Dragoncello, Surry Hills

Surry Hills has always been host to numerous great restaurants, Dragoncello on Cleveland St is one of the latest promising restaurants to open in the area. The owner Roy McVeigh has an impressive list of credentials under his belt including experience working at both chef hatted Berowra Waters Inn and Bathers Pavilion. The dishes here all use various herbs sourced from Roy’s urban gardens.

Signature duck terrine with mustard pickled kumquats and burnt onion puree

I love duck terrine and this dish was no exception, the burnt onion puree was a bit powerful on it’s own but when eaten in a mouthful with the crisps and duck terrine it mellows out quite well and tastes really good.

I have to agree with Bob that the entrees are a steal – the mains are a little pricier but $9 for an entree is amazing. This little morsel of sweet potato served in a delicious creamy sauce was a great starter.

These interesting little pot sticker dumplings were filled with a flavoursome pumpkin paste but my favourite part was easily the mix of puffed grains and rice served with the nasturtium flower gel. The grains were actually surprisingly addictive and had a zesty and tangy taste.

The others decided to order the smoked eel croquettes which were apparently good… but not for me 🙂

Once the mains arrived we realised we were in for a really good feast because the chicken smelled absolutely delicious. The tender pieces of slow roast chicken tasted great with the merlot sauce and side of shiitake mushrooms and deliciously tender confit onions.

The crispy skin barramundi actually turned out to be the unanimous favourite dish of the night. Under any normal circumstances I would not pick fish over beef or chicken but this dish was absolutely divine, I loved the fried cauliflower and the tender and flavoursome fish went just perfectly with the puree and spices.

This dish was an interesting one as it’s relatively rare to see beef flank on the menu – we were advised that it’s quite hard to cook compared to other cuts. No doubt the meat was deliciously tender after being cooked for two days and I absolutely loved the mushroom preserve.

As sides we decided to go with the salty fat potato’s  (the salad came out as an extra) which were really delicious. The potato’s were cooked to a crisp and served with plenty of herbs and salt.

The desserts were quite unique. The potato chip cake was quite nice with hints of actual potato chips and a mouth watering salted caramel sauce underneath. My personal favourite would definitely be the chocolate cake and sorrel ice cream, the refreshing sorrel ice cream actually turned out to be really nice and a great counter balance to the very sweet chocolate cake.

We had a mix of drinks both alcoholic and non alcoholic, since this was only a few days in the bar was not yet fully stocked however the bartender managed to whip up some great surprise cocktails with what he had available. Check out the cover by Bob for more on the drinks.

Overall we were quite impressed by the restaurant and the food. The lighting was a bit of a challenge for all the food photography but made for a nice intimate dining experience.

The restaurant is a little small right now but once the upstairs section opens up the restaurant will be much larger and no doubt be an even more popular eatery in the area, expect the great value prices to go up!

Mr C dined as a guest of Dragoncello and Evil Twin PR.
All views and opinions expressed in this post are my own.