Eleven Barrack, as you like it
Sydney's new grill with gumption, mere steps from the George Street light rail, gets the simple things right then nails the flourishes, too.
It's my third visit to Eleven Barrack, the new seafood and steak grill from the team behind Bentley, Monopole and King Clarence, and I'm settled happily at my favourite table, a two-top in front of the gigantic floor-to-ceiling wine vault. Directly ahead there's a table of six guys in shirt sleeves, likely on a lunch break from one of the REITs or software companies within two blocks of its location (conveniently revealed in the name: 11 Barrack Street). They're each handed a menu, and one barely gives it a glance before he hands it back. "We know what we want," he says, and fires off the table's order of oysters, a pasta, the fish pie, several steaks and sides.
If nice restaurants came with taglines, that guy could lobby for a copywriting gig at this one. 'You Know What You Want' sums Eleven Barrack up. What Sydney wants, evidenced by the packed tables on this Friday afternoon, is deftly-cooked steak, seafood and sides, a huge choice of wines, all served with panache inside a soaring-ceilinged former bank building.