Bear’s Wine Bar
Contemporary$$
A snug wine bar with plenty to bring to the retro-nostalgia party.
The ye olde shopfront, warm lighting and red brick walls are inviting enough. But then you spy the potato cake, given a glow-up for the ages. A batter of rice and tapioca flours broadcasts startling crunch, the innards are creamy and rich, there’s creme fraiche and lumpfish caviar to swipe the thrice-cooked golden beast through.
Being a wine bar, “dinner” at Bears will be a series of snacky share plates - but they’re all bangers.Intersperse them with half-sized margaritas, “petit-gronis”, or perhaps a marsanne from an Aussie producer. Twice-cooked pork belly in its cubist abstract form is tossed in warming ’nduja and soothing honey, with plum and radicchio adding extra dimension.
Kangaroo may star in dim-sims and spring rolls, while prawn toast comes on house-baked focaccia. Find yourself yearning for simpler, kinder times? Pull up a stool, and don’t leave without a deep-fried Tim Tam.
Must-order dish: The potato cakes, of course.
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