Lotus Barangaroo will open at Sydney’s new waterfront dining promenade on Friday 30 September.
Shanghai-born head chef Chris Yan (Lotus Galeries, ex-Billy Kwong and China Doll) will add modern Australia to the Chinese menu, with native Australian ingredients, such as lemon aspen and crystal ice plant. A local horticulturist will plant an array of herbs and some native ingredients around the mostly outdoor restaurant.
“While my food is based on traditional Chinese recipes, many inspired by my grandma, I like to add a little bit of Australia where I can,” said Yan. “We use native ingredients such as finger limes to make lime caviar, tea tree mushrooms, we pickle bamboo shoots and make noodles from mung beans. Our oysters are served with butterfly pea flower to create a vivid blue colour for something a little different.”
Southern rock lobster, green lobster, Queensland mud crab and Western Australian snow crab will be fished from the live tanks. The crispy garfish with sticky soy sauce; and spring bay mussels braised with Tsing Tao beer are available exclusively at Lotus’ Barangaroo venue. A new range of dumplings including spanner crabmeat and prawn dumpling; chicken siu mai dumplings; and steamed pork wontons with sesame paste and black mushrooms will also be on the menu.
Pastry chef Tiffany Jones (The Pastry Project) infuses traditional desserts with Asian inspired flavours. ‘Ma fleur de Lotus’ is a yuzu and chrysanthemum cheesecake with coconut ice cream and coconut meringue crisps. ‘Passionfruit picked from the vine’ features passionfruit ice cream with a salted vanilla marshmallow centre and passionfruit skin glaze.
Head Sommelier Annette Lacey’s (ex-Marque, Claude’s) wine list is heavy on aromatics from local and overseas producers to complement the Chinese flavours. The cocktail list, crafted by Kate McGraw includes the ‘boardwalk spritz’ with Cocchi Rosa, plum, jasmine infused honey, and grapefruit soda and the Napoleon with sesame washed Cognac, Laphroaig, Carpano Antica, wattle seed, and house made black sesame bitters.
The 160-seater Lotus Barangaroo waterfront restaurant is the second largest of the groups three Lotus venues. The white timber double-frontage venue has a mostly neutral colour palette of cane, white, navy with a splash of black designed by Paul Papadopoulos of DS17 (Alpha, Beta Bar, Bel + Brio).
Lotus Barangaroo will be open seven days for lunch and dinner.
Chicken sui mai
Crystal ice plant salad with cucumber enoki mushroom and black vinegar
Mud crab
Boardwalk spritz
The Napoleon
Prawn dumplings
Oysters with lemon aspen sorbet, butterfly pea flower and finger lime
Passionfruit picked from the vine
The Lotus Barangaroo team.
All images: Alana Dimou.