Named after a tree whose sap resembles a vampire’s favourite treat, Bloodwood is a Newtown bar and restaurant that’s more than a cut above the area’s usual haunts.

Run by three chefs who used to work at the esteemed Claude’s in Paddington, the ethos here is to serve food at a high level yet not be pretentious – for example, you can get chips but they’ll be made from polenta, be decadently rich and creamy in texture and served with gorgonzola sauce.

Normally Bar Zine leaves restaurants alone but Bloodwood not only has a decently-sized cocktail bar near its kitchen but also an atmosphere that feels, at least when you first enter the premises, more like a bar’s (although Bloodwood does increasingly feel more like a restaurant as you enter deeper into it). Up front there are cosy little tables and benches where people sip drinks and eat food, downstairs there’s a function area and out the back you have a more traditional dining area, albeit with a Newtown twist (such as the old doors that are bolted onto the ceiling for decoration).

I’ve now been to Bloodwood twice, once in the function area for a birthday party where we tried most of the cocktails and food, and on a second time with the Gay Wingman.

The menu is eclectic to say the least. In fact, it almost looks like a specials menu rather than the standard one. This isn’t the place to get a prime fillet – rather, the menu has items such as chicken liver parfait, kibbeh (which are a bit like Lebanese meatballs), baked mushrooms, baked kingfish and a grilled cuttlefish salad. The two meals that for me were outstanding were the fried bean curd roll (crab, pork and shitake mushroom rolled in bean curd skin), which was bordering on sublime, as well as the duck sausage, which was also served with crispy-skinned pieces of duck breast that just melted in the mouth.

Then you have the cocktails, which I have mixed feelings about. For the most part they were good – some were very good – but when you have food of such a high standard it’s hard not to apply the same criteria to the drinks.

For example, I like the negroni (Bombay Sapphire gin, Campari and sweet vermouth) and am impressed that it’s on the menu – after all, it’s a great classic that also stimulates the palate. The one Bloodwood made was certainly nice but it didn’t quite have as much of an aromatic citrus punch to it that it ought to (I wonder if the bartender rubbed the rim of the glass with an orange peel before serving, or twisted some of the oil from the peel into the drink?).

The Long Island iced tea is another interesting case. On one hand, I detest Long Island iced teas with a passion. Traditionally they’re an abominable combination of white spirits (usually four or five) that are then mixed with Coke to hide the flavour of such an unholy mix and drunk by meatheads who just want to get smashed as quickly as possible when bourbon and coke alone won’t do.

However, one of my friends insists the Bloodwood version (vodka, gin, rum, tequila and Cointreau topped with organic earl grey tea syrup) is fantastic and when I have a taste I have to admit it is pretty good. I still don’t like the idea of mixing all those spirits together, but they did make this monstrous cocktail work surprisingly well.

The caipirinha didn’t have as much muddled lime as it should (and it’s the muddled lime that makes a caipirinha great, since it compensates for the harsh flavours of the cachaca sugar-cane spirit it’s made from) but it was nevertheless nice, and while I don’t like their mojito (made more in the Cuban style without muddled lime and with soda water) I know someone else who had it before and likes it.

One drink I didn’t have but wish I had is their Bloody Mary, which I’ve only heard rave reports about. Furthermore, cocktails aside, Bloodwood also has a strong beer and wine list (I saw a number of people indulge in that old Newtown favourite, a Coopers long neck, the two times I was here).

Cocktail quibbles aside, I genuinely love Bloodwood for its atmosphere, amazing food and good cocktails. Newtown sorely needed a bar and restaurant like this.

Bloodwood, 416 King Street, Newtown. Open everyday except Tuesday. See the Bloodwood website or phone 9557 7699 for more details.

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Now it’s your turn – how do you rate Bloodwood?

Bloodwood - Newtown, 4.7 out of 5 based on 15 ratings

 

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