Aalia Wine Room

Overview

Celebrated Middle Eastern fine diner AALIA has opened an intimate, wine-first offshoot right next to its main dining room. Overlooking Harry Seidler's modernist MLC Centre on Martin Place, AALIA Wine Room is a walk-ins-only destination in its own right rather than a scaled-down restaurant, offering a more relaxed way to explore the flavours and philosophy that have earned AALIA its two hats.

As the name suggests, the focus here is firmly on the wine. An expansive list curated by sommelier Sarah O'Dwyer features more than 230 bottles from emerging and established producers around the world, while a 30-plus by-the-glass selection encourages exploration of lesser-seen varietals and contemporary winemaking techniques. For those keen to dig deeper, Discovery Hour invites guests to settle in for a series of sommelier-selected pours revealed tableside.

In the kitchen, Executive Chef Paul Farag distils AALIA's produce-driven Middle Eastern cooking into a tight menu of wine-friendly snacks and small plates. Expect refined, pared-back dishes that echo the flavours of the main restaurant without attempting to replicate the full experience, from basturma, pickled chilli and quail egg gilda to kibbeh nayyeh with rhubarb and buckwheat, and pickled kokotxas with tamarind and Aleppo pepper.

A weekday lunch service takes an even more casual approach, reworking familiar favourites through an AALIA lens. Dishes like Murray cod shawarma with toum and pickles, steak frites with café de Cairo butter and a classic beef cheeseburger make AALIA Wine Room a solid option for a smart midweek lunch.

Split across two levels, the 42-seat venue mirrors the existing AALIA aesthetic — warm timber, banquette seating, mood lighting and eye-catching tiles all feature — with subtle nods to the modernist masterpiece just beyond the windows.

Images: Jiwon Kim.