Sydney's, Bath: 'As crisp and glam as a pearl of condensation running down a magnum of rosé at a beachside bar in Nice'
The new opening from the team behind The Scallop Shell gets the Seldon Curry treatment
It’s always such a treat to have Seldon write for us at The Bristol Sauce. Few do it better — both when it comes to writing and cooking. No one is better placed to review Sydney’s, and it sounds like Seldon had a real ‘rum’ time, as he would say. Such a rum time, in fact, that he clearly forgot to wipe his camera lens. This is why the nationals send a photographer in after the fact. If you’d like to help get The Bristol Sauce team a step closer to being able to afford a photographer (or at least buy Seldon a lens wipe) please consider becoming a paying Saucer. Thank you! Love from Meg x
“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify!” - Henry David Thoreau
As I was pondering life’s complexities in the serene timeless hideaway of Sydney’s terrace garden I was also pondering what a rum time the small plates concept has had of late.
The strawberries and cream dessert (£4.50) was so simple but expertly put together and utterly perfect. Cheddar strawberries at peak season, just given a little rinse and a trim but also a slightly tart and smooth sauce covering the bottom of the bowl so that each bite tasted just a little more of strawberry than itself. The essence of clever and respectful cookery.
An impeccable and reassuringly vanilla-laden Chantilly cream provided the glamour.
The grumbling opinion is that small plates restaurants are a little bit unwelcome, designed for comfort and ease for a kitchen and not a hoot given for the dining experience of the guests. Many hearts sink when told that the food will come 'as and when it’s ready', as if the guests aren’t really in charge of the order of their menu. It is also hard to share three langoustines between four, but nothing a little considered ordering can’t overcome.
As somebody who, in a previous life, spent some time cooking at a white-hot Soho small plates natural wine bar I can say that the format does not always equate to an easy kitchen experience. For weeks we made lovely plates of food, sending them into the heaving dining rooms on a wing and a prayer, hoping the handwritten dockets and menus would guide them to the right tables.
Sydney’s concise and appealing menu overcomes the numerical sharing issue by pricing small meat plates individually; on the sunny lunchtime we visited there was chicken thighs and chimichurri (£3.50 each) or a meatball with feta, tomato & coriander for £2.50 a pop. The meatball was great, like a tiny distilled moussaka, and I could have easily eaten six, despite the slightly unnecessary eager-to-please but tasteless micro-coriander.
Sydney’s is the new-ish opening from the Rosser family team behind the much loved bougie chippy and seafood bar The Scallop Shell, that you may know from the massive bath tub filled with ice showing off the catch of the day; something I always thought was very cool. The same family also has the potentially even more bougie Noah’s which is serving delicious but simple seafood to the lucky people of Bristol. I was fortunate enough to cook alongside Dan Rosser, who runs Noah’s, and anybody who pan fries fish with that much butter is a stand-up guy in my book.
Syndey’s has two airy and high-ceilinged dining areas but in lieu of an actual holiday I am attempting to cram in as much sunshine via terraces and sun trap beer gardens as possible. Vitamin delight. A couple of glasses of Divina cava in the sunshine in the hidden garden and all is well for a time.
The sprightly menu is essentially a light-handed touch of modern British tapas with only the presence of a lovely looking pakora dish suggesting any further flung adventures. Also unordered was the 'classic ploughman’s' as it just looked like a bit of an outlier on the menu. We were very well looked after by the attentive and eager front of house who assured me the ploughman’s was trad and classic and true, so maybe next time. Also outrageous value coming in at £8.50. Maybe a nod to the original Sydney, the sadly departed father of one of the owners who has given the place its name and a bit of his spirit — as it sounds he was a hoot who loved a good time. He possibly also had a penchant for a ploughman’s, this is however pure speculation.
A salad of English cherry tomato, samphire and shallots was bouncy and fresh, beauteously balanced and a great showing of samphire which can be disappointing when less fresh or fastidiously trimmed.
The squid could have been slightly more grilled but was fresh and tasty and obviously good friends with tomatoes and green herbs.
The joy of the small plates experience is that as all dishes cost just a few quid than it doesn't really matter if something falls a little flat. Although given my single favourite treatment (caper, shallot and thick vinaigrette) the spuds in the new potato salad were just a little shy of tender, but not so much as to derail the whole thing
Chips were excellent however, very much for lovers of the chunky and not the fry. A crisp exterior, fluffy inside, and doused in Sarson’s with enough aioli to keep the vampires at bay (no mayonnaise here). Very delicious.
Many years ago I also may have been part of the early noughties’ restaurant rebranding on menus from grey mullet to dazzling, sparkly silver. These harbour dwellers are known to be pretty indiscriminate in where or what they eat. In truth, if they are the larger and often line-caught specimens found further out to sea and out of sight of waste pipes and boat jetsam, then they are a taste sensation, and free from the muddy flavours that can linger in the smaller ones.
This was perfect, shattering skin for those in the cheap seats and bristling with mineral flavour, as crisp and glam as a pearl of condensation running down a magnum of rosé at a beachside bar in Nice. Salsa verde was exemplary and brought to the naked forefront showed why this simple and tart condiment has found ubiquity. Simple and unimprovable.
Sydney’s has been praised for a pricing stance that has been been termed 'very un-Bath' and this is undeniably a welcome truth, never more so than with the cheese serve. I am aware of what good cheese costs, I am also acutely aware of how much good cheese you can serve in a restaurant and still see a whiff of profit. This was in total absence here, a carved heft of Keens cheddar with some apple & chutney et al came in at £9 which is essentially cost price and a very generous spirit.
It’s very hard to trust oneself to do simplicity so well, but sitting at Sydney’s and being washed with sunshine, generosity and that cracking strawberry dish — it was one of those lunches that almost questions the need for any chef tinkery and whim whatsoever. Simplify, simplify, simplify!
All words and photos by Seldon Curry
Sydney’s, 23-24 Monmouth Pl, BA1 2AY
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Seldon needs a miracle, never mind a lens wipe! 😉
Great stuff, I love this place. We've been a couple of times for food, and it seems damning with faint praise of you say it has immense value for money... but god it does.