Restaurant Review: Eathouse Diner, Redfern

A birthday dinner with a little bit of funk.

I decided to visit another place on my to do list on Thursday night, the Eathouse Diner in Redfern. Not being around in the 1950's I've no idea if Diner's were popular in Sydney, but Eathouse is seeking to bring back some of the glory days. The waitresses are wearing vintage clothing, there are retro food tins on the shelves and period magazines wallpapered on to the toilet walls.

It seemed fitting there was a portrait of the Queen above the gents loo the day before the Royal wedding.

I like that it's not pretending to be your generic American Diner. This place has style.

When we arrived all the tables were full so were seated at the counter. We felt a bit forgotten for the first fifteen minutes. Unsure if we'd been parked at the counter awaiting a table or were going to be eating there. When some of our companions at the bar were given cutlery we seized the initiative to select some dishes from the chalk board, flag down a waitress and order. An odd blemish on an otherwise enjoyable night.

Despite having retro decor the food is pretty 'Mod Aus'. Everything seemed to be cooked fresh and there were jars of homemade goodies on the shelves which I presume had been made by the kitchen.

We ordered the sugar cured kingfish with shaved fennel as a starter to share. It was a big serving of slightly sweet kingfish sashimi, which we thought was a little too thickly sliced. The shaved cucumber and fennel provided a nice extra dimension, but the lemon dressing could have been a bit more prominent.

For the main course I ordered the crispy chicken, creamed corn and slaw. I really enjoyed my food. The chicken had a good crunch and salty zing. The slaw provided a freshness to lighten the dish.

Marlina's crispy polenta with fennel was a bit of a contradiction. The Parmesan polenta and rich tomato sauce had a good flavour. Fennel is not a vegetable that shrinks into the background. However, the dish felt a bit flat. It was one of those meals that you are bored of eating by the end of the plate. I think the fennel and polenta would have made a good accompaniment to something else, rather than the main feature in themselves.

There has obviously been a lot of thought and effort that has gone into the concept behind the Eathouse diner. They are doing a lot right.