The Rocks popular Pony Dining has bolted across the Harbour Bridge to set up a stylish stable in Neutral Bay’s ever expanding Grosvener street dining strip.

A wall of clear and orange glass resembling a classic Mondrian painting spreads a warm glow over the awesome interior, the focus of which is an extraordinary ceiling installation created from more than five kilometres of undulating timber slats running the entire length of the main dining room, cocktail bar and lounge.

The atmosphere lends itself equally well to a casual drink or a fine meal and the menu, driven by executive chef Damian Heads’ passion for produce and provenance as opposed to trends, is superb.

The temptation of the main menu and its selection of premium seafood and meat prepared on a Brazilian designed wood-fired grill appealed, although Agenda instead opted to sample some of the eighteen elegant dishes on offer on the small plate menu.

Melt in the mouth slivers of lightly seared sirloin dressed in soy, lime, chilli and lemongrass and a pretty salad of tender pan seared calamari with rocket, white beans and chilli, lightly coated in a light saffron aoli had us hooked. But it was the breathtaking sashimi of yellow fin tuna cleverly hidden in a crispy spring roll and served with a green soy bean sauce that had us planning our swift return.

For a restaurant open only two weeks at the time of our writing, service was efficient and knowledgeable and, judging by the full house, this Pony is already proving as popular as its city sibling.

 

Location: 2/19-25 Grosvenor Street, Neutral Bay

Hours: Lunch Thursday – Sunday 12 to 3.00pm / Dinner Monday – Sunday 6pm until late.

Get me in: Phone 02 9904 3400 or visit PonyDining.com.au