Just Opened: Piqu, Newtown

Piqu is a brand new South east Asian restaurant that fuses South East Asian flavours with creative dishes and cocktails. Most people might walk past this unassuming 35 seat restaurant on King Street not knowing the credentials of the two chef owners. Find out more about it here!

Piqu is a South East Asian restaurant on King Street in Newtown owned by two chefs: Jihwan Choi (ex. Momofuku Seiobo) and Nicola D'angela (ex. Osteria di Russo & Russo). The Korean Italian duo named their restaurant Piqu as a derivation of the word Piquant meaning "sharp or appetising" as it reflects the food on offer.

Chef Choi and Chef Nicola worked together at Callao in Barangaroo creating Nikkei cuisine but they decided on Southeast Asian cuisine because of their mutual love of Thai food. The restaurant takes up the space that Duk Inn occupied until recently. Service is lovely and helpful.

We start with cocktails: a lemongrass martini that is strong with lime for Mr NQN and a Mango Chilli Negroni. I'm not usually a big negroni drinker, they're a bit strong for me but this one is well balanced with mango and chilli.

The chicken skin is a great snack for beer and comes with roasted pineapple and tamarind nam prik dipping sauce with crispy, deep fried chicken skin pieces. The whole process to make these delicious moreish morsels takes around 4 days of prep with removing the fat to drying these out so that they're perfectly crunchy and puffy with a similar texture to chicharones.

It's not often that you get a salted cod pâté with Thai flavours. The whipped salted cod is inspired by Italian Baccala Mantecato with salted cod paired with red curry, fish floss, coconut cream and wonton crisps. It has a light sweetness and it is delicious with a squeeze of lime and fresh mint leaves. It could do with a few more of the crisps, but the chicken skin is also fantastic vehicle for this. FYI I also recommend adding the pineapple relish too!

The kingfish is combined with the praline peanut nam jim, grilled zucchini and herbs and tastes like a sashimi version of green papaya salad with plenty of makrut lime leaves for aroma and flavour. This is served with lettuce cups like with Korean dishes like ssam.

We were going quite meaty with the rest of the menu so we started light with two crudos. The second crudo is raw tuna cubes combined with orange nam jim, lemongrass, herbs and has a sweet earthiness from the beetroot. This has a deeper heat than the kingfish.

If you love pork crackling, then the crispy pork jowl is a must order. Like the chicken skin, this dish is a labour of love that takes over two days just to dry out the skin so that it becomes super crunchy. It is served with mam jim, lettuce and a wonderfully luscious pork meat with skin that crunches resoundingly with every bite.

The beef skewer has a sweet, rich soy date glaze with nam jim jaew on the side. The Riverine striploin is luscious and succulent thanks to the two day marinating process and the flavour goes deep. This is fantastic with some steamed rice.

There are three main dishes and we are trying two. The fried spatchcock is like the crunchiest Korean fried chicken. The spatchcock is first deboned and then placed in a kombu brine for 2 hours before being dipped in buttermilk and dusted in rice flour and chickpea flour and fried. The crunchy crumbed chicken is so moist when you tear it apart and it is served in an incredible sweet red curry sauce.

The Osso Bucco is combined with Laotian flavours. Normally a dish like this would use brisket but they loved the idea of using osso bucco. Chef Choi describes it as a curry but also a kind of stew with slow cooked eggplant that has been blended to thicken the sauce to a curry consistency. This is rich with a wonderful depth of flavour from the chilli, galangal, eschallot, anchovy paste, shrimp paste, fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and lemongrass with a gorgeously tender osso bucco. Order some jasmine rice to go with this.

Pair the mains with a veggie side. The cauliflower is a standout and is a cauliflower version of the spathcock which is deep-fried and served on top of the red curry sauce.

The duck fried rice is one of those fried rices that has so many mix in so it's not just rice. There's plenty of shredded duck leg confit with bright green cardamom pods and chilli. And diners are given the option of adding foie gras to the duck fried rice that makes it so aromatic that I can't wait to dig in when it is set down.

There are two desserts on the menu, a lighter dessert and a richer one. If you want to go light, go for the frozen coffee parfait or semifreddo, coffee syrup and dulce de leche sauce with a condensed milk granita on top which gives this Vietnamese coffee vibes. The milk granita gives this a refreshing quality while the coffee gives it a pick me up.

For a richer desert the chocolate cake is a bottom layer of chocolate cashew brownie with a light chocolate mousse cake on top and sansho pepper for warmth and aroma.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like creative takes on dishes or do you like dishes that you have tried before and know? Would you go for the lighter coffee parfait or the chocolate cake with sansho pepper for dessert?

NQN and Mr NQN were guests of Piqu but all opinions remain her own.

Piqu

194 King St, Newtown NSW 2042

Phone: 0421 752 941

Hours: Tuesday to Thursday 5pm-10pm

Friday & Saturday 5pm-11pm

Closed Sunday and Monday

www.piqu.com.au/