Sydney is flush with French bistros. But none are like Porcine.

Sitting above the Paddington outpost of P&V Wine & Liquor Merchants, this cosy restaurant is by veteran chefs Nicholas Hill, Matt Fitzgerald and Harry Levy. The trio's collective resume includes time on the pans at Bather's Pavilion, Sepia, Saint Peter, Don Peppino’s and London’s three-Michelin-starred Ledbury. That experience has combined to inform one of the city's most outstanding French menus.

Consider Porcine’s canard à la presse. The laborious dish – which is limited to one per service and only available by pre-order – sees a roasted whole duck finished tableside in a sauce of its own blood and marrow. Seen as the height of luxury among France's bourgeoisie in the 18th and 19th centuries, Porcine is currently the only restaurant in Sydney that serves it.

But Hill, Levy and Fitzgerald also trade in familiar bistro staples, albeit ones delivered in less familiar ways. Think Sydney rock oysters dressed in smoked eel mignonette; a steak au poivre reimagined with grilled ox tongue; and an evolving pate en croute that changes daily.