In a sneaky pocket of Surry Hills, Bar H is dangerously easy to like.
Update April 2019: it’s with much sadness I inform you Bar H has shut its kitchen, with a rumoured new Italian restaurant to take its place.
Why? Because this dinner-only bar-restaurant serves up a kick ass menu of good things like pork belly and dumplings. It’s small and sophisticated, and offers a pretty pleasing assortment of sake, wine and cocktails. Yep, Bar H deserves some attention.
Whaaaart! Bar H isn’t eye-wateringly expensive
One of the things I’ve struggled with in the move to Sydney* is finding restaurants that serve yum food, in a fun environment and don’t leave you broke for the rest of the week. (*This is right alongside the ability to source coffee that isn’t a cup of milk and bars open after 11pm). In Melbourne, access to ahhh-mazing mid-priced restaurants is like a God-given right.
But, Bar H is channelling all the right vibes. Dare I say it, it’s very Melbourne. There’s no white table cloths, its menu isn’t horrifyingly expensive (for Sydney standards) and it’s very nocturnal (read: dark, intimate and moody).
Hokkaido scallops sashimi, with nori, celery and fingerlime
A food tour of Tokyo, the Sichuan Province and rural Australia
Bar H’s menu is billed as Japanese fusion, but also incorporating Chinese influences and Australian indigenous ingredients it’s about as contemporary as Japanese fare comes. There’s certainly no sushi in sight, and definitely no sushi train. The menu is a collection of inventive dishes like crispy saltbush, tempura corn and kangaroo tartare.
It reminds you a bit of Billy Kwong, which is perhaps no surprise given the former owner and head chef, Hamish Ingham, was part of the start-up team behind Kylie Kwong’s much-lauded Potts Point restaurant.
Bar H has a pretty tempting sharing menu. Six dishes, spanning entrée to dessert, for $68pp, and you can be all indulgent and throw in matching wines for an extra $45pp. But, that seemed too indulgent for a low-key Wednesday night girls’ catch-up, so my friend Ali and I non-controversially ordered off the menu.
We decided on four dishes. The juicy pork dumplings were the best. Wait… maybe the 12-hour slow-cooked pork belly was the best – it was certainly pretty damn good. But then the sashimi scallops and little prawns were also a solid A… Yeah, I can’t decide on the highlight dish – they were all high-end fluoro highlighters.
Pork dumplings, with umeboshi plum, dashi and chilli oil
Slow cooked pork belly, with red miso, karashi mustard and fennel
Seared sweet prawns, with kombu butter and soy dressing
And to drink?
There’s also nothing same-same about Bar H’s drinks list, a curation of worldly organic, biodynamic and sustainable wines; sake from all corners of Japan; and cocktails inspired by the motherland.
Try the Sriracha Sour – a concoction of tequila, cointreau, sriracha, lemon, lime, egg white, cinnamon and star anise. Then tell me what you think because it sounds terrifying.
Bar H is…
Sit at a table, or sit at the bar and watch the open kitchen – either way you’re guaranteed to have a good time, with good food and good drinks at Bar H.
Bar H | 80 Campbell Street, Surry Hills, New South Wales
Phone: (02) 9280 1980
