Ester Restaurant & Bar

“A small restaurant and bar in Chippendale.” These are the words Mat Lindsay first used to describe his restaurant Ester. It was 2013 and his pitch was simple: a neighbourhood place using local and sustainable ingredients, making what it could in-house, serving organic and biodynamic wine, all of it ever-changing, all of it centred around a woodfired oven.

If the vision seemed humble, back then the execution was quietly revolutionary. Today Ester is one of Sydney’s most influential restaurants, and somewhere you’ll probably see big-name acolytes from the city’s hospitality scene perched at the bar enjoying a meal on their night off.

Ester’s long list of classic dishes includes burnished whole cauliflower; roasted oysters swimming in sake butter; a blood-sausage sanga; and pull-apart potato bread to swipe through cultured cream and dashi jelly, and overload with trout roe. While none are a certainty on your next visit, you can always expect char and crunch, generosity in the saucing, and roasted poultry to be plated whole, head and all.

As at Poly, Ester’s Surry Hills sibling, the wine list here is constantly evolving, ambitious and accessible. Co-owner and drinks director Julien Dromgool is also shining a light on what’s exciting in the spirit world, with local and international distilleries given equal consideration.

Read Ten Years of Ester: An Oral History