I’m certain that we’re in the naughty corner. When Gina texted me to tell me that she was sitting in the back of the restaurant at a very small corner table she wasn’t kidding. Just a few minutes earlier at 6pm she walked into Bar H and asked for a table for three people. Asked whether she has a booking (she doesn’t, as bookings are only for 6 persons or more) they call over the manager who tells us that we can have a table until 8:15pm where there is an existing booking. So the moral of the story? Grab five friends and make a booking or be prepared to haggle for a table (or wait outside as we see many outside do) because being a table of three that walks in at 6pm on a Friday night in a restaurant that seats 40 may not net you a space.
Wedged underneath a mural and the kitchen Gina and I perch on the banquette, Teena sits on the black plastic stool and we examine the menu. It’s a good sized menu with a nice choice of entrees and mains. Chef Hamish Ingham is behind the counter and we are directly facing him. Formerly with Kylie Kwong at Billy Kwong, the menu has an Asian influence to it (and the tables and stools are tiny, much like those at Billy Kwong). Teena, Gina and I haven’t caught up for months so a catch up and Happy Hour cocktails are in order but girl talk must halt momentarily while we order our food and drinks lest we overstay our two hour dining time.
Meiwei $10 (centre)
I’m not driving tonight so it’s cocktail time! The Happy Hour menu has four cocktails at $10 each (normally $14.50-$15.50). The Meiwei is utterly drinkable and I take the waiter’s recommendation for it as it is a sweet cocktail comprising of vodka, pomegranate juice, rambutan and fresh lime. I normally sip at cocktails and pass them on but this is deliciously sweet with a rambutan at the bottom. We do a circular round tasting each other’s cocktails-Gina and Teena have the Gin Chi and the Ren Chen, both tarter but also good. And at 7pm our waiter helpfully lets us know that the happy hour is almost up and asks us if we want to order another cocktail.
Now the issue with the table was that there was no way that any more than one plate of anything would fit with the three of us crowded around it. Not a problem they tell us as each dish arrives just one at a time and they’re all meant to be shared. We breathe a sigh of relief that we didn’t bring the boys-the close quarters would have annoyed Hot Dog and Philippe doesn’t share so he wouldn’t have liked the sharing.
Steamed pork wontons with shellfish and chilli oil dressing $4 each
The wontons come out first. They’re sitting in a slick, dark pool of seafood and chilli oil and they’re silky, slippery and generously filled with pork mince. The seafood and chilli oil gives an interesting dimension to the wontons.
Prawn filled eggplant $6.50 each
I do love eggplant and this reminded me of the yum cha prawn stuffed eggplant but this one has a deep and rich with a dark, sticky sauce redolent in dark soya sauce.
Braised beef short rib with betel leaf $6.50 each
We knew that this would be a challenge to eat with our capes and sleeves in the way but we just leaned over, folded the edible betel leaves around the filling and tucked in. The soft braised beef short rib is a delicious contrast to the herby, fresh crunchy salad and I could have had several of these.
Roast duck with pancakes, cucumber & hoisin ( seves four )$40
There’s a bit of a break between entrees and mains and by now it is quite full in the house. We all love duck and the roast duck is deliciously juicy and full of flavour. It comes with eight pancakes but our waiter offers us an extra one if we want it. It also comes with cucumber batons and green onion sticks and a moreish hoi sin sauce. We especially love the thin pancakes which have no hint of dryness at all.
Caramelised pork belly with fennel & Mint $34
The caramelised pork belly came as four rectangular pieces of soft, sweet pork belly with a melting texture. It was all hidden under a canopy of shaved fennel, radish and lots of mint and there was also the strong flavour of ginger too. On the waiter’s advice we added a serve of rice for one to help mop up the sauce.
Coconut, pineapple and licorice $14
Even though we only had two mains between the three of us we were quite full and the dessert offerings were more of the ice cream/sorbet variety so we went with the mysteriously titled “coconut, pineapple and licorice.” The coconut component came as coconut cream and tapioca, the pineapple came as little pieces of sweet, caramelised pineapple and the licorice was licorice sorbet. I’m not a huge licorice lover but this wasn’t too aniseedy and really suited the rest of the dish. There is prettiness provided by the lemon balm and the fuchsia coloured pineapple sage scattered on top and the lemon balm and the coconut almost reminds us of a lemongrass curry!
Chocolate truffles $8
The four chocolate truffles were said to be flavoured with passionfruit and rum although neither flavour was particularly strong. They came with an appealingly thin shell and tasted mostly of good bittersweet chocolate rather than passionfruit or rum.
The clock strikes 8:30pm and we are on our way and we see that there is a large enough crowd waiting outside to get in. We haven’t quite finished catching up so what better to do than sit and catch up on girly gossip in a car in the absence of a restaurant seat!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like share plates or do you prefer to eat your own dish? And do you like to linger and talk or eat and go?
Bar H
80 Campbell Street Surry Hills NSW 2010
Tel: +61 (02) 9280 1980
Open Tuesday to Saturday 6pm until late
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48 Comments | Add your own
The lights in the second picture are great:) I like to share my food when I go out. That way, you get twice the flavours:)
Looks like a great girls night out
I love leaving the boys behind ~
The food looks quite good but really filling too
I find when I drink I don’t eat much, but then when I get home at night I’m starving hehe
I love sharing dishes, because I get bored just eating my own and I don’t know why…the dish next to me is always more appealing than the one in front of me.
Oh and i love giving away my main dish so I get to eat more of the dessert hahahaa
That pork belly sounds amazing. It sounds like you had a really good waiter which is especially helpful when you’re at a tiny table with a time crunch. Sharing is the best way to eat, in my opinion, but my dad is terrible at it and most of my friends are super picky eaters so I don’t eat that way very often.
I love sharing but I think that was inbred at an early age having grown up eating Asian! There is nothing worse than food envy when someone else’s choice turns out to be better than yours! I do hate not being able to book though and there’s nothing worse than being rushed through a meal so I will have to wait until the crowds ease before trying this place! Love the look of the two sweet courses though…
I love share plates and my friends and I often share regardless. Eat and Go ….it depends on my mood and how much time I have. I’m a bit sick of the no booking thing at some restaurants and also I dislike being told when I can eat when making a booking- the restaurant better be good if I have to put up with that!
I love to share little plates among friends! Although I am not the hugest fan of crowded / squashed restaurants at all!
Ummm…you were just 3 in that place and you order all that plates? You must be hungry that night.
I like to share, that’s the only way you can taste more than just one plate. Most of the time when we went out with friends, we like to have some drinks and share food, in that way the conversations went more familiar.
You find the best food!
The food here all sounds amazing, so it’s a shame the table thing is such a hassle. I like to share so I don’t miss out! Whether I linger or not depends on how much I have been enjoying myself.
That cocktail looks heavenly! And I also love the look of the building–interesting architecture. And the prawn-filled eggplant eggplant caught my eye as well–of course cardboard-filled eggplant would probably work for me as I love it so much.
I love to share food–and linger over a meal with good friends. Yes, indeed. That’s the best!
Pineapple Sage its one of my very favorite herbs and I have it growing in my garden, how nice to see it on a menu! Pork belly and braised ribs look amazing.
I like sharing, and gossip adds spice to any dining experience!
I definitely prefer to share, but only with really close friends. You know sometimes when you go to a Thai restaurant with a largish group of people (like a work dinner), you never feel like you can just tuck in. I’m always conscious not to appear like a pig in these situations and hence tend to leave the dinner still slightly hungry.
These days, we tend to eat out with our kids in tow so we eat and dash more often than not.
I love the food at Bar H I just wish it were bigger to avoid the tiny spaces. But I guess it suits the space and what they are trying to achieve. Fun fun! Nice post x
Looks like a great restaurants! I love share plates as you get a chance to try everything, but if something is absolutely amazing, I’ll have to order one for myself
” licorice sorbet” – wow! Love love love the H
I always like to share food when I dine. I can’t imagine not trying a dish at my table!!
Having said that I don’t enjoy being crowded into a corner with a tiny table and I do like to linger and chat after dinner.
The food look so delicious! I would have happily eaten all of those dishes and not said boo about the small table
Cute looking place, but hate places that you either have to get in early for to be kicked out or line up for!
Would have loved the betel leaf methinks!
And I love share plates, it’s far more fun being able to try more things than less!
Love Bar H. Strangely when we went we booked just for the two of us, and have actually already booked a table for next weekend… once again just for 2. Maybe they don’t take bookings for popular nights? I personally detest the whole ‘no bookings’ thing. Love the food at bar H though, and while I don’t usually like sharing, it works here and you get lots of delicious tastes!
I really loved my meal at Bar H last year. I quite like share plates – I hate missing out on something good that they other person might have.
That restaurant clearly serves all my favourites. I must get there but I’ll be sure to take five friends to avoid a New York city experience.
Definitely linger and if someone doesn’t want to share with me I typically pout!
My ‘must go to’ list has been growing rather fast lately, and I surely have to add this place! Looks atmospherically old Sydney from the outside and, methinks, the quality of the oh so appetizing food makes up for the space inside. Loved the look of the first courses especially, but then, have always been a ‘starters’ gal
! Oh, I very much like sharing and very much like staying for as long as mood dictates to enjoy a particular ambiance!
Happy Belated New Year Lorraine
Wow the food here looks very impressive! I’m adding it to my list
I generally prefer to have my own dish, and I’m an eat-and-go, rather than a lingerer.
The food looks great! I’ve often walked past this place but haven’t yet tried it.
It seems similar to LL Wine & Dine in Llankelly place, Potts Point although LL has bigger tables and you won’t be kicked out after two hours
Try it for your next girl’s night out!
I love to share! Get to try more things that way. We actually ate at Yullis in surry hills recently and loved it – great sharing food.
Yum! Yum! Yum! Thanks for the great review, I will be doing my best to get to Bar H next time I’m Sydney-side. I kinda like small squishy restaurants – it adds to the atmosphere or something.
I am grabbing 5 of my friends and making a booking…the food at Bar H looks delicious and totally my style. Thanks for sharing your experience at Bar H.
I love Bar H! We (five of us) walked in off the street a while back for my hubby’s birthday. The share plates were amazing! Unfortunately hubby was feeling ill from a bug caught earlier in the day, so we had to leave early but we have vowed always to return. Might have to wrangle our original five and book a table again
the chocolate truffles look like pieces of rocks! i love how they look like. hehehe.
i prefer to linger and talk. hehee
oh yes, that happened to me one time. I went to a restaurant without making reservation and had to clear out within the hour!
ohh i love happy hour! $10 cocktails are awesome!
I live sharing plates and lingering over dinner. It annoys me when the restaurant limits your time.
Sharing is good fun when you’ve ALL decided to share but, when there’s one person who just doesn’t feel the “lurrrvvve” of sharing, it drives me crazy. Like this one person that my partner and I know well, has it finely tuned as in, he’ll buy drinks that others don’t like drinking and he’ll order food that others won’t try, even if it means he’s not keen to eat it himself!!! Just so that he can be greedy and selfish and have it all to himself, to get out of sharing. I don’t like him one bit. Don’t get me started on BBQ’s, especially when it’s at his house!!! You might as well bring your own tables and chairs. And then he acts as if he’s holier than thou, it’s madness I tell ya. To each their own if you don’t want to share that’s fine, if you’re not keen, just don’t come at all when the rest of us will.
Judging by my behaviour in Melbourne these past five days, I’m definitely a lingerer! Got kicked out of a brunch place for staying too long
I always like sharing with others as all of us can get to try something new – but there are some times that I rather want to eat alone…esp if it’s my favorite dish! Sounds like this place is really popular. You often talk about reservation is for a big group at a restaurant. I think it’s not so common here in SF. I thought that’s interesting.
Girls’ nights out are the best; you get to let your hair down (both figuratively and literally), you get to bond with your friends, and – best of all – you get to nosh on a lot of things that some guys would say could ruin your figure! (Shows you what they know, tsk…)
And it’s fab how Bar H gave dimsum faves such a modern touch!
I was thinking about this place the other day but could not recall the name for the life of me, so thanks for the reminder!
Hi Miss Kimbers-They are aren’t they! Yep in total agreement there!
Hi Daisy-it’s so much easier that way isn’t it!
Haha I always make sure that I eat, I get quite distressed if I don’t (and drunk very quickly! 
). Yes the grass is greener on the other side! 
Hi Deanna-Yes he was a great waiter which makes a huge different-also if the kitchen gets the food out in time that’s good too which they did. My dad doesn’t like it much either but the rest of the family does so he has to
Hi gummi baby-Yes that’s true! Although my father fights it
Yes I hope it doesn’t become a trend 
Hi marion-Yes I know what you mean. bar H is small but we stood on the street talking and then sat in the car!
Hi Lisa-Yes and I don’t think it helped that we brought gifts to exchange with each other
Hi Mi Vida en un Dulce-Yes we did, that’s not that much!? It’s one entree and two mains and two desserts for three people.
Hi Debra-Thanks!
Hi Cakelaw-Yes I understand the no booking thing for small places but I really have to be in the right mood for it!
Yes true, or the company!
Hi Victoria-It was really good! Haha I love eggplant too
It’s awesome!
Hi InTolerant Chef-Oh you’re growing it? How fantastic! I wish I had a green thumb
Haha so true about gossip!
Hi cook.eat.play-Yes it can be hard to share on larger tables when you are far away from each other. Oh no, that’s no good at all to leave hungry.
Hi Erin-Yes I was sure I’d spill something on myself
Thanks Erin! x
Hi Kerry-Yes you’ve said it in one!
Hi Tina-Yes it was quite a hit!
H Julie-I know! I’m always dying to try them! Haha yes it’s the trade off isn’t it
Hi Ashley-Yes I find I’ve got to be in the mood for it!
Those betel leaves were my favourite entree 
Hi Buggles-Maybe they don’t, I’m not sure. it was a Friday night-or perhaps they have changed it. booking would be great! Yes it definitely works here!
Hi Miss Piggy-hehe yes that’s such a risk isn’t it!
Hi Charlie-Haha a NYC experience is a great way to describe it!
Hi RMW-haha you’re just like me!
Hi Eha-Yes I was quite taken by the view in the first picture so I had to take some pics. Yes entrees are usually quite different and interesting!
Hi Chanel-Happy new Year Chanel!
Oh cool, I hope you have fun there 
Hehe we eat quite differently!
Hi Marlo-yes I’ve been to LL Wine and Dine, for my birthday in fact!
And it is quite similar!
Hi muppy-I totally agree
Oh it’s fun there isn’t it! 
Hi Kate-you’re welcome Kate!
Ahh perfect! It sounds like this will be just right! 
Hi Anna-Good idea! Definitely want to make a booking and you’re very welcome!
Hi shaz-Oh cool! Sorry to hear about hubby not feeling well but it’s definitely worth a return visit!
Hi Michelle-they do don’t they!
Hi sophia-wow in an hour!? That’s hard!
Hi sugarpuffi-aren’t they great!
Hi Eva-Yes I find it hard unless I want a quick meal but I usually like talking to my friends and lingering
Hi Gaby-arrgh that sounds very frustrating! He sounds like he is hard to eat with completely in every way. You poor thing!
Hi Hannah-Hehe nothing wrong with lingering!
Hi Nami-Hehe sometimes I tell Mr NQN that we can swap back if he wants
And he usually agrees! 
Oh really? yes it seems to be the thing nowadays here!
Hi Midge-Haha so true
Hehe I don’t think our husbands would ever say that to us-they’d be in a lot of trouble! 
Hi joey@FoodiePop-You’re welcome! I hope you enjoy it!
Bizarre, one of my friends was just talking about Bar H the other day! It did sound like a little place, even from how he was describing it! It looks cosy and groovy, probably a good place to catch up with just one or two other people.
Definitely stay & linger!
The pancakes & pork belly look delicious.
It is a really tight place. Almost had dinner there one evening but did not want to wait. Shall be heading there soon
mmmm looks good! although the duck pancakes seem a little steep for that quantity.. otherwise, everything looks delicious!
I love lingering but I’m always guilty of holding up the table. So if it’s a super packed out place, I would rather just eat, leave and chill out somewhere else!
Sounds great!
I want those cocktail glasses! I’m currently collecting them and anything I see will make me drool.
win-win situation! I also love to stick around and chat, as usually it’s harder to talk when we’re in the process of eating. I generally like to order a coffee and chat over that or go somewhere else where there’s good coffee.
I hate licorice, but the rest of that dessert dish looks fantastic
I like to share, that means I get to taste and photograph more dishes
yumm!!! (although not so sure about being squished in to a tiny corner with a small table..)
i love sharing food – that way i get to try more things. i don’t really like going to “share food” type restaurants as a couple because i know i wont get to try enough
at normal restaurants, Mr and I always order different things so we can try each others meals.
i also like to linger if i’m somewhere special…hate being rushed! i have a friend with kids who likes to get to a restaurant early to fit in to the kids meal time, then eat as quickly as possible to get them home by bed time. it’s no fun!
With all your culinary adventures, I am wondering how you are staying slim??? Yummy…the food here looks delicious!
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