At first glance, Promenade Bondi Beach is everything you might expect ‘Promenade Bondi Beach’ to be. The latest upmarket diner on Bondi’s beachfront was probably always destined to soak in smooth sandy interiors, crowd with linen-clad clientele, and flog crudo, Sydney rock oysters and homemade flatbread with whipped ricotta. But Bondi Pavilion’s newest tenant does more than enough to distinguish itself from its noisy and fabulous neighbours: Icebergs, Topikós, and Lola’s, to name a few.
For starters, owners House Made Hospitality (also Apollonia, Lana) have bagged one of the most iconic venues in town. The heritage-listed Bondi Pavilion, which has stood since the establishment of municipal surf sheds on the site in 1911, is fresh from a multi-million-dollar restoration, which thankfully maintains its recognisable Spanish-style roofing and archways. Its sprawling 900-square-metre spot at the beach’s centrepoint gives Promenade Bondi Beach an unrivalled location and makes it the largest beachside restaurant in Australia.
Then there’s the format. Promenade Bondi Beach rolls restaurant, café and bar into one multi-purpose venue. There’s a kiosk for takeaway coffees; and a dining room, bar and ocean-facing verandah that seats 67. Plus, room for 140 more on their walk-in-only, Med-style terrace, ‘The Front Yard’, complete with olive trees and Australian natives stopping inches short of the actual beach.
And then, of course, there’s the food.
Before you’ve even taken your seat at one of the creamy leather seats, you’ll probably set your hungry eyes on the frisbee-sized flatbreads dominating nearly every tabletop. It’s the only way to kick things off. Fresh from the oven and garnished with fistfuls of pumpkin seeds, lemon myrtle and macadamias, the bread comes with a generous side of creamy whipped ricotta. At $16, this hefty serving is worth dropping in for alone.
The menu majors on sustainably caught seafood, but has entire sections dedicated to market vegetables, meats from the charcoal oven, and pastas handcrafted in-house. Executive chef Chris Benedet, who sharpened his knives at some of Sydney’s finest (Rockpool, Monopole, Cirrus, Yellow), leans on Asian influences throughout, often pairing Australian coastal cuisine with Indian, Chinese and Japanese flavours. Dishes in this bracket include scallop and scampi with buttermilk, kombu oil and scallions; tiger prawns with curry leaf butter and lime; and miso ora king salmon with finger lime vinaigrette, charred scallions and sushi rice.
The spanner crab ceviche is another, served in a sumptuous two-bite mound with cucumber and dill on a single fragrant wasabi leaf. The sesame brioche bug toast, one of the most intriguing and original dishes on the menu, tastes like Cantonese-style prawn toast – greasy and deep-fried – dialed up with the addition of a salty bug stuffing. The Aquna Murray cod is the best of the lot, served as three crispy-skinned fillets in a creamy curry sauce, beneath a thatch of subtle aromats, herbs and snake beans.
The dishes are bold and unapologetic – they can be rich, intense and sometimes suffer from too many turns of the saltshaker. The lasagne, for one, is an almighty overload of Comté and truffle, too much oil visible on its surface, making more than half a dozen mouthfuls feel like an epic indulgence. But there are plenty of options to cleanse an overstimulated palette. Including on the cocktail list. Take the Neoprene Dream, for example, which combines gin, mint and sparkling coconut water. It’s the ultimate refresher. It even tastes, sort of, healthy. Alongside local Bondi Brewing Co beers and an expansive wine selection favouring small Australian coastal producers, the drinks list has two frozen cocktail options (Hot Passionfruit Margarita and Watermelon Daiquiri), which you can order in the same glass for an icy cooler (the Water Passion).
To finish, try the vacherin, a meringue-based dessert that arrives as what appears to be a shallow bowl of melon-flavoured shaved ice. With each dig of the spoon, however, a new hidden layer unfolds, and you end up with exciting mouthfuls of creamy coconut sago, crisp meringue and sweet vanilla-like pandan ice cream. It’s a suitably unpredictable way to round off your meal at a new restaurant that packs more than a few surprises.