According to Its Head Chef

Things have ebbed and flowed since Sali and Nathan Sasi opened the wine bar in 2019. The Sasis sold it a few years later, but current head chef Nick Sinodinos is keen to nod to its early days. “We’re bringing back some of the stuff it started with: parfaits, terrines,” he says.

Beyond that, he’s focusing on food that pairs well with wine, to celebrate the bar’s excellent drinks program. “We’ve got some strong flavours, but not too strong to interfere with the wine,” he says. “We’re steering away from heavy spice to keep everything balanced.”

To give you an idea of where to start, Sinodinos has rounded up his favourite five dishes to try at Leigh Street Wine Room. And luckily, Broadsheet and NAB have joined forces for Booking With Benefits, a dining program that gives you $50 off the bill when you spend $250 or more and pay on your NAB credit or debit card at selected venues – including Leigh Street Wine Room – countrywide.

Shark Bay scallop, sweet corn butter, spring onion oil

Preparation for this dish begins days before it’s served, with sweet corn smoked over fire. It’s charred quite dark, giving it an almost coffee-like flavour, then transformed into a butter (that you’ll want to mop up with a hunk of house-baked focaccia). The butter is slathered over a Shark Bay scallop in its shell and topped with spring onion oil. “After people order one, they usually order another couple,” says Sinodinos. “It’s moreish.”

Robe octopus, hummus, salsa verde

Sinodinos loves octopus from Robe, on the state’s Limestone Coast, so he lets it shine on this small plate. First, it’s cooked sous-vide with plenty of white wine and aromatics, then it’s flame-licked before it’s finished in a herby, garlicky marinade. Sinodinos pairs it with a “very clean hummus”, a vibrant salsa verde and a wedge of lemon. “This and the scallops are dishes that won’t leave the menu while I’m here,” says Sinodinos.

Flat beans, whipped ricotta, confit garlic, anchovies, chilli

You’ll want to save some focaccia for this. The kitchen doesn’t bother blanching whole flat beans before they hit the grill, so they come out charry and gnarly. The plate gets a squiggle of house-made ricotta to form a bed for the beans. Then, they’re topped with what Sinodinos calls “Italian XO sauce”, pungent with confit garlic, anchovy and chilli. It’s balanced with a fresh hit of lemon zest and parsley.

36 Degrees South Wagyu scotch fillet, beef jus, salmoriglio, bearnaise

Premium SA beef producer 36 Degrees South is responsible for the 350-gram Wagyu scotch fillet at Leigh Street Wine Room. “It really is a beautiful cut of meat,” says Sinodinos. A trio of accompaniments take it to the next level. There’s a rich bearnaise sauce made with “loads of butter and egg yolks”; a beef jus that builds on the flavour of the meat; and roughly hand-chopped salmoriglio, a bright-green Italian condiment.  

Passionfruit panna cotta, fresh passionfruit, meringue, raspberries

“Passionfruit on passionfruit” is how Sinodinos describes this dessert, so if you’re a fan of the aromatic orb, you’re in luck. The star is a jiggly panna cotta that’s scooped out of a tray, not set in a mould reminiscent of the ’90s. It’s enlivened with passionfruit syrup and served with a half passionfruit, a wedge of meringue and freeze-dried raspberries.

The Broadsheet Dining Program Special Offer of a $50 discount when you spend $250 or more is available when you dine at a Participating Restaurant between 13 January 2026 and 16 December 2026. To be eligible for the Discount Offer, you must make a booking via the NAB Exclusive Booking Link for the Participating Restaurant which is found on the Broadsheet Booking page and spend a minimum of $250 on your NAB credit card. Between 2 June 2026 and 16 December 2026, the Discount Offer will also be available on NAB debit card payments at select venues. The Discount Offer will apply at the Restaurant when you pay the final bill amount including GST and service fees and charges (if any) with your NAB credit card (includes a digital NAB credit card) or NAB debit card (includes a digital NAB debit card) at select venues. The Discount Offer is only valid once per booking and will not apply to any split bills and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers. For the full Terms and Conditions of this Offer, please click here. 

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with NAB.