King Clarence Is the Newest Addition to Sydney’s Food Scene

Fall for fusion at this innovative Asian restaurant from one of the country’s best chefs.

Fusion was once a dirty word in the food world, when it was thought that cuisines should each stand alone and not be mashed together lest the sum equal less than its parts.

Today, most of us realise that while an exacting French terrine or a faithfully executed Japanese gyoza are wonderful, cuisines are fluid and evolving. And when you combine their better elements, you can make food that excites and delights – perhaps even more than the classics.

At King Clarence, the new restaurant in the Sydney CBD from the team behind Bentley, Monopole and Cirrus, it pays to be open-minded. “It’s a contemporary Asian restaurant and the flavours we’re focusing on are Cantonese, Korean and Japanese,” says executive chef Khanh Nguyen, who’s moved north from his post at two of Melbourne’s biggest blockbusters, Sunda and Aru, to take the reins alongside co-owner Brent Savage. “There are dishes on the menu that have influences from more than one country.”

Case in point: a 14-day dry-aged duck is partially cooked in an umeboshi plum glaze (a Japanese ingredient) while the leg gets a Chinese char siu treatment. A Korean bo ssam takes its cues from Nguyen’s own Vietnamese heritage but the meat is crisp, Chinese-style pork belly. Lobster is served with three condiments that borrow ideas from all over the globe: a Kampot pepper, pecorino and corn sauce that the chef says is part-Korean, part-Italian cacio e pepe; belacan (fermented shrimp paste) and a Korean chilli and plum number; and his take on Japanese curry that’s given a Euro twist with red wine and confit garlic. In the wrong hands, this could be more fail than fusion but Nguyen, who’s been cooking this way for years, is the mashup maestro. “It is,” he promises, “going to be pretty interesting.”