Gitano
So you think you know Mexican food? This upmarket Double Bay fonda serving refined regional dishes prepared with traditional techniques begs to differ.
Overview
There will always be a place in our hearts for cheese-smothered, salsa-drenched high-street Tex-Mex — may foil-wrapped logs of spicy meat ever be our hangover saviour. But if you think burritos, nachos and slushy margs represent the true breadth and depth of Central American cuisine, Sydney's growing collection of new-wave Mexican restaurants should make you think again.
Double Bay's Gitano makes one of the more persuasive cases for Mexico's fine-dining alter ego. Head Chef Alvaro 'Clark' Valenzuela, formerly of Potts Point mezcal bar and eatery Chula, is expanding his diners' horizons with a menu that highlights the nuance and shade of Mexican cuisine, showcasing popular dishes from Mexico City, Oaxaca, Puebla, and the Yucatán Peninsula, with the menu's crudo selection highlighting flavours from the country's northwestern coastal regions. Prepared using traditional techniques, animal fats such as tallow and ghee are favoured over seed and vegetable oils, just as they would be in Mexico. However, this is no slavish lesson in authenticity.
Many cultures have invaded, influenced, traded with and integrated into Mexico over the centuries, bringing with them food traditions that have percolated through the country's diverse culinary vocabulary. Valenzuela offers clever riffs on the classics that speak to these surprising cross-cultural histories with plates like the atun tostada, featuring tuna sashimi, a tangy ponzu drizzle, crispy taro, pops of tobiko roe and an anchoring hit of heat from a chipotle aioli, nodding to the influx of Japanese migrants who came to Mexico City and Guadalajara in the 1940s. There's also the carne tartara, a loosely minced grass-fed wagyu tartare served with a molten trough of roasted marrow on the bone, spiked with aji amarillo, a mild Peruvian chilli, recalling flavours first brought to the New World by the French army in the 1860s.
Valenzuela's food not only draws on his home country's heritage, but also from his own family's traditions, taking inspiration from his abuelita. "She taught me that everything in life should be done with love, and that includes cooking," Valenzuela says. "There's a lot of love in everything I create — from a simple taco to a more complex dish."
True to his grandmother's wisdom, the street-food inclusions on the menu are executed with an emphasis on excellence and care — even the guacamole is heightened with a drizzle of jalapeño oil, which lifts the judicious combination of minced and diced avocado folded with crunchy raw onion, a heady garnish of fragrant unchopped cilantro leaves, and of course, the all-important house-made tortilla chips on the side, dusted with chilli salt.
Baja fish tacos, dressed with sweet pickled cabbage, bright hunks of green tomato and a fresh, zesty pico de gallo, get a glow up with the snapper fillets coated in corn masa and fried in ghee, creating a wonderfully crisp exterior around the succulent, moist fish within.
The same commitment to quality and creativity can also be found behind Gitano's bars. By the main entrance, a Patrón bar focuses on premium tequila, while the dining room bar is a shrine to agave spirits, with multiple varieties of mezcal, tequila and raicilla.
"Because we have several different flavours of margaritas, we blend multiple mezcals to get that variety from dry and spicy to more fruity," Gitano's General Manager Francisco Rosales says. "We also have a twist on the mojito which is something that I really love. It's really refreshing, with the smokiness of the mezcal and bitterness of grapefruit juice — it's a party in your mouth."
Speaking of partying, Gitano is more than just an eatery. Behind the main dining room, a spacious cocktail lounge with a dance floor and resident DJs spinning Latin-Afro house music channels the swagger and spirit of Central America. There's even VIP bottle service on offer for those who really want to make a night of it (and have cash to splash), complete with dedicated wait staff, a reserved booth and top-shelf booze.
Gitano's arrival in Double Bay is yet another feather in the cap of this ascendant hospitality enclave. In addition to its established stalwarts like Neil Perry's Margaret and popular pub The Golden Sheaf, a glut of recent openings, including Tanuki, Bartiga and Perry's new Asian concept Song Bird, have put Bay and Cross Streets back on the map as a top dining destination in inner Sydney. With a 3am licence and 200-patron-capacity club, Gitano is adding an extra dimension to this fast-rising hospo hub, making it not only a go-to for quality dining, but a nightlife hotspot to boot.
Images: Kitti Gould
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