Maestro and Co

The Middle Eastern cuisine at Maestro and Co isn’t traditional home-style or anything experimental, but somewhere in between. Chef Bektas Özcan has worked at Jamie’s Italian, Pyrmont’s impressive Lebanese pop-up Baraka and Efend

Özcan’s silken, soft, signature lamb shoulder with smoked-eggplant puree and twice-cooked potatoes has made it over from Baraka, as has his colourful mezze dips and handmade spelt bread. The new dishes are equally vivid in colour and flavour. There’s a whole rainbow trout encircled by charred lemon, brocollini and savoy cabbage; compressed watermelon with goat’s cheese and air-dried beef; or a beautiful arrangement of citrus-cured scallops over a crumbly hazelnut tabouli.

The kibbe (fried, football-shaped beef croquettes) are baked and come as a dome, with mint yoghurt and pine nuts.

The weekend brunch includes breakfast fattoush with house-cured salmon, avocado and aged feta, or pomegranate-molasses-sweetened hummus with slow-cooked pork, lamb shoulder or Lebanese spiced chicken.

The restaurant has a bar-like area – the back counter serves Middle Eastern-themed cocktails to walk-ins on stools. Light tones show off the timber flooring, exposed bricks and copper bar.