Bourke & Ward

Overview

Tucked away on the first floor of the recognisable Salesforce building is Bourke & Ward, an elegant all-day eatery dedicated to Southern Italian cuisine with modern flair.

This triple-threat venue operates as a cafe for that early morning rush, a buzzy lunch spot come the afternoon and a moody restaurant after dark. So whether you're in for an intimate date night or swinging by for a hearty lunch, Bourke & Ward has got you covered.

Peruse the menu and you'll be met with a wide array of top-quality dishes. For breakfast, take your pick from cafe classics like a hefty B&E with sauce of your choosing, an avocado stack elevated with a diced lemon confit, chilli scrambled eggs with three kinds of spice and fried Tuscan kale and an Italian take on Turkish poached eggs that features whipped ricotta, sauteéd spinach and mushrooms with a burnt butter and tomato vierge.

Post-breakfast, you can opt for antipasti like the pillowy focaccia and the crispy polenta paired with calabrese sugo and stracciatella. Then, make your way to the heartier selection — it's recommended that you try a pasta and a pizza, if you've got room for both. Standouts from the pasta selection include a lasagne that would make even the fiercest of nonnas proud, squid ink linguine with garlic-coated prawns and pesto casarecce with Calabrian chilli, sundried tomato, stracciatella and smoked almond.

The showstopper, though, is the traditional pinsa. What sets this pizza apart from its fellow dough-centred siblings is its crust, which consists of a six-protein dough that is proofed for 72 hours before it's turned into a lighter and crisper alternative to the familiar slices we know and love. Here, you can choose between five styles of pinsa romana, from a tomato-base Siciliana with eggplant or a four-cheese pie, to prawn-starring gamberi drizzled with nduja oil or the ham-, mushroom- and olive-topped cotto.

You'll want to finish your night with a sweet treat if you've still got room, whether it be the indulgent matcha tiramisu, the Nutella pizza or the fruity apple and peach crumble with ice cream.

Plus, you can pair each dish with a glass of top-notch vino from the international wine list — there's a decent selection available by the glass — or one of the restaurant's plethora of fun cocktails. From a sour mango marg and stiff blood orange negroni to a selection of seven spritzes, you'll be spoilt for choice.