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Snack Kitchen

1/95 Macleay Street, Potts Point, NSW, 2011
Phone
0451 775 209
Website
snackkitchen.com.au
Instagram
@snackkitchenpottspoint

Read time 4 Mins

Posted 13 May 2024

By
Matty Hirsch

Waitstaff at Snack Kitchen in Sydney

The name says it all at this fun, free-wheeling pit stop for Italian-accented eats and drinks of a higher order, deftly captained by Sydney hospitality royalty.

Wine and cured meat at Snack Kitchen
Why you go In a world full of restaurants and bars fuelled by fluffy and often far-fetched concepts, it’s refreshing to find a place that cuts right to the chase and does what it says on the tin. Snack Kitchen is such a place, a snug 50-seater on a commanding corner of a busy main street, built for eating and drinking of the quick and easy kind. No bookings are taken, and nothing is tricky – you’ll know every Italian-ish finger food and share plate well, just as you’ll recognise nearly every cocktail, beer and wine. And while that might read as rather unexciting, the brains behind the operation, veteran restaurateur and Icebergs Dining Room and Bar founder Maurice Terzini and his son Sylvester, lift it above the ordinary. Over 20-plus years, they’ve forged lasting relationships with some of the country’s top growers and makers, so what you’re getting here is guaranteed to be a cut above. Come for one, stay for a few and snack to your heart’s content.
Why you stay

This is about as user-friendly as a venue can get, letting you commit to as little or as much as you please, when you please. Be warned, however: the intention to drop in for a glass and some prosciutto, say, might easily turn into an all-out spread and a couple of bottles before you know it. The whitewashed space, with its floor-to-ceiling windows and graphic artwork, has a tendency to fill up fast, and everything’s so densely packed that you’ll find yourself in the centre of the action no matter where you land. Throw in a thumping downtempo and nu-disco soundtrack laid down by some of Sydney’s sharpest selectors on the decks, and it isn’t hard to see why a snack here feels more like an event.

 

What drink to orderThere are no wrong turns on the ruthlessly edited drinks list, which is just about as compact as the space. All half-dozen cocktails make strong starting points, but especially the No 8, a longtime Icebergs favourite built on nothing but vodka, Italy’s Campari liqueur and freshly squeezed ruby-red grapefruit juice. The Specialista, by contrast, takes things in all sorts of bittersweet directions, layering aromatised red and white wines and fino sherry with Cynar and Crodino – an artichoke liqueur and an orangy non-alcoholic aperitivo, respectively. With no written record of wines by the glass to speak of, you’ll need to ask what’s pouring, but consult the full list and you’ll find 30-ish bottles that balance the old-school and new, pitting next-gen Aussie makers like Owen Latta and Pat Underwood against some of Europe’s greatest hits. Happy days.
Some of the wines at Snack Kitchen
Some of the offerings during Happy Hour at Snack Kitchen
What to pair it withMostly, the streamlined menu sticks to a tried-and-tested Italian script, starting with picky bits such as cured meats and cheeses before moving through some medium-sized dishes and a few foolproof desserts. Do it justice by ordering a little of everything: fat cubes of smoky-sweet ham with hot English mustard and cornichons; a dynamite beef carpaccio; a tumble of crisp-fried prawns, whitebait and calamari to dip in eggy gribiche sauce; fleshy tomatoes given sharpness from briny green olives and Spanish anchovies. Of course, you’ll want some bread for dipping and dunking and swiping – and you’ll probably want to close things out with a classic affogato, where the ice-cream and espresso is spiked with Brookie’s knockout macadamia and wattleseed liqueur.
Regular’s tipArrive between 3:00pm and 5:00pm to catch what’s easily the best happy hour in the city’s inner east. For those two hours, nothing costs more than a tenner, with beers at $8, house wines at $9 and small serves of trusty Italian cocktails, such as Spritzes and Americanos, at $10. Yes, that means you can get two mini Martinis and a bowl of olives for $25 – a pretty unheard of prospect in Sydney these days. Food options follow suit, with $5 baguettes designed to be piled with the likes of mozzarella cheese, mortadella or anchovies at $9 each. Go ham.
Make it fancy Democratic pricing might just be Snack Kitchen’s finest attribute, with all plates coming in at $26 or less and cocktails capped off at $22. Even so, the wine list offers several avenues for living large, starting with a (still quite sensible) $180 bottle of Huré Frères Invitation Brut, a yeasty, complex, aperitif-style Champagne with pretty orchard-fruit perfume. The Producer of the Month section is also worth a look. If you’re lucky, it might just be Tyrrell’s, the long-standing Hunter Valley estate known for its powerful, structured Vat 1 Semillon – often considered one of Australia’s hall-of-fame white wines, and a steal here at $172.
image credits: Jason Loucas
Authour image
Matty HirschMatty Hirsch is a Sydney-based writer, critic and editor whose work has appeared in Time Out, Delicious and Gourmet Traveller.
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