Irene’s

Inside the former space of beloved Newtown diner Hartsyard, Irene’s is a colourful pop-up by Hartsyard co-owners Jarrod Walsh and Dot Lee, and Indian-born chef Neville Dsouza.

While Dzousa doesn’t classify Irene’s as an Indian restaurant, there are nods to the dishes and bold flavours he grew up with. He named the restaurant after his aunt Irene, who used to cook for him and his family on the Sundays of his childhood. She inspired him with her elaborate medleys of curries and salads, and later encouraged him to become a chef.

Here, Dsouza combines this early childhood inspiration with a produce-driven approach and techniques he’s picked up working at Gowings Bar and Grill, Yellow and Cirrus to create authentic familial fare.

One example is the goat curry, which follows his aunt’s original recipe (he still has her handwritten version). It’s a menu staple that’s served with plump bread rolls and raita. Every week a whole goat from Marrickville’s Whole Beast Butchery is broken and used throughout the menu, for the curry as well as goat sausages.

Across the rest of the menu, you might find a salty, sour and crispy snacky number made up of three types of cucumber, lime, goat’s curd by Rozelle’s Willowbrae Cheese and chillies, as well as larger plates, including fried pork loin with ’nduja butter and tamarind chicken.

For dessert, there might be a mix of raw and ripe mangoes jazzed up with chipotle oil, which Dsouza says reminds him of buying raw mangoes with chilli and lime from street vendors in Mumbai as a snack.

The drinks list is also a bit of a walk down memory lane for Dsouza. Options include a mango lassi spiked with yoghurt-washed Brix Distillers white rum, mango syrup and lime, and his favourite Kingfisher beer.