Ogni is a a South East Asian restaurant on Devonshire Street in Surry Hills helmed by two MasterChef alums Sarah Tiong and Rashedul Hasan. They serve up creative dishes like butter chicken papardelle, beef short rib rendang or a soy caramel mille feuille. And the generous serves and bill is a nice surprise too!
It's time for Miss America's birthday part two. You may recall the celebration we had planned was stymied by his work schedule so the guest of honour was no longer able to come to dinner at Erin. We had to right that wrong so I sent Miss America a list of four restaurants that I thought he might like and he picked Ogni.
It's 7pm on a Saturday night when we meet Miss America and Queen Viv on Devonshire Street in Surry Hills. It's busy, although the restaurant has been open for a while now since December 2023. Ogni means Fire in Bengali.
Sarah explains how it is has been owning and running her first restaurant, "Ogni has been the biggest challenge of my lifetime and completely blew up any expectations I had! It has been a dream come true and the hardest lesson in managing a team, pursuing quality and creativity, balancing the physical and mental load and staying open-hearted. Ultimately a restaurant is a business and can't run on dreams and wishes, it has to be based on smart decisions and compromise. While things are often hard and demanding in both heading up the kitchen and co-owning the business, I still love coming to work everyday and seeing my team and putting out these bold, delicious flavours. We always seek to improve and that pursuit is motivating."
Sarah, the Executive Chef is in the kitchen and makes an appearance on the floor greeting each table. Many diners are clearly big MasterChef fans and are excited by her appearance. The menu references the two chefs' heritage and upbringing; Sarah is Malaysian while Rashedul was MasterChef's first Bangladeshi-Australian contestant.
We start with mocktails - the mango lassi is made with lightly smoked yogurt with the tangy aroma of makrut lime leaf. The pandan coconut is very sweet and fragrant.
The spicy tartare is made using sashimi kingfish today finely diced with makrut lime, shallots, green apple and an abundance of chilli. It's too hot for Queen Viv but perfectly spicy for the rest of us with the chilli as the main flavour countering the freshness of the coriander, lime leaf and green apple.
The deep fried bigne are described as "fried profiteroles". These bite sized balls of crunchy goodness are filled with fine smokey, spiced beef keema mince and a chilli aioli sauce on top and curry leaf powder. These are very moreish and tasty - make sure to get one per person at least!
Normally we like the sound of entrees because they tend to be more creative but this time we're actually more drawn to the mains. That beef short rib rendang that I mentioned before ? It's incredible and a serendipitous surprise is that you actually get two beef short ribs which is unusual as you usually only get one in a main. The beef is very tender and sits in a creamy, spicy coconut sauce. Make sure to get some steamed rice to go with this or the roti. This is not the frozen variety that many restaurants serve but it is a less buttery but still gorgeously light freshly cooked roti.
The smokey goat rezala is a slow cooked Bengali stew redolent with onions, cumin and ground coriander, yogurt, cashews and prunes. The bone-in pieces of goat are cooked until buttery soft and melting and with the abundance of sauce this goes well with rice. It could use a touch more seasoning but the texture is excellent.
The spiced eggplant in a Filipino style adobo sauce was a strong recommendation from our waiter and it was nice although I prefer very soft and melting eggplant and I think this could've gone another 10% to reach that level but that's just me and Queen Viv! The slow roasted eggplant glazed with Adobo style sauce is fragrant with black pepper and bay leaf. It sits in on a bed of mung dal with pomegranate, coriander, chimichurri, pickled chillies, mint and flat rice or poha on top.
Queen Viv makes a request for a corn sambal. The sambal selection is offered as a plate of six for $26 but we just want the corn sambal which is fine to order separately. It's very good and goes very well with the beef short rib to help cut through the unctuous richness.
When Miss American and Queen Viv first sat down, the table next to them recommended the desserts, particularly the mille feuille. This has layers of buttery puff pastry sandwich with salted caramel cream, soy sauce caramel and rosella cream that ties this whole dessert together. It has Miss America sliding his finger across the plate for every last drop.
As for me, I'm all about that sticky date brown sugar roti with butterscotch and cinnamon crumb with a scoop of vanilla ice cream cream and a segment of saffron poached pear. It's buttery caramelised with a hint of cinnamon and totally moreish so that it is me that is scraping my spoon against the plate for every last bit.
And the bill? It's a serendipitous surprise at $71 a person including drinks!
So tell me Dear Reader, are you a MasterChef follower? And which dish do you think sounds the most interesting?
This meal was independently paid for.
Ogni
204 Devonshire St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Phone: 0420 445 650
Wednesday to Saturday 5:30-10pm
Sunday 5:30-9pm
Closed Monday and Tuesday
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