Bentley Restaurant and Bar

320 Crown Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Ph: +61 (02) 9332 2344
Fax: +61 (02) 9332 4421
Email: info@thebentley.com.au

Open Tuesday-Saturday lunch and dinner

Award-winning chef Brent Savage and sommelier Nick Hildebrandt are shaking up the Sydney restaurant scene with their innovative approach to food and wine.

When the inaugural ‘Chef of the Year’ and ‘2007 Sommelier of the Year’ joined forces, the result was an alchemy of food and wine matching. Bentley Restaurant and Bar has earned a reputation for providing its diners with memorable culinary experiences, whether it be tapas, lunch, dinner or a full degustation.

Offering the most creative food in the country for the same price as a bistro pub steak, Sommelier Nick Hildebrandt, 34, and Chef Brent Savage, 30, have undertaken a mission to change the way Australians approach food and wine. Together, the talented pair opened Sydney’s most exciting new restaurant, Bentley Restaurant & Bar in Surry Hills, which is already recognised by the likes of the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Gourmet Traveller critics as one of the most dynamic eating and drinking experiences in the country.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Simon Thomsen described the food at Bentley as “visually astonishing” and a “deliciously wild ride”, lauding the way Savage’s food can “challenge and delight without intimidating”. In a rave review, Gourmet Traveller critic Pat Nourse termed it “Sydney’s most exciting food and wine” (and “sound value”, too).

Nick says, “we take a more adventurous approach to food and wine. This is already happening slowly, when it comes to wine, people are dropping slavish outdated beliefs like ‘no red wine with fish’. We just want to take that further.”

The foundation of Nick and Brent’s innovative approach is a holistic view of wine and food. They believe that a greater emphasis on matching food and wine is the way of the future.

Nick’s wine philosophy has seen him create one of Sydney’s multi-award winning and most exciting wine lists for Bentleys Restaurant & Bar.

“There are many wines from boutique growers. There’ll be 400 wines on the list which may be lesser known to a commercial market. I love introducing new wines, supporting independent labels and offering non-commercial wines. I love it when people are a bit more adventurous and don’t just go for the label they know.”

Nick says that understanding the reaction of food on the palate is vital to a good dining experience. “You can waste a lot of money on an excellent wine by simply having it with the wrong food. For example, if you have a really sweet dessert with a glass of dry white, the sweetness of the sugar in the dessert is going to kill the wine. No matter how good a wine it is, it’ll taste disgusting because all you’ll taste is the acid or the oak.”

Brent is equally keen to stimulate diners with his original but accessible and delicious food. “My attitude,” Brent says, “is if it tastes good, why not?”

It’s this approach that’s seen the bold young chef create Jerusalem artichoke custard and roast quail, orange tapioca and pistachio.

“It’s all about experimenting with different flavours and textures.”

Whether it’s winding down after work or a casual lunch on Saturday, Bentley offers relaxed neighbourhood drinking and dining.


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