The Auswine Forum

Hi all,
in a recent email from Brian (aka Red Bigot) he mentioned BYO restaurants. That got me thinking... what is everyones favourite BYO retaurant? my two are in sydney:

1. Golden Centuary in chinatown (chinese & seafood - best salt & pepper lobster ever mains $16-$25 seafood tanks & live seafood at market price, corkage $5 p/btl)

2. Grappa in Leichardt (Italian cuisine, decanters for those aged treasures ... definitely worth a visit. mains $29+, corkage $4. pp)

Whats your? (remember to include which city your in, mains prices, & corkage.)

Christo

Two hands down winners; Kingleys in King Street and Atelier in Newtown.

Wow, things move quickly around here, it was Peter S who suggested to me that it would be good to have a page summarising good, byo-friendly restaurants in each major city.

I was going to scour the forums, these question are asked and answered periodically, but get buried after a while, and seed a more permanent list, looks like the ball is rolling.

If possible could people also list corkage charges and main-course typical price.

In Sydney, my up market favourite is Marque, superb food, around $35-$40+ for a main course, corkage about $10 per bottle and a great wine list if you run out or strike cork problems, Billy Kwong next door is great if you don't mind the no-bookings policy. Another one in Little Hay st is Red Chilli, Szechuan-style chinese, with appropriate amounts of chilli and Szechuan pepper in many dishes, can't remember the corkage, it was cheap, mains about $18-$30 plus seafood at market prices, we went two nights in a row last time we were in Sydney, we loved the food so much.

In Canberra, our favourites are:
Anise, Dijon, mezzalira (all in West Row in the city, all with similar prices and corkage), WatersEdge (no byo weekends, but you can negotiate and drop off "special" bottles prior to service commencing). Rock Salt adds a bright note to an otherwise ordinary suburban shopping centre

We haven't been back to Courgette since a wine dinner last year with 11 or so people where they without warning charged $35 when we opened a half-bottle of a fortified (muscat) and wouldn't negotiate, the bottle had been sitting in plain sight on the table they thoughfully provided for our wine and I had explicitly discussed corkage when booking. needless to say there was no tip and I paid via credit card instead of the cash collected from the diners.

There are quite a few south of the lake too, but high Canberra taxi fares make it hard to choose to stray from the closer ones when you live northside.

I must agree with Brian on The Rocksalt restaurant. Great food, service and very good wine list. One of thing I really liked about this place is very unpretentious. Even though the place was full when I dined there but is yet to be find out by food lovers and food critics especially from SMH's Good Food Guide.

David

Anonymous wrote:I must agree with Brian on The Rocksalt restaurant. Great food, service and very good wine list. One of thing I really liked about this place is very unpretentious. Even though the place was full when I dined there but is yet to be find out by food lovers and food critics especially from SMH's Good Food Guide.

David

David, RockSalt seems to be full just about every night and has been for a long time now, always a good sign. The wine list is very good, but the service, although friendly and enthusiastic can show a lack of training/experience, not an uncommon thing in Canberra restaurants. Last visit in a group of 15 I had to stop 3 different people from trying to put the sparkling red in ice buckets and stop another from trying to fill glasses to 7/8ths full. They caught on fairly quickly though and let us do our own pouring after a while.

Another restaurant I must go back to is Artespresso in Kingston, great food, but definitely take your own glasses, theirs are pretty pathetic for a restaurant of that class.

Jakob wrote:Two hands down winners; Kingleys in King Street and Atelier in Newtown.

Restaurant Atelier (http://www.restaurantatelier.com.au) in Newtown has just moved to Glebe Point Road, Glebe, and it too is my favourite BYO in Sydney.

Adair

here in Adelaide, vist the 'Chows' in Gouger Street'

Ying Chow
or
Ky Chow
or
T-Chow

All wonderful chinese food, friendly, cheerful, $2.50 corkage.

Each specialises ina different Duck dish, with tea smoked duck being my personal fave!!

Don't tell them about Ying Chow Gavin, we're trying to keep it a secret!

Three I frequent in the near Adelaide CBD suburbs are Casa Mia in North Adelaide, The Sauce at Dulwich and Stamps at Mitcham.

Mains around the low$ 20s but couldn't tell you what corkage is with certainty, under $10 I think.

357King in Newtown is excellent for heavy wine-drinking groups.

Kieran

Kieran wrote:357King in Newtown is excellent for heavy wine-drinking groups.

Kieran

whats the mains price range? & corkage?

many thanks

c

I've made a start, I'll scour the forums for past recommendations, keep posting here or send me details of your recommended restaurants.

http://users.tpg.com.au/handreck/BYORestaurants.htm

Red Bigot wrote:I've made a start, I'll scour the forums for past recommendations, keep posting here or send me details of your recommended restaurants.

http://users.tpg.com.au/handreck/BYORestaurants.htm

that was quick!... again great work this will be a very valauble refrence tool.

christo

Sydney faves are Marque, tetsuya's, Ying's, Claude's, Balzac, Oscillate Wildly, Jasper's, Fifi's, Sevardi Cucina, Oh calcutta, Sean's Panorama, La Goulue, Restaurante Riva, Milsons, Elio, Grappa, Il Perugio, Manna, Perama, El karim, Pazzo, Tabou, Emma's on Liberty.

Mains at 357 King Street are generally low $20s. They have some great wine nights there - $80 a couple including food up to 9 wines, some very drinkable.

You may need to be quick though, 357 is closing as the lease is up. They have not indicated what they are doing next, last I spoke to Tanya (co-owner and front of house) they were hoping to reopen nearby. Due to close on 23 April.

I like 357 in Newtown, Grappa and Elio in Leichhardt, Claude's in Paddington for the special occasion, and Wokstation in Ultimo for off-pay week.


Regards,

Allan

Brisbane

Ecco- consistently good - crap glassware

Timmy Kemp- tried it on the weekend , absolutelty high quality bistro food great service and acceptable glassware

James street Bristro- we went there buy default and the food was very ok and quick

Two Small Rooms- food is just ok these days. ok for a drug business dinner really

Bruno's - bad glassware but lovely food

Rapide- small place tip top food and affable and good little wine list as well

Anyone else got any other brisbane ones ?

michel

Baby Chickpea wrote:Sydney faves are Marque, tetsuya's, Ying's, Claude's, Balzac, Oscillate Wildly, Jasper's, Fifi's, Sevardi Cucina, Oh calcutta, Sean's Panorama, La Goulue, Restaurante Riva, Milsons, Elio, Grappa, Il Perugio, Manna, Perama, El karim, Pazzo, Tabou, Emma's on Liberty.

Geez Danny, nice list, but can you give me the short list with some more details on each, I'm not going to do all the work here, especially if they aren't in the 2005 SMH GFG. One or two aren't listed as BYO in said publication or have weekend restrictions, any you have to sweet-talk to get byo?

michel wrote:
Anyone else got any other brisbane ones ?

michel

ISIS - A winning trifecta of good food, service and glassware. The only place where I've seen a BYO wine decanted with more care than I'd take at home.
They'll only take a maximum booking of 8 though - great for a small offline.

cheers
BA

BA wrote:

michel wrote:
Anyone else got any other brisbane ones ?

michel

ISIS - A winning trifecta of good food, service and glassware. The only place where I've seen a BYO wine decanted with more care than I'd take at home.
They'll only take a maximum booking of 8 though - great for a small offline.

cheers
BA

They did this for me last year at the Journeyman in Berrima, when I brought a 1986 Wynn's black label cabernet. Corkage was $7 - they had their own winelist - but I thought it was worth every penny for the care that the owner (whose name I can't recall) gave to decanting my wine and providing excellent red wine glasses. Food was excellent too. I think this place has been highly recommended by TORB in the past.

Thanks Brian- forgot Isis- excellent food and service.

Red Bigot wrote:

Baby Chickpea wrote:Sydney faves are Marque, tetsuya's, Ying's, Claude's, Balzac, Oscillate Wildly, Jasper's, Fifi's, Sevardi Cucina, Oh calcutta, Sean's Panorama, La Goulue, Restaurante Riva, Milsons, Elio, Grappa, Il Perugio, Manna, Perama, El karim, Pazzo, Tabou, Emma's on Liberty.

Geez Danny, nice list, but can you give me the short list with some more details on each, I'm not going to do all the work here, especially if they aren't in the 2005 SMH GFG. One or two aren't listed as BYO in said publication or have weekend restrictions, any you have to sweet-talk to get byo?

OK Brian I'll give it a crack (don't have SMG guide with me).

$$$ (all BYO listed)
Tets
Marque
Claude's

$$
Tabou
balzac (Mon-Thur BYO)
Yings
Jaspers
Sevardi Cucina
La Goulue
Milsons (Mon-Thurs BYO)
Oh Calcutta (previoulsy non-BYO now BYO)
Grappa

$
The rest

As far as I am aware all BYO or BYO friendly (must ask) -which ones not listed as BYO pls? Even Rockpool is BYO if you ask!

Baby Chickpea wrote:OK Brian I'll give it a crack (don't have SMG guide with me).

$$$ (all BYO listed)
Tets
Marque
Claude's

$$
Tabou
balzac (Mon-Thur BYO)
Yings
Jaspers
Sevardi Cucina
La Goulue
Milsons (Mon-Thurs BYO)
Oh Calcutta (previoulsy non-BYO now BYO)
Grappa

$
The rest

As far as I am aware all BYO or BYO friendly (must ask) -which ones not listed as BYO pls? Even Rockpool is BYO if you ask!

Thanks Danny, Oh Calcutta and Restaurant Riva don't have BYO listed in SMH GFG, El Karim doesn't appear. How much do Rockpool charge for corkage? They declined my request re BYO a couple of years ago.

Taboo don't BYO on Friday and Saturday. Glasses not too flash.
La Goulue is totally BYO - No licence. Glasses OK not great. Lots of decanters.
Ripples on the foreshore at N.Syd Olympic pool is totally BYO. Glasses OK

SMH GFG is very CBD-centric. El Karim is in Roseville nea the cinema. Rockpool charged me $20 pb 18 months ago. A friend recently tried to book and they quoted him $40pb - that's the problem with these establishemnts - no set fee. Depends on who you get! ALways set the corkage BEFORE you enter to offset any nasty surprises when the bill arrives!

michel wrote:Brisbane


Two Small Rooms- food is just ok these days. ok for a drug business dinner really

michel

You do your drug business in a restaurant Michel
MM.

qwertt wrote:

BA wrote:

michel wrote:
Anyone else got any other brisbane ones ?

michel

ISIS - A winning trifecta of good food, service and glassware. The only place where I've seen a BYO wine decanted with more care than I'd take at home.
They'll only take a maximum booking of 8 though - great for a small offline.

cheers
BA

They did this for me last year at the Journeyman in Berrima, when I brought a 1986 Wynn's black label cabernet. Corkage was $7 - they had their own winelist - but I thought it was worth every penny for the care that the owner (whose name I can't recall) gave to decanting my wine and providing excellent red wine glasses. Food was excellent too. I think this place has been highly recommended by TORB in the past.

Grappa decnated on both occasions i requested 1st an 85 grange & 2nd a magnum of 87 Lakes Folly cab.

Any Melbourne people out there? The Sydney list is getting pretty long, how about some more from Melbourne?

Nothing from Perth so far either...

michel wrote:Brisbane

Ecco- consistently good - crap glassware

Timmy Kemp- tried it on the weekend , absolutelty high quality bistro food great service and acceptable glassware

James street Bristro- we went there buy default and the food was very ok and quick

Two Small Rooms- food is just ok these days. ok for a drug business dinner really

Bruno's - bad glassware but lovely food

Rapide- small place tip top food and affable and good little wine list as well

Anyone else got any other brisbane ones ?

michel

Good list. The Dining Room at Hendra is also pretty special. Havent tried Isis yet, must do that soon.

michel wrote:Brisbane

Ecco- consistently good - crap glassware

Timmy Kemp- tried it on the weekend , absolutelty high quality bistro food great service and acceptable glassware

James street Bristro- we went there buy default and the food was very ok and quick

Two Small Rooms- food is just ok these days. ok for a drug business dinner really

Bruno's - bad glassware but lovely food

Rapide- small place tip top food and affable and good little wine list as well

Anyone else got any other brisbane ones ?

michel

Send Brian the details of address and phone nos for these Brisbane BYO's so that the database is completed.

Graham

Here's one for Melbourne:

France-Soir - except Sat Nights, mains about $25-29

another quaint little french restaurant is the little snail. iy used to be on brodway but is now, in pyrmont. BYO wine, 3 courses from $44.

worth a mention when u feel like some galic snails!!
cd