This week’s Hot List activity

• Added: Mister Grotto
• Most trending restaurant: Bessie’s
• Most trending bar: Letra House
• Most trending cafe: Superfreak

A new era for Sydney’s grotto restaurants

Kensington used to have a restaurant called the Grotta Capri. It was absolutely hideous and completely iconic. Designed to mimic Capri’s famous Blue Grotto, it was a monstrosity of shells, chicken wire, fake stalactites and backlit fish-tanks. Even if you’d only ever gone past it, you couldn’t forget it.

Sure, the crab sticks were gross and the fisherman’s baskets were overpriced, but this Italian seafood restaurant was so Sydney-famous that it even made appearances in Underbelly and Muriel’s Wedding over the years.

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The Grotta Capri closed in 2011 after nearly 60 years, and ever since then, Sydney has needed a new restaurant named after a grotto.

A few months ago, Neptune’s Grotto, from the Pellegrino and Clam Bar team, opened up in the CBD and blew us all away. But despite its subterranean location and the dining room’s imposing statue of Neptune, its menu doesn’t have a crazy amount of seafood. Just normal numbers of marine meals.

Mister Grotto, which opened this month, lays it on nice and thick with the oceanic theme – both on the menu and off. And while the new spot from the team behind Continental Deli and Porteno doesn’t quite match the Grotta Capri for kitsch, there’s a similar swashbuckling energy to the decor.

It’s festooned in fishing rods, coils of rope, vintage ship plaques and swaying fishing-trawler-style lights. Every nook and cranny is filled with nautical knick-knacks.

The menu’s even more seafaring. Fish fans who can’t afford to drop their dollars on Saint Peter every time they want a bit of scale-to-tail action should look no further than Mister Grotto.

Head chef Mans Egberg actually spent time at the fishy fine diner and has brought its local, low-waste, maximum-fish-use ethos with him. Enjoy that approach in dishes such as shishito peppers stuffed with tuna sausage, or barbeque nannygai fillets. The $120 set menu is also great value.

The Grotta is gone, but thanks to Neptune’s Grotto and now Mister Grotto, Sydney has entered a second golden age for grotto-themed restaurants. And there’s not a crab stick in sight.

broadsheet.com.au/hotlist/sydney

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