Hartsyard, Newtown

The inner west of Sydney is not somewhere I travel to very often, more so because it is a bit of a trek and well, I’m in the City 5 days a week already. It’s a place where I would love to visit more often and explore but sadly it is too out of the way. I envy all those that live in the area and sometimes wish I lived there myself, but out west is home for me. The trek to Newtown this evening is for a friend’s birthday, and a catch up that was well over 6 months over due.

Warning: Photos were taken with my iPhone – my camera batteries died. Nooooo! So excuse the grainy-ness. Sigh.

Hartsyard is owned by the husband and wife duo of Gregory Llewellyn and Naomi Hart. Their story is amazing and I really appreciate their goals – basically this team is all about bringing an “inner-city homestead built for comfort and conversation”. You can read more here.

Love the menus and how they are on clip boards – not an unusual sight these days but it gets me every time.

Broad Bean Cooked over Charcoal $15

We begin chatting the night away with some charcoaled broad beans with romesco (nut and roasted capscicum dip) and lemon jam. Loved the charcoal flavour, it even seeped through to the beans inside. The romesco sauce was delicious! It was a bit of a fight to ration it out between 4 girls and all the beans.

Shaved Mushroom & Raw Artichoke Salad $17

This was an unusual looking salad. Here we have shaved mushroom, raw artichoke, celery heart and parmesan crisps. It had to have been one of the earthiest and most delicious salads I’ve eaten (my salad usually consists of leafy greens). Flavourful and yet delicate.  

Duck Rillettes $27

When I read rillette I was expecting a meat patty. Boy was I wrong. We get plated a jar of duck rillette, duck fat toast, cherry jam and foie gras. The duck fat toast was golden and cripsy and took on the duck fat flavour, and was to be eaten with a slathering of cherry jam and grated fois gras topped with the duck rillette. Oh my it was wonderful! Pity we had to share this dish =P

The “seed and feed” concept – seed is your entrees and feed is the mains, and all dishes are designed to be shared. That was the end of our seeds.. now onto the feed! (Lots of rhyming words here..)

Beef Tartare $25

Note: This item is no longer on the menu online. This beef tartare is served sandwiched in between a NYC Bagel with a side of a coddled egg (slowly cooked) and pickled mushrooms. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the beef tartare – it had a very strong hit of that wasabi/horse raddish flavour where it completely cleared my sinuses every time I had a spoonful. I think the boy would have loved it as he is the biggest wasabi fan but it just wasn’t for me. That coddled egg and pickled mushrooms were a great accompaniment to the dish though. Can’t go wrong with a soft, oozing egg. 

Maine Lobster Roll $39

This was a recommendation by one of the waiters – a toasted brioche bun is filled generously with lobster, lobster mayo, tarragon and kettle chips. It was a flavoursome little roll which was quite hard to share between two. We were a little disappointed with the “kettle chips”. We were expecting actual kettle chips (what a stupid thought now that I think about it) or home made chips that resembled the extreme crunchiness of a kettle chip. Sadly the chips weren’t kettle material, but they were very good for home made.

Honey-glazed Duck Breast and Confit $31

The last of the feeds is the honey glazed duck breast and confit with fennel, hazelnut praline and crackling. The duck meat was cooked to perfection and paired so well with the hazelnut praline which gave a bit of a crunch. It was the perfect way to end our feast

Peanut Butter & Banana Sundae $16

To dessert or not to dessert? The answer is always dessert! A bowl full of pretzel ice cream, banana doughnut and salted fudge appears in front of four very full girls yet the bowl managed to get empty in about 3 minutes (or probably less, I’m being very generous here). Going…. going…. GONE! It was one bowl of deliciousness, however, it was very hard to pin point all the single elements that made the dessert. All that mattered though was that each spoon full was different and it all went down a treat. That bowl was pretty much licked clean.

One dessert was plenty for us girls as we were extrememly full by this point.

I was very impressed with what Hartsyard had on offer. The combinations sure were a little different, but sometimes different is good. I love the idea of trying to use everything from tip to toe – making the most of the produce. I just don’t know how game I am at trying everything. Looks like the pigs tails, oyster po’boy, poutine and cold smoked fried chicken are on the agenda for when I visit next.

Hartsyard
33 Enmore Road
Newtown NSW 2042
Tel: +61 8068 1473
http://hartsyard.com.au/

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