It’s Double Trouble in Double Bay now Song Bird restaurant is in full flow, and soon to be open 7 nights a week, with lunch Friday- Sunday. Sitting alongside the continuously awarded restaurant Margaret in the Perry multiverse, not only are residents of the bougee suburb finding it harder and harder to leave, more and and more people are visiting the D-Bay as a destination, and they’re not just going to the Sheaf.
The Irresistible Culinary Department visited Song Bird on a Friday lunchtime, and were more than happy with some popable moist prawn dumplings, a fresh and cleansing asparagus salad, the obligatory and very tasty prawn toast, a succulent and zingy chicken salad with shallot dressing, and some perfectly cooked and flaky lobster and scallop springs rolls. Then we remembered we had better have some mains. We managed to fit in the Peking Duck pancakes and the Chinese Broccoli. Clearly we went for classics, but there’s plenty more adventurous offerings available, and some fabulous looking seafood that sailed past to the other tables that we’ll be getting into next time. With the expansive menu being overseen by Neil and Head Chef Mark Lee, it’s all good, and unsurprisingly it’s all about the suppliers. As Neil said, “Song Bird combines great dining, the best produce the country has to offer, great craft in cooking, drink making, wine and food service, and a sophisticated but relaxed dining room.”
We stuck with wines, which were paired for us, and perfect. As Neil added in the press release, “If you feel like a magnum of Bollinger for your Thursday lunch or would like to try some Chartogne- Taillet for your anniversary, we have those covered, as well as many other great wines around the $70 mark.” Christmas is literally calling and wants a table.
Chunks of the menu might look like the food your mum ordered as a traumatising treat no matter which decade that happened in, but there was definitely no weird coating on the inside of your mouth afterwards, or any of that leaky volcano red neon sauce that was somewhere between an illegally imported additive and a mechanical oil. I suspect the food would go off at some point too, unlike the leftovers from the Chinese takeaways that haunt the Irresistible team’s childhood memories, which didn’t seem to change no matter how long the shiny foil container was left in the fridge, lid or no lid.
Greg ‘Sparrow’ Graham, Irresistible Contributing Culinary Editor, was overheard saying, “Songbird elevates Asian cuisine to a whole new level with outstanding locally sourced produce. Absolutely stunning venue and my favourite dishes the Prawn Toast & Peking Duck Pancakes made my taste buds sing.”
The venue has been beautifully renovated, and just enough kitch- kissed to feel smart and contemporary, while also letting people know they are there for a good time. The placement of the dining rooms on the upper levels means being surrounded by a tree-top canopy. The stunning staircase, and the original and restored grid of light wells in the ceiling gives the details and the warm tones that lends the whole experience a settling- in vibe, another glass and another course easily seems the next best step. After a wave of heart- wrenching closures in Chinatown over the last few years of the kind of big Chinese restaurants that have been around for generations, and with the Perrys clearly in for the long haul, it’s great to have a place where Sydneysiders and visitors can make those kind of memories, and up on the third floor Lazy Susans freewheel on the big tables.
So now you can have coffee, get some bread, pop into a cafe, have two options for lunch and dinner, and if that wasn’t enough, there’s Bobbie’s, the bar we’ll be reviewing in the near future, where you can finish up, or just start in, all inside the perimeter of planet Perry. It would be reasonable to think it’s a bit much, but they’re pulling it off, and there’s nothing not to love. Has Neil Perry well and truly moved into Double Bay, or have we all just moved in with Neil Perry?
Song Bird 24 Bay Street, Double Bay
From November 2024, Mon- Sunday Dinner from 6pm
Friday- Sunday Lunch from 12 noon,
