Low life
My Sydney good food guide
Jeffrey Bernard
Iused to be vain enough to have wanted to be invited on to Desert Island Discs• Now, back in England after two weeks in Australia, I realise that I am on a desert island and always have been. You don't need a strip of sand to listen to Mozart, Monica the typewriter doesn't exist and all the messages have been sent out in bottles for the past 15 years. Man Friday must have been a constant source of irritation to
Robinson Crusoe, even a bore, and when I first saw Norman's footprint on the carpet of the Coach and Horses I knew I wasn't entirely alone. Sometimes I wish I was. That might be the elusive luxury.
It is two a.m. here in Covent Garden and It is bloody cold. I don't need a thermo- meter. If my signet ring falls off my fifth finger then it is cold. It was 80°F last week 10 Sydney and the grilled prawns were as thick as your wrist. But I forgot to mention Raffles Hotel in Singapore last week. It is an extremely attractive building and bar, possibly not up to Jonathan Meades's standard, and is only ruined by tourists, most of them American. They should ban the camera in America. With all the talk about the possession of firearms in the US it is cameras that need to be licensed now. In Raffles people kept jumping out of their chairs, quite literally, to take snaps of the bar. They have no shame. The famous gin sling is awful. Sweet and sucked through a straw, it is a sort of alcoholic Lucozade to Illy mind. Who needs cocktails?
The initial mistake with Sydney was that I went there primed with some bad in- formation. Added to that, never ever take any notice of the trash given out by a country's tourist board and that applies to the British Tourist Board who know little beyond the Park Lane Hilton and the Tower of London. Bilson's is the res- taurant that is all the rage in Sydney. It is extremely expensive and a little overrated. It also does not do to drink in posh hotels in almost any country and Sydney is full of good pubs. Never have I seen beer con- sumption on such a scale as in Sydney. Not even in the North of England. The women drink schooners of the stuff as well. Any- way, if you happen to be going to Sydney take it from me — I know a damn sight more about restaurants and pubs than do tourist boards: Doyle's, The Quays. Bang next door to Where the cruise liners dock. The best fish restaurant I have ever been to and prob- ably one of the best in the world. Amazing Prawns and oysters. About £12 per person.
The Wharf. Ask the taxi driver for the Wharf Theatre. A big glass-fronted res- taurant at the harbour's edge. Great view, excellent food, especially a pork version of osso bucco. Pig's something or other just above the trotter. English manager is friendly Spectator reader. About £12 per person. Good wine. The Blue Water. Balcony seafood over- looking Bondi Beach. A beautiful setting. Eat and sit there all afternoon. Well worth the trip from the city. £12.
The Bayswater Brasserie, 32 Bayswater Road, King's Cross. Don't be put off by the awful-sounding address. Good food on excellent premises. Mahogany and marble with brass trimmings. Delightful. Lots of greenery. Again no more than £12 a head. The Australian Youth Hotel, Bay Street on Broadway. Don't be deterred by the awful word Youth. A really nice pub with a lovely garden courtyard restaurant. Mostly Italian food. Pasta under the palms. Again no more than £12. Highly recommended.
You don't need to stay in a skyscraper. Three good hotels, all of them from the Edwardian era, are: the Russell, George Street and the Observer Hotel, George Street. The Observer's ground floor is a pub and there is a courtyard restaurant in the back. There is something vaguely Parisian about the Russell. I stayed in the Palisade on The Rocks, three minutes' walk away. Balcony room £25 a night. Okay pub downstairs. Nice proprietor but ignore the sour surly Canadian manager. I would go back to Sydney tomorrow if I could afford it off my own bat. Thank you, British Airways.
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