Oncore by Clare Smyth

Oncore is the first restaurant outside London for Clare Smyth, the celebrated Irish chef whose Notting Hill fine diner Core earned three Michelin stars in 2021 for its impeccable farm-to-plate dishes and exploration of British cuisine and produce. The name of her Sydney outpost is a play on the word ‘encore’, meaning a follow-on performance demanded by an audience.

Along with a clutch of Core’s signature dishes, the menu here features a series of Sydney-only numbers that take inspiration from Smyth’s Northern Irish heritage and her London base, and gives a big wink to the restaurant’s harbourside location inside Crown Sydney.

New to Sydney is The Beef and Oyster, a spin on a Victorian-era beef, oyster and Irish-stout pie; made with oysters from the NSW South Coast and Wagyu from NSW and Queensland.

Signatures include The Potato and Roe, which pays tribute to Smyth’s background growing up on a farm in Northern Ireland. It’s a whole potato cooked slowly in butter and kombu and left for a further 24 hours to absorb the umami-rich flavours, then finished with a crown of trout and herring roe, delicate flowers, and vinegar-rich fermented potato chips. As for dessert, it’s got to be the Core-Teser, a theatrical spin on a Malteser made with chocolate, malt and hazelnut.

The kitchen, on display behind a glass wall, is overseen by Kiwi-born head chef Alan Stuart, who previously worked with Smyth at Core and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. Smyth visits from London throughout the year.

Positioned on level 26 of the Crown Sydney tower, the 68-seater has unfettered views over the harbour. A chef’s table offers diners pole position to see the kitchen in action, and a cocktail bar is primed for a pre- or post-meal tipple. More than 3000 bottles of wine are housed in the restaurant’s cellar, with top Australian drops, as well as options from Bordeaux, Burgundy and the rest of the world.