Ingredients that taste like themselves, service that neither coddles nor evades, a knock-out wine list, and a room that brings joy. It’s not rocket science. Yet, so many restaurants never quite get it right. This is what we’ll call deliciousness, and it’s everywhere at chef Danielle Alvarez’s Fred’s. The lovely Paddington destination feels like a home kitchen, albeit a dream-on home, with bowls of produce on marble benchtops instead of stainless steel prep containers. Everything centres around a fire, and the food is the product of a sublime, sustainable harvest. It’s old-world cooking via California’s Chez Panisse to Sydney. Soft slow-cooked ocean trout tastes of the sea, prettied up with nutty broad beans, radish and wild fennel. Baby turnips are a forgotten vegetable allowed to shine in their bitter, sweet, tender crunch, matched with thin slices of buttery fried Southern squid, snow peas and black garlic vinaigrette. What a delight to find a puddle of earthy white bean puree under deboned chicken Marylands instead of the oh-so-common cauliflower. Address: 380 Oxford St Paddington 2021
Fred's, Paddington, Sydney