A first look at good-looking Harriot, which channels new-wave European bistros and makes magic with overlooked ingredients.
Once you step inside Harriot – the hot new CBD restaurant from the Conferre Group, behind Tipo 00, Osteria Ilaria, Figlia and Grana – there’s little sense of its corporate surrounds. That was intentional.
“The brief, first off … was for you to come in and not know that you’re in an office building or that you’re on King Street,” says Luke Skidmore, a partner in Conferre Group. “It’s not just for suits … it’s going to be a destination diner, in a way.”
That said, the street-level restaurant on the corner of King and Collins streets feels like a tonic for the business end of town.
Studio Esteta’s fitout of cafe curtains and rust-coloured banquettes soften the concrete-framed windows and hide the busy street. Chequerboard tiling and walnut timber give the new build a time-worn charm. And clothed tables set the scene for what’s to come.
Harriot, the group’s fifth venue, is its first not to identify as Italian.
“Everyone’s been asking about it: ‘how come?’,” says chef and partner Andreas Papadakis. “But their questions have come with excitement rather than resentment.”
They didn’t set out to open a non-Italian restaurant. Instead, the concept was driven by chef James Kelly, who brings a wealth of experience to his first head-chef role, after years at Lyle’s in London (which closed recently with a Michelin star) as well as Embla.
Harriot’s identity is broadly European, fusing the best parts of the team’s favourite wine bars and neo-bistros in London, France, Italy and Spain – venues that marry classical cooking with modern flourishes while exuding an effortless cool.
Kelly’s offering will look slightly different every week, but stars of his opening menu include a rye tartlet filled with fermented porcini mayonnaise and bluefin tuna; and lamb sweetbreads, cooked sous vide in brown butter and finished in a grenobloise-like sauce with the addition of finger lime.
Pig’s-head terrine is the tip of the iceberg in Kelly’s commitment to whole-animal butchery, one of many uses for the McIvor Farm pigs he sources. “Instead of coming up with dishes and ordering pork, it’s the other way round: having pork in the [cool room] and figuring out how to use it,” he says.
Dark-crusted sourdough baked in the wood-burning oven, and two types of house-made pasta are anchor items. Right now, find gnocchi in swirls of cavolo-nero puree and comte cream with a generous shaving of black truffle, and spanner-crab ravioli with a bisque that uses fermented pumpkin in place of tomato.
Desserts include an airier-than-your-average chocolate tart, lightened with sabayon, and a rhubarb sherbet with burnt vanilla and white chocolate.
Sommelier Justin Howe presides over a burgeoning wine cellar, already with more than 500 bottles, some of which he collected years ago. A handful he’s particularly excited about are made accessible via a list of “feature pours”, including a 2013 Cerbaiona Rosso di Montalcino sangiovese from Tuscany.
A $110 wine pairing is available alongside the $148 tasting menu, often with some exclusive dishes.
Harriot has 70 seats, including a 14-person private dining room.
Lunch Mon-Fri; dinner Mon-Sat
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