“What did it look like before the renovation?”
“Pink. Lots and lots of pink.”
I had never dined at Pink Salt before so it’s hard to compare the newly renovated Double Bay restaurant to its former self. What I can confirm is that this place looks great.
It’s a humid and rainy evening the night Mr Woollahra and I are invited to dine at Pink Salt. We arrive at 7pm and the staff are frantically running around trying to relocate bookings from the front, rain exposed courtyard to inside the restaurant. On a warm summers night or sunny afternoon that would be the prime people watching position, a glass of rose in hand.
The venue is split across two levels. The downstairs dining room spills out into the courtyard and is an elegant space with beautiful marbled floors and dim lighting. Upstairs there’s minimal furniture and a grand open space in front of a long bar. We’re told on the weekends this is where the dance floor action happens.
It’s a weeknight and there’s no dancing happening, just a civilised middle aged crowd drinking wine enjoying their dinner. It’s quiet. There’s no music, but the room is full of people smiling and enjoying the attractive decor- myself included.
We start our meal with some refreshing cocktails – the Blood Orange Amaretto Sour made with Dissarno and fresh blood orange juice is served short and has that bitter sweet tang to it that stimulates your taste buds. Mr Woollahra opts for the Coconut Chilli Margarita made with coconut tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, house chilli syrup and a salt rim…pink salt of course.
Grilled haloumi, kale, quinoa, pomegranate, hazelnuts ($17)Three different wait staff approach us to take our order, each with a different accent. Ethnic diversity is present amongst the staff and the menu. There’s a mix of Greek, Italian and Middle Eastern dishes on there and more. We start with some popcorn chicken, small pieces of poultry fried in fresh chilli served with aioli and a generous salad of halloumi, kale, quinoa, pomegranate and hazelnuts. Both dishes are easy to share and a nice start to the meal.
Being a Greek girl I shouldn’t have ordered the feta and kale spanikopita. It was never going to come close to tasting as good as my yaya’s and was more like puff pastry squares filled with fetta and the trendy alternative to spinach.
So many restaurants these days are pushing the share style menu over individually plated dishes. It’s refreshing to see Pink Salt offering both options. We order a main each with Mr Woollahra opting for the steak and myself the chefs favourite dish, the spatchcock. The steak is cooked perfectly and full of flavour topped with roasted leeks, garlic, onions and peppercorn sauce. Sadly my spatchcock is too salty and I can’t finish it. The same goes for the shaved cabbage, truffle, parmesan salad, which sounded amazing but again, the salt overpowered the flavour. Mr Woollahra can’t get enough of the sweet potato fries.
By the time we’re pondering the dessert menu someone has switched on the music and we’re listening to classic old school tracks and enjoying a bottle of red wine from Mudgee our friendly waiter has suggested. We pass on dessert this time, another reason to come back.
The food at Pink Salt is good drinking food. Put it down on your list of places to go before starting a night out. On Friday and Saturday nights they’re open until 3am so you can have dinner with friends before hitting the espresso martinis and that dance floor.
Pink Salt
53 Cross Street, Double Bay 2028 NSW
(02) 9328 1664
Opening Hours Sunday, 12.00pm – midnight Monday, CLOSED Tuesday to Thursday, 12.00pm – midnight Friday and Saturday, 12.00pm – 3.00am