Overview
With Paradise Road Diner open less than a year, David Owen (ex Icebergs) and Gaudi Diaz are already expanding their empire with a brand new venture just down the road — a takeaway chicken shop. Set right on the North Bondi beachfront, Paradise Road Kitchen is the latest to join the barbecue chicken resurgence (The Paddington, Via Napoli Il Girarrosto), but with no bells and whistles. No frills. Just good food.
This isn't your average takeaway shop though; in lieu of a greasy slopfest that grab-and-go can evoke, they're serving up some serious home cooking with a very personal spin. "Dave and I have been in the restaurant industry for a long time, but sometimes nothing beats when you get some good home cooking from mum or grandma," says Diaz. He speaks such truth. Diaz's mum is the brains behind the Spanish tortilla soup.
When Diaz and Owen found the corner location, right across the road from popular brunch spot Porch, the space itself apparently seemed meant for home-style cooking. "When this place came up, the cooking equipment here really suited our family dishes and it was kind of the perfect timing for a place like this," says Diaz.
The most important part of any self respecting chicken shop is, of course, the rotisserie. Apart from the requisite whole chickens ($18), the guys are doing up lamb leg ($9/100gr) and even a rotisserie corn on the cob ($6). The free range pork shoulder from Vic's ($9/100gr) is the favourite rotisserie item of Diaz's, though — rolled in sage and rosemary, the meat then goes on the rotisserie for an hour and a half. "It gets so nicely crispy and crackling," he says. We bet it does. Let us at it.
Overall, the food is done simply but done right. "The premise behind this spot is that it's takeaway done well. It's not a fancy restaurant in any way, but it's quite simply done with the highest quality in mind," says Diaz.
Find Paradise Road Kitchen at 262 Campbell Parade, North Bondi. Open seven days a week 11.30am to 9pm.