Fat Ruperts249 Bondi Rd
Bondi, Sydney
Fat Ruperts is a young concern in more ways than one. It hasn't been around a long while and the staff all seem young as well - but they have a passion, energy and enthusiasm that clearly shows through in every aspect of their work.The place is small, only seating 60 people, and has a nice friendly feel to it. It's a bar and a restaurant all in one - depending on what you want it to be. The name is unique and memorable. Fat Rupert is not a person - its a dog. In fact it's their dog - who is known for his energy and love for life so the name is apt for this fun, lively place.
Sitting on a corner there's a long bar, inside seating and a few tables outside as well - so you can watch the world go by.
Choosing your food is hard here as everything sounds good, so we ended up having the Tasting Menu (as a lot of others around us did). We started with freshly house-made sourdough bread that arrived with some lovely Pepe Saya butter.
It was actually char-grilled cauliflower, hummus, cumin seeds, parsley and pecorino.
Cauliflower on its own can be a bit boring but this had tang, great flavour combinations and was simply "yum". The inclusion of hummus went extremely well with this dish and was a great addition.
Being a rum lover, Sean brought me a Bondi Zombie to try. It was nicely presented in a jar and had a lovely mix of different layers of colours inside.
It had a degree of showmanship with it as well as the passionfruit half floating on top was flambeed.
As it turned out Mlady stole it from me and finished most of it - the hide of her!!!
This brazen theft was probably due to me having a paired glass of 2012 Pinot Gris from Villa Wolf with the dish.
Sean is happy to pair wines or cocktails with your food and we simply sat back and trusted his judgement which turned out to be a great decision.
I'll almost always choose a cured salmon dish but fortunately this was already part of the Tasting Menu - heaven! The beetroot cured King salmon came with watercress, grilled leeks and plenty of dill labneh dolloped on top. It was colourful, vibrant and had great flavours. Again Mlady fought me for this one - and won!
It was paired with a tasty 2012 Margaret River Chardonnay from Roustabout.
You could smell the lovely honey, the slaw was rich and creamy and it was a generous serving. A truly tasty dish that we devoured. Most tables seemed to order this dish!
They were cutely served on a wooden board. They seemed small at first but this was deceptive as they actually turned out to be quite substantial.
We love our desserts and even though the choices here are designed for two to share we grabbed two - enough for four people! The brownie was moist and tasty with a light crust encasing an amazing soft chocolate filling. The vanilla bean ice cream was a great accompaniment. We also had the cheesecake of the day which was a strawberry cheesecake this day. It was soft and creamy and very tasty. We struggled to finish it all though - and a glass of Pedro Ximenez (liquid gold) made it even harder.
Fat Ruperts has a strong kitchen run by Eli Challenger - but we had the food of Iggy Challenger on our visit and it was delicious. The youthful passion of the whole place shines through - everyone works hard to make the customers experience as smooth as possible. Quality, freshness and combinations are real winners here. Owner Aaron Pearce can be justifiably proud of what he has put together at Fat Ruperts.
Sir and Mlady were guests of Fat Ruperts. Thanks to Aaron Pearce for inviting us. Special thanks to Sean, Iggy for his magical food and Tiffany and Sam for looking after us so well.
