Woolloomooloo’s beloved pub and theatre The Old Fitz seems to be one of the only places in Sydney that can navigate a refresh without totally destroying what makes it so utterly special. The upstairs dining room and perpetually filled front bar have seen a culinary overhaul under a new chef who brings the likes of rooster rolls and crepe layer cake with dulce de leche cream to delighted audiences.

Toby Stansfield, who was head chef at Yellow and Monopole and most recently at CBD pasta bar Fabricca, now handles the pans at the renamed Bistro Fitz. He brings bistro classics like Tarte Tartin to the menu, but he deftly uses beetroot, which are caramelised into their pastry bedding and topped with Holy Goat fromage frais. There’s change here, but it’s a gentle and clever reshuffle more than an overthrow and, at a pub like The Old Fitz, where less polished and more soul is valued over a refresh, it’s hard not to be grateful.

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When the doors closed at The Old Fitz in Woolloomooloo in 2020 and there were whisperings of new owners, we held bated breaths, anticipating the inevitable. Anyone can shove a skip outside a pub, then tear out its heart in a bid to make things modern. But in what might be one of the best news stories to come out of lockdown, Odd Culture Group engaged young chef Anna Ugarte-Carral, a Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year award winner, and arose from the ashes with Brasserie Fitz. The food was excellent, and the place as perfectly imperfect as it always was, mostly in its original form with some polishing and lots of new outdoor seating. The pub’s historic features remain.

Now white cloths are laid upstairs in the Bistro, and there’s the same gorgeous red-wine coloured walls, framed English gardens and hounds, dinghy boats and silvery beaches hanging haphazardly around the dormant fireplace. The room is impeccably managed, there’s a sophistication here that can only come from a team that knows its stuff and has been doing it for years. Taramasalata comes in a generous glass goblet, the whipped cods roe just thick enough to cling to the small wedges of crunchy cos lettuce offered for dipping ($16). Crudite are wading in a herby sauce gribiche, wedges of radish and halved baby carrots ready to be plucked out by their attached leaves for crunching.

Brioche toast with confit chicken and roast chicken mayonnaise ($8) is a retro affair, recalling the very best catered 1970s cocktail parties. It’s a dill-studded, chickeny spoonful on the mouthful-sized square of buttery brioche, and while the roast chicken mayonnaise might get a little lost, it’s a lovely bite. A pub rendition appears downstairs as a rooster roll, a luxurious take on the classic hot chicken roll – and we vow to return to have it.

Steak frites ($34) comes with Diane sauce and thin chips so good we order another portion on the side, this time with kombu salt and a yuzu mayo. The steak is perfectly done, pink and tender with a requisite crust of any good bistro steak. And barramundi fillet, cooked “en papillote” with tomato, olive and salted zucchini, is a delightful, comforting dish.

Crepe cake with dulce de leche cream ($15) is 15 layers of crepes and 14 layers of dulce de leche creme, adorned with poached rosella flowers, a beautiful thing that is also served in the pub downstairs.

There’s an elegance to the service as well as the food at the revived Bistro Fitz, in many ways a world away from the pub’s gritty surroundings in Woolloomooloo.

But with the experience of a great team on the floor and the kitchen, and the wisdom of a group that knows not to change a good thing, it retains that elusive charm of an old pub, a beloved local that keeps us coming back for more.

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