Five fantastic new places to dine locally

By James Mullan

Bon Pollo North Sydney

15 Blue St, North Sydney

You might recognise this Lebanese chicken joint from St Leonards but did you know there is a new Bon Pollo right next to North Sydney station?

North Sydney now finally has a great spot for Middle Eastern chicken and late night takeaway.

Owner Bakr hails from Egypt and previously worked at a chargrill chicken shop in Merryland before joining the famous Lebanese chain El Jannah.

In 2011 he made the move to Bon Pollo Chicken, St Leonards and only three years in was offered the opportunity by the former owner to buy the business.

It was at this time the old shop site was bought out to make way for the ‘Landmark'’ skyscraper at 500 Pacific Highway, St Leonards. After Bakr spent a year back in his home country Egypt, he reopened Bon Pollo at St Leonards Arcade, just next to St Leonards’ major north bound bus station at 20 Pacific Hwy.

After four successful years serving up quality Lebanese cuisine, Bakr was keen to make a change, leaving the St Leonards store to his business partner. Originally he tried to open a new Bon Pollo in Petersham but zoning laws made it too difficult.

So Bakr made up his mind to return to the North Shore and open up a brand new location in North Sydney.

“I chose this area because we are well known here in the North. As soon as I opened up it was busy and the location is very good,” Bakr told the Sun. We also asked him what makes the chicken unique: “It’s a secret but the basic ingredients are lemon, vinegar, pepper and salt, but that’s all the most I can tell you.”

But it’s not just the chicken “The lamb wrap and chicken shawarma are very popular. Even before I open in the morning we get online orders for the wraps.” Both wraps are made with marinated meat, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onion, and a choice of sauce. The garlic sauce, baba ganoush and tahini particularly stand out, packing some serious flavour.

Bakr used to buy shawarma pre seasoned before mastering his own recipe. “I can do the real one so I cooked it by myself using my recipe and it came up perfect.” In fact, just about everything is made in house and prepared daily.

If you want to try the all star lineup at Bon Pollo, the BBQ platters are a good place to start. You can grab a standard quarter or half chargrilled chicken, or mix it up with the 4 skewers plate including kofta, adanna, lamb and chicken tawook.

The platters are served with fresh tabouli, hummus, garlic, pickles, and flat bread. If you are vegetarian the falafel is sensational. Crispy on the outside, fluffy and flavourful on the inside, and of course not dry at all.

To finish you simply must try the baklava which comes in 3 styles; chocolate, pistachio and kuru (syrup coated). They are simply divine; rich, sweet and the layers dense but light layers of pastry will melt in your mouth. Bon Pollo is open 11am until late and is chicken definitely worth crossing the road for.

Layers Crows Nest

Clarke Lane, St Leonards

Tucked away in a hidden street between Crows Nest and St Leonards, this modern bakery cafe is serving up truly unique coffee and delightful pastries in a location which provides the perfect retreat from the wind, traffic and construction in the area.

Owner Frances Song had been working in the patisserie industry for years and once her daughter was due to be born, made plans to move to Korea and start her own cafe. However due to an untimely sickness, Frances decided to stay in Sydney and instead open up in St Leonards where she had been a long time local with her husband Jiyoon.

Frances had patisserie expertise and Jiyoon was already working for Headlands Coffee as well as working alongside renowned Japanese coffee expert Takumi Sakamoto.

Layers brews coffee using unique Headlands Coffee, which Jiyoon roasts himself. This includes an exclusive ‘Layers Blend’ which Frances describes as possessing “natural notes of honey, peanut butter, cinnamon and chocolate. We are trying to encourage people to drink milk coffee and enjoy the caffeine fix without the sugar.”

The coffee is incredible but it’s the food that will keep you popping by for more. “We wanted to open this place to share what my husband and I really like; cooking for people and that includes pastries.”

Everything is baked fresh in house including chocolate, almond and plain croissants to Frances speciality macarons and chiffon cakes.

At Layers, they believe their point of difference lies in the softness of their pastries compared to others. Frances thinks that too often pasties are over baked, ending up with burnt butter and excessive breadiness.

By contrast “Our pastry base is very light, crispy, buttery, flaky and moist. Even when it cools down its still has a bit of a crunch and still stays nice cold or reheated.” All their goods also only use natural flavouring so they aren’t overly sweet.

As for the space: “We wanted something very warm and inviting.”

The layout encourages interaction without any of the conventional cafe table chair set ups. Instead long coach seating and stools are complimented by small round tables. They want to encourage interaction between people and groups while enjoying their coffee.

Layers is also available for small scale events of any kind as the space is versatile plus they have a liquor licence.

YoYo’s Chinese BBQ

116 Military Rd, Neutral Bay

15 years ago Polly Ji moved to Australia from China. Fast forward to 2023 and after years of hard work in hospitality, she has now brought classic Hong Kong cuisine to Neutral Bay.

Polly and her husband had been working at Phoenix Chinese Restaurant where he had been a chef there for over 10 years.

After hearing from a friend who owns a sushi store in Neutral Bay that the area had a strong local community with friendly people, they decided it would be the perfect location to bring their Cantonese style BBQ. They named the restaurant YoYo’s after their daughter.

From the classic roast ducks in the window to the fold out chairs and silver tables, this joint is a classic Hong Kong style eatery with the food to match: from BBQ pork to classic Chinese dishes like Mongolian beef and honey chicken.

“We freshly cook the BBQ meats everyday in the morning and again in the afternoon for dinner. It’s been quite popular!”

It really is hard to go past the duck but also on the menu are the classics like noodle soups, fried noodles, fried rice, dumplings, Szechuan chicken, Choy Sum and much more.

YoYo’s also has plenty of refreshing drinks to try.

“We do the Hong Kong milk tea and ice lemon tea with a very cute ice block.”

She wasn’t kidding as an ice bear popped out of the glass to cool off the smooth tea. All their teas are made in house and brewed to order, adding a very rich and unique flavour.

20 May - 18 June

Saturday 20 May, 8:00PM

Kings of the Blues - Live on Stage

Venue: Hayden Orpheum, Cremorne

Blues guitar virtuosos BB, Freddie and Albert join Kings on vocals covering all things blues, from Jimi Hendrix to Eric Clapton and much more. The Kings of Blues bring the legends to life for one night only.

Friday 19 May, 7:30PM

Hip-Hop Commune

Venue: Big Top, Luna Park

HipHop Commune is a hot new Hip Pop show coming to the Big Top, featuring today’s hottest Chinese lyricists and mega-star and rapper Yitai WANG, and numerous talented artists including; PACT, WatchMe, Shi Xinwenyue. WANG made it to the top six in the 2018 China New Rap finals and has over 1m social media followers.