Fix St James, St James

The quirkily named Fix St James is another restaurant that hides in plain sight, just a stone’s throw away from the David Jones Elizabeth Street entrance. It’s a contemporary Modern Australian restaurant with some cheeky touches like their cute blackboard wall. They also seem to take their wine pretty seriously judging by their extensive wine list and friendly suggestions about which wines will suit our amateur palates tonight.

My friend favours fruity red wines and goes for the Atlas Cabernet Malbec from the Clare Valley in South Australia. I tend to like sweet white wines and end up with another Clare Valley wine from Matchbox Wine Co, a riesling which is apparently the sweetest one on the menu and it lived up to expectations.

Atlas ‘Section 32’ Cabernet Malbec, $11 for a glass and Matchbox Wine Co Riesling 2011, $12 for a glass

For our shared entrée, my friend is keen on the terrine as he has never tried it before and neither have I so we decide to give it a go. The hard jelly texture of this chilled loaf of pork gel is a bit hard to get past at first, but encased inside the slivers of bacon is a compacted cube of very flavoursome meat. It’s fairly salty and is quite difficult to spread onto the slices of bread that the dish is served with. The taste is just too rich for me so I leave it to my friend to polish off the generously sized loaf.

Country style terrine with apply chutney, $20

I have had orecchiette pasta once before with seafood accompaniments so I decide to try out the sausage and mushroom ragu version that Fix St James has. The little discs of pasta are bigger this time around but unfortunately the savoury flavours of the dish were not strong enough for my liking.

Sausage and mushroom ragu orecchiette, $30

On the other hand, Fix St James have a winner on their hands in the form of their slow cooked pork belly. It is simply glorious –although there’s no crunchy crackling, it more than makes up for it with its soft texture which just melts in your mouth thanks to the fatty layer of pork. Hands down one of the best pork belly dishes I’ve had in Sydney and it was refreshing to have it with the fruity apple puree sauce.

Pork belly with apple onion puree and cabbage salad, $35

I quite like Fix St James for a modern yet chic restaurant and they get bonus points for their friendly service and knowing their wines well. It’s a comfortable restaurant with an intimate feel, yet plenty of chatter and serves up delicious food in generous portions though the dishes do tend to be slightly on the pricey side.

Fix St James
111 Elizabeth St
Sydney, NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9232 2767


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