Oncore’s Bar Menu Is Just As Good as the Main Event (and Less Than Half the Price)

There are some dining experiences that you save for, whether that’s saving up a celebration worthy of the meal or your hard-earned dollars. Oncore by Clare Smyth is one such experience. On level 26 of the Crown, its signature seven-course tasting menu – with that silky, spectacular potato and roe – is artful and momentous. If you’ve been saving up to go, the newly launched bar menu is here at the right time.

“We have this awesome space here and I just want to have people use it in a way that’s less committed than the dining room,” Smyth tells Broadsheet. “You can eat as much or as little as you want, and with smaller dishes that are really suitable to be paired with cocktails. [It’s] a more relaxed atmosphere, to eat small plates, chat with your friends, order a bit more. We’ve done it in London and it’s worked so well.”

You’re in for the same dishes, with the main dining room’s tasting menu condensed into a four-parter with smaller servings. For $150, it’s a few snacks to start, then a serve of Western Australian marron with caviar; the potato and roe (the elegant and comforting dish Smyth created for the opening of Core, with its perfectly vinegary seaweed beurre blanc); local Wagyu with Sydney rock oyster; and to finish, the Core-teser, the dessert Smyth made on the Masterchef 2024 finale.

Upgrade the meal with the $80 cocktail pairing, designed by bar manager Roean Patawaran. The East & West brings Never Never’s Juniper Freak gin and Arras sparkling to the table, while the Beef & Bourbon goes big with Wagyu-fat-washed bourbon, vermouth and thyme. With dessert, it’s a cocktail that plays on milk and Milo (with crème de banane).

But you don’t have to commit to an entire tasting – everything’s available à la carte, too. Plus there are some dishes from Core – like the luxe fried chicken topped with N25 caviar – and Smyth’s new Notting Hill bar Whiskey & Seaweed making the trip Down Under.

“You can always add dishes, or just add snacks. We’ve had people up who do [order] everything, but because they’re smaller bites you have an interesting view of the restaurant. We just really want to have more people feeling that they can come to Oncore, enjoy the food, the space – and really pile into some of these cocktails.”

The Bar at Oncore by Clare Smyth
Level 26, 1 Barangaroo Avenue, Barangaroo

Hours:
Tue to Thu 5.30pm–10.30pm
Fri & Sat midday–3pm, 5.30pm–11pm

@oncorebyclaresmyth
crownsydney.com.au/restaurants/oncore-by-clare-smyth