The New Jacksons on George

176 George Street, Sydney – (02) 8027 9997

When landing in Sydney, The Varnished Culture habitually strolled around to Jacksons on George for lunch while our hotel room was made ready. It was a typical old pub: dark, dingy and grungy, beers and sticky table-tops, Irish lasses behind the bar, an air of uncouth lassitude. We liked it.

So imagine our surprise when, having been away from the Emerald City for a few years, we strolled into George Street to find a totally new and glamourous Jacksons on George, with a downstairs bar and concourse café, an upmarket bistro on the first floor, and an attractive rooftop bar.

We liked the bistro so much we went there twice for lunch. Excellent service (although the nice French lady the first time was a ‘close-talker’) and the sommeliers were superb. Given the amount of money spent on the renovations, and the vast disparity between Old Jackson and New, we had no ‘bill shock’ at finale. Incidentally, the head chef is Steven Sinclair, who will be known to some of you.

For the first déjeuner, we started with some Veuve Clicquot. L had Aquna Murray cod, buerre noisette, capers, dill and lemon (excellent); P plumped for O’Connor Superior Angus grain fed striploin (250g) and Béarnaise Sauce, and we shared asparagus and hollandaise sauce on the side: terrific. Less shared was a nice passionfruit tart with cultured cream and alto olive oil. L hates passionfruit but conceded the tart crust was neither ‘blind’ nor ‘blond’ (whatever that means).

Second time around, We had an Asparagus risotto, preserved lemon, pea and lardo, very good, and Pappardelle, Wollemi duck ragu, orange, fennel and marjoram – a beautiful balance of flavours and texture, with a lovely spring onion mash, washed down with an expensive but worthy Arnaud Lambert Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley.

Old Jackson was familiar and comfy, but all things must pass, and if you want a friendly old pub, you can head up the road to The Fortune of War. TVC highly recommends the ‘new’ Jacksons on George.