Location: 266 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042
Price: $252 for 6 people, including 2 drinks
Social: https://www.instagram.com/oddculturenewtown/?hl=en

Odd Culture is a relaxed and casual restaurant and bar centred around ‘an exploration of fermentation’. Located on King Street in Newtown and dog friendly, it was a nice open space with friendly staff and a chilled atmosphere.

To start things off we ordered some of their house baked sourdough ‘beer bread’ and odd cultured butter and some anchovy cigars. The bread was atypical of sourdough, chewy and delicious. I couldn’t taste anything special about the butter. The anchovy cigars were nice but way too salty. It needed to be eaten with the bread to balance out as it was just overwhelmingly salty, even for an anchovy lover like myself.

Next up was the ‘smalls’ – we ordered the raw scallops with button mushrooms. This was amazing, it was a really light dish that balanced the creaminess of the scallops and hazelnut milk with yuzu and candied lemon. The button mushrooms added a nice textural element and were sliced thinly so you could enjoy it even raw. Honestly really nice, light entree dish that you could possibly recreate at home with various other substitute elements.

The other entree we ordered was the raw beef with puffed rice and herbs. This dish was a nice take on beef tartare with Thai/Asian influences. The puffed rice added a nice crunch and it contained betel leaf and lime. I had never really enjoyed eating betel leaves before and the bitterness cut through the thick beef flavours. Surprising dish and one that I quite enjoyed.

The next dish was a chicken liver pate with potato chips. The potato chips here were gloriously fried, thick and crunchy and the perfect vehicle for the rich pate. It was slightly too salty again, as the pate itself was very rich and the chips were heavily salted. It could probably have done with less salt on the chips.

Another entree we shared was the chickpea dish with ricotta, curry butter, kombu and shisho. A nice light dish, but honestly not that memorable and you can probably skip ordering this one unless you are looking for some vegan options for the meal.

For mains we chose the octopus with potato, red pepper, brown butter and capers. This was the star of the meal and hence why it deserves to be a larger image on its own. Deliciously charred octopus that was perfectly cooked and tenders, the capsicum and butter sauce was light and not too overwhelming and the brown butter and capers all balanced out perfectly. A must order dish for sure!

Having six people meant we had the luxury of ordering two more main dishes. The bavette steak with burnt garlic and egg yolk sauce was nice but nothing special to write home about. Nicely cooked steak with a creamy sauce. I’ve had better steaks at other restaurants but a nice hearty main if you enjoy red meat.

The final dish was a blood pancake with an egg, onions and pork jowl. A really interesting dish, but the sweet taste actually threw me. Knowing it was a blood pancake and having it served with onions made me think it would be a mostly savoury dish but the consistency was very pancake like and quite sweet. Not really my favourite dish but mainly because I don’t have a sweet tooth, it reminded me of a breakfast/brunch dish.

Melissa: 3/5 interesting dishes but some misses on the menu. The delicious octopus and scallop dishes are worth a try on its own (and saved the rating)

Overall a nice restaurant and really relaxed and casual atmosphere, perfect for a weekend lunch. Some really interesting dishes, including the delicious octopus dish and the really light and refreshing raw scallops. Aside from that nothing stood out as much to me but definitely some of the flavour pairings and textures were unique and not something you’d see at your run of the mill modern Australian restaurant.

A great place for a casual weekend lunch in Newtown if you are looking for a nicer place to eat. The drinks we ordered were lovely as well: non-alcoholic wines and spritzes. It’s actually quite nice to see more non-alcoholic drinks making it to the menus of bars and restaurants in Sydney!