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Olympus is the sort of restaurant where you are invited to idle. The pleasures of dining at the contemporary village-style taverna in Sydney’s Redfern are many – from its location in the buzzy new Wunderlich Lane precinct to the menu devoted to everything from classic Greek mezedes to a trove of dishes anchored to time-worn traditions.
Olympus is the latest restaurant led by the team behind The Apollo and Cho Cho San in Sydney; Yoko Dining and Greca in Bris Vegas. Co-owners Jonathan Barthelmess and Sam Christie have lured Ozge Kalvo (who won acclaim as part of the Baba's Place and Ester teams) to take the lead on the menu the pair have designed around good, honest Greek cooking.
The sun-splashed courtyard is arrayed around a 50-year-old bougainvillea tree with pops of comic-book pink.
It takes me back to Mykonos
Olympus is clearly a place where Greek hospitality blossoms. It’s a scorcher of a day in the light-filled dining room so the retractable oculus ceiling – a cheeky wink back to the Greek amphitheatres of old – has closed automatically so the space under the gliding glass canopy can be air conditioned.
There’s no sign of the #cozzielivs crisis during our Sunday lunch booking as the restaurant appears to be a magnet for the ‘it’ crowd. It’s filled with a mix of dolled-up luvvies from the Eastern Suburbs, hip inner westies, multi-generational Greek families and a cosmopolitan couple beside us reminiscing about their recent holiday to Santorini.
While Greek traditions echo through the kitchen, the sophisticated space is not a yia-yia fest. There’s not a piece of plastic ivy or blue-and-white checked tablecloth in sight. Instead, there are blue-and-white water jugs custom made by Dinosaur Designs to colour match with the Aegean Sea. And three-piece uniforms made in Australia by Alex and Trahanas that allow for effortless, oh-so stylish sauntering around the luxurious dining room.
Barthelmess says his vision for the space designed by interior architect George Livissianis was for it to present like a contemporary Athens-style garden taverna.
Nailed it
It’s fitting the restaurant is named after Mt Olympus, which the ancient Greeks revered as being home to the gods, as the focus of the menu is ‘on the food of the mountains’. A great option for diners who don’t want to choose is The Olympus Way set menu, which starts from $88 per person and represents great value. But after the excesses of the silly season, we’re keen to choose our own adventure and order a la carte.
A true test of a Greek restaurant is the taramasalata, here made from white cod roe topped with a grating of bottarga. It’s creamy and robust, sweet and fantastic and we put the house-baked bread freckled with sesame seeds to good use by dredging warm slices of it through the dip. The lightly pickled htapodi ksidato (marinated octopus) with sprigs of sea fennel and lemon is a classic Mediterranean appetiser and a sensation due to its simplicity.
We embark on an archaeological dig to unearth every last baby caper, which are like salty kisses
The kalamari tis skaras (grilled calamari) is tender and sweet. It’s been lightly charred and is served swaddled in a ladolemono (Greek olive oil and lemon sauce), which is emulsified with mustard and nicely balanced, providing a bright, tangy finish.
The drinks list is made up of cocktails designed by Matt Whiley (Little Cooler, ex-Re), along with wines by the glass, party bottles, bubbles, whites, reds, in-betweeners (skin contact; retsina) and afters (such as digestifs and dessert wines) curated by head sommelier Zoe Brunton (ex-Lil Sis, Monopole).The Greek wines on offer reflect the renaissance that is happening in the country’s wine regions, and there’s another knowledgeable sommelier on hand today to steer us in the right direction.
In the end, I opt for an ‘unfiltered and untinkered’ glass of the house Latta Vino ‘Olympus’ rosé with the occie appetiser, and a glass of the delicate Zafeirakis Limniona grenache alongside the tender and sweet souvlaki kotopoulou (chicken skewers) slathered in a zingy sesame yoghurt scattered with oregano.
It would be hard to come by a better version of the humble horiatiki village salad with honey-sweet tomato, cucumbers and black olives with two giant hunks of feta. It's a straightforward, ingredient-led Greek salad and it's lovely.
Olympus Dining is next to The Eve and it’s worth taking a trek to the stylish bathrooms located within the lobby of the boutique design hotel to get a feel for the new $500 million Wunderlich Lane, which connects Redfern and Surry Hills. The dining room, all olive and oat tones, on the edge of laneways lined with street art, feels like it will stand the test of time, just like that beautiful bougainvillea.
Word to the wise: Although we’re on the periphery of the bustling courtyard, and the roof has been deployed to protect us from the beating hot sun, those sitting in its direct rays are not totally comfortable in the heat of the day. Unless you want a tan that makes you look like you’ve been floating in the Aegean Sea all afternoon, those with a lunchtime booking should bring a hat and sunscreen in summer. That’s at least until the canopy of the burgeoning bougainvillea clambers to the very edges of the courtyard. Either that or book for dinner in the cool of the early evening.
Regardless of when you choose to dine at Olympus, it’s worth knowing that the menu is top-heavy with mezedes so it’s worth going in a group so you can get stuck right in and have a taste of this, a nibble of that.
There’s also some excellent eating to be had with desserts such as loukamades (doughnuts) and frozen yoghurt. We settle for the traditional ravani (semonlina cake), which is dense and moist and made fantastiko with a generous dollop of coffee cream.
For all that the Greeks have contributed to the world – from mathematics to astronomy, democracy, the arts and philosophy – it’s the way of eating and drinking that is so integral to Greek life and identity that you’ll be thanking the gods for at Olympus.
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