Along with being a Rolling Stones album, Forty Licks is now also a modern Vietnamese restaurant in the Sydney CBD. Expect simmering bowls of bún bò huế (a spicy, salty and sour beef noodle soup); sizzling kingfish noodles; whole mud crabs; and delicious things on skewers, including king prawns with shiso leaves and a Vietnamese-style wrapped sausage served with fiery chilli.
The venue is as much a cocktail bar as it is a restaurant, so you can order a Red Lotus with Secco Vermouth, calvados, amaro, lemon and bitters, or a Hanoi Sour with bourbon, ginger liqueur, Chichi Morada, lemon and pecan bitters. The 75-seat venue has maintained many of the structural elements of the heritage building but has also gutted the dining room to create a tiered seating formation, reminiscent of Vietnam's rolling rice paddy fields.