12-Micron opens at Barangaroo [gallery]

The latest opening at The Streets of Barangaroo in Sydney is 12-Micron, a 230-seater restaurant, late night dessert kitchen and bar.

Swinging open its doors on 1 March for lunch and dinner, bar drinks, snacks and dessert, 12-Micron is open until late, seven days a week.

Executive chef Justin Wise (The Press Club, The Point Albert Park) sources predominantly Australian ingredients from a range of producers and a collective of foragers. The restaurant menu is divided into four parts: earth, which includes paperbark baked vegetables with fruit spice and goats curd; ocean, such as the lobster omelette or Skull Island king prawn steamed bun with wasabi, green mango and tobiko; land, including lamb with spinach, native iron bark honey and damper; and air, with dishes like the half pigeon with Aussie master stock, red cabbage, and Illawarra plum.

“12-Micron is an opportunity for us to create beautiful food with what I consider to be the very best produce at that time. I’ve gone as local as I can find so, apart from a couple of items which we’re still trying to source locally, we proudly use Australian,” said Wise. “The team has quite a bit of fine dining experience and so we’ll take the food and service elements of that into a more relaxed dining experience at 12-Micron – impressive but not intimidating.”

A 64-seater dessert bar is open till late and diners can select from an a la carte or a degustation of three, five or seven courses, created by pastry chef and founder of Burch & Purchese, Darren Purchese. He’s created dishes including the coconut sago with passionfruit, ginger and mint; and his signature dark chocolate mousse with salted caramel, tonka bean, mandarin and Zokoko chocolate.

In addition to the restaurant and dessert kitchen, there’s a 120-seater bar area which boasts a balcony and floor to ceiling windows. The six-strong bar snack menu includes a mushroom taleggio toastie and wagyu cheeseburger.

Sommelier Lyndsey Carr’s 400-strong wine list (32+ available by the glass) includes predominantly Australian drops and there’s also a range of cocktails on offer including the Riberry Limy Tia (Rebellion Bay spiced rum, Vdrenne spicy chili cinnamon, orgeat, lime, riberry confit) and Smoking Chaplin (Plymouth Sloe Gin, Vdrenne apricot brandy, lime and rosella jam).

12-Micron includes a private dining space that seats up to 20 or stands 40. The space includes solid timber walls, a window through to the dessert bar, floor to ceiling glass overlooking the streets below, exclusive lift access, as well as a personal sommelier and wait staff.

The interiors are designed by SJB, taking inspiration from Australian elements and the harbour views. “The 12-Micron design references the indoor and outdoor lifestyle of Sydney with exterior finishes used indoors,” said SJB director Kirsten Stanisich. “Green and blue stone cobbles and tiles evoke the colours of a gum leaf and a rough bark texture is introduced through leathered finished granite and loose fit leather sofas with ruffled detailing.”