It's taken some time but the dining scene is now catching up with the apartment boom in south-east Sydney. All those shoebox-living young urban professionals need to eat and they can now boast local venues like Vicinity Dining in a still-industrial part of Alexandria.
Baba ganoush, olives, mixed nuts at Vicinity Dining, corner of Bourke Road and Collins Street, Alexandria
I'd visited the ambitiously spaced Vicinity in its very early days – for breakfast and Sunday Bloody Marys. Since then it seems there’s been some reshuffling of the menu and kitchen, for the better.
With its gas-heated outdoor verandah area, Vicinity was just right for a group lunch that needed versatility – while the menu is split into entrées, mains and shared mains, it’s easy enough to order a number of starters as share plates.
Ideal for sharing was the smoky eggplant baba ganoush with sourdough bread pieces and warmed flat bread, served on a wooden board alongside Sicilian and kalamata olives and roasted assorted nuts in matching cups/jugs.
A grazing favourite, the chicken liver parfait was also served on a wooden board with sourdough. The wide-mouthed jar caused no access issues to the rich, buttery parfait, topped with a dark jelly.
Crispy calamari with tamarind-ginger glaze and green papaya
The tapas-sized calamari was also great for sharing, making an instant visual impact with its intriguing black and white puffed cracker. The golden battered squid was moist and tender, but could have used more seasoning to really make the sweet, Asian-influenced tamarind sauce pop.
The tapas theme continued with slices of a particularly spicy and firm chorizo, somewhat tempered by its apple cider cooking treatment and cooked apple wedges. There was plenty of bread available to help tide the spice heat of the chorizo as it seemed a lot of our dishes had bread components.
Ocean trout gravlax with soft-boiled egg and avocado on sourdough
We were also wooed by the waiter’s description of a daily special which was a bit brunch-ish but ultimately a deliciously generous shared serve of dill-marinated ocean trout gravlax.
Ocean trout gravlax with soft-boiled egg and avocado on sourdough
As a dill-lover, I found the cured fish to be divine in combination with ripe avocado slices, half a perfectly soft-yolked egg, lettuce and just-toasted bread with lemon juice adding a bit of zip.
The salad in a jar was one of the most creative serving methods I've seen in ages: a large glass jar with a lock lid filled with lettuce leaves, red witlof, tomato chunks, chickpeas and brown lentils then doused with a vinaigrette dressing. The entire jar was shaken at the tableside and served out onto a plate.
We couldn't resist a couple of serves of chips with a "selection of salts" which amused some but makes sense if you've ever visited nearby food emporium, Salt Meats Cheese. I'm actually not sure what salts there were, although there was more interest in the aioli as a dipping sauce for the perfectly crisp chips.
With shared, grazing-style food sorted; a pretty bar with decent selections all round; and the gas heater cranking under cool, clear skies, Vicinity offers a perfect, casual group space amid the Alexandria dining boom.
