What’s on around town

• Le Foote’s new bar menu launches today. There are hanger steak frites, fish’n’chips, our favourite fish sanga and, from 5pm till 6pm, $12 Sbagliatos, $7 wines and more happy-hour hotties exclusive to Le Bar.

• Cafe Baba’s: the Baba’s Place team is heading east this weekend, taking over Freda’s kitchen from 1pm till 9pm. Head in for DNA Distillery’s rajika and tonic cans, food like Macedonian pastrmajlija (a not-quite-pizza, not-quite-pide carby thing) and DJs. Bookings recommended.

• The Swill newsstand is popping up at Messina HQ in Marrickville today and tomorrow. The Swill mag team will have all the issues, merch and strawberry highballs for happy sipping. And Oltra will fire out slices.

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• Ramen Auru has added more days (and hours) to cope with the demand. Now you can order your bowl till midnight – via vending machine (clack! clack!) – five days a week, and till 10pm on Sundays.

• Ursula’s is going to France. From July 23 till August 10, the golden Paddington dining room will transform into a French bistro. Book a table for a beef Rossini – and your pick of a savoury or sweet souffle.

• Shell House is bringing back The Hits, its eight-week pasta series. Each $25 serve is available for one week only, from Monday to Saturday, and there are $10 glasses of wine if you fancy too. This week it’s salsiccia conchiglioni, and next is rigatoni alla vermouth.

• Nab 30 per cent off your bill at Martinez, the CBD’s answer to the French Riviera. Book via the special link, then get ready for that knockout bouillabaisse at a discount – available for dinners between Tuesday and Friday throughout July and August.

• Yo-Chi opened its first Bondi store this week. Plus it’s back with Tribute Tuesday, its initiative that sees hard-working members of the community acknowledged each week with free swirls of frozen yoghurt. On July 16, all garbage collectors can head in for a froyo on the house. Keep your eyes on the brand’s feed for who’s up next.

• Sundays at Chiswick are going retro. During Sunday dinners until August 4, vintage vinyls will be spinning behind a rotating menu of classics – think beef Wellington and slow-cooked prime ribs. Book in from 6pm for the $60 two-course menu.

• Winter staycay: check in at Crown Sydney between now and February 28, 2025, with the Table for Two offer to enjoy a night in a Harbour Bridge or Opera king room, $250 dining credit, a bottle of bubbles on arrival and buffet brekkie the next day. Prices start at $799 per night.

What we covered this week

• First look: Taku Taku whacks jumbo cuts of slow-cooked pork atop curries in North Sydney. The small eatery also has Hong Kong-style French toast, plus matcha revved up with coffee and coconutty hojicha.)

• First look: Berkelo Kitchen pivots from bakery to kitchen with its new suburban dream of a restaurant – where that topnotch sourdough forms the base of pizzas in a charming cottage surrounded by kitchen gardens.

• First look: Australia Street scores Comedor, a suave backstreet joint where Alejandro Huerta’s on the pans. There’s a $35 set menu that changes weekly – with dishes like silky corn and miso pasta and the “best cheese” the chef’s ever tasted.

• Now open: At the Loulou team’s new North Sydney four-parter – in the Walker Street precinct – the dining takes you from Japan to Europe.

• Coming soon: The Apollo team readies to open Olympus, a 200-seat Greek restaurant in Surry Hills.

• This One Thing: chashu pork belly and ramen egg pie from Blood’s Bakery.

• The best cafes and casual eateries of 2024 (so far) include chewy pandan cookies in a random spot, a picnicky brekkie plate, the best fillet of fish one editor’s ever had, and the final frontier of specialty coffee in Sydney.

• Closure: Orchard St founder Kirsten Shanks calls time on her clutch of holistic health cafes. “[It’s] taken more energy, time, resources and love than we imagined possible.”

You might’ve missed

• Sophie McComas-Williams can’t stop thinking about Domo 39’s sakana bento. The Japanese treasure box dish has her in a lunchtime chokehold, with its bed of koshihikari rice and dazzling array of grilled, fried and pickled toppings.

• The best bars 2024 has delivered (so far). There’s a newbie from an authority on tequila, a mid-century modern saloon, and a piano bar that’s devoted to bivalves and bubbles.

• Now open: Kajiken, the Michelin-recommended noodle chain from Nagoya, is all about abura soba. The broth-less bowls bring chilli oil, rice vinegar and other condiments to the mix – and there are already queues down the street.