Ester Restaurant & Bar

“A small restaurant and bar in Chippendale.” These are the words Mat Lindsay first used to describe his restaurant Ester. It was 2013 and his pitch was simple: a neighbourhood place using local and sustainable ingredients, making what it could in-house, serving organic and biodynamic wine, all of it ever-changing, all of it centred around a woodfired oven.

If the vision seemed humble, back then the execution was quietly revolutionary. Today Ester is one of Sydney’s most influential restaurants, and somewhere you’ll probably see big-name acolytes from the city’s hospitality scene perched at the bar enjoying a meal on their night off.

Ester’s long list of classic dishes includes burnished whole cauliflower; roasted oysters swimming in sake butter; a blood-sausage sanga; and pull-apart potato bread to swipe through cultured cream and dashi jelly, and overload with trout roe. While none are a certainty on your next visit, you can always expect char and crunch, generosity in the saucing, and roasted poultry to be plated whole, head and all.

As at Poly , Ester’s Surry Hills sibling, the wine list here is constantly evolving, ambitious and accessible. Co-owner and drinks director Julien Dromgool is also shining a light on what’s exciting in the spirit world, with local and international distilleries given equal consideration.

Read Ten Years of Ester: An Oral History