Southern Italian flavours are the name of the game at this Art Deco-style restaurant and bar in Sydney’s CBD. Calabrian chilli and 'nduja (a smoky sausage spread) are regular features on the menu, but they don’t forget the Italian classics like lasagna, fried calamari and tiramisu.
The real star of the show is the pinsa. It’s a type of Roman pizza where the dough is made with six types of flour and proofed for 72 hours. Think of it as the dead centre between a thick fluffy Napoli crust and a crisp thin New York-style slice. Bourke and Ward dish up a whole heap of variations of the dish, including classic flavours like quattro formaggi (four cheeses) and more experimental toppings like the mortadella, blue cheese and pistachio sauce pinsa.
The restaurant is located right at the base of Sydney’s tallest office building in Circular Quay, making it part of the bustling Sydney Place dining precinct alongside Lode Pies and Kosta's Takeaway. They open bright and early at 7am to pump out breakfast for all the business people, and serve food until 10pm on weeknights if after-work drinks turn into a late-night bite.
As for a happy hour tipple, the cocktail menu features fruity delights (aka a whole scoop of pineapple sorbet in the mix) and a wine list with both drops from all over the world, including some specialty ones from Southern Italy to keep on trend.
The modest space has a couple of tables scattered around the central bar, but size doesn’t hold the restaurant back from preparing a range of their menu authentically – the crisp slabs of focaccia, all the pasta shapes and the cultured butter are made on site. The focaccia is even repurposed in the form of breadcrumbs for the crunchy pangrattato on the squid ink prawn linguine.
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