Sixpenny, Sydney August 2025

Continuing with my Sydney trip, Sixpenny was an unforgettable meal easily top 2 meal from the trip. Situated in a quiet inner west area of Sydney, the restaurant is ran by Chefs Daniel and Tony. They feature a contemporary Australian cuisine tasting menu incorporating local produce at its core. Koji fermentation manages to find its way into pretty much all the dishes and the non alcoholic beverages they serve.

I couldn’t see solo diner options when trying to reserve online but managed to book a spot after emailing them. Arriving soon after they opened for lunch, I entered a cozy and inviting dining room. The restaurant filled up slowly and after about an hour it was full and abuzz with chatter. The staff were all very welcoming and accomodating, there were a few tables with dietary restrictions and the dishes prepared for each guest were usually completely different rather than having substitutions. The chefs would often serve the dishes as well giving us a chance to interact with them more.

Dishes served in the tasting menu:
Snacks

1. Baby cucumber with sunflower seed miso lime butter and chardonnay herb – quick simple and fresh bite to start the meal.

2. Aged Blue mackerel tart with oyster emulsion. Mackerel dressed in cucumber and seasoned with horseradish and fermented chicken skin paste

3. Smoked silver lake eel on fermented rice pancake with pickled golden beetrot. The eel is combined with confit potatoes and onion miso cream – my surprise favourite snack, the many components come together to form a perfect bite.

4. Kangaroo taco with sweet potato miso and a little hot sauce – a complimentary snack from the kitchen, first time having kangaroo. Was very similar to beef with a bit of gamey flavour.

5. Sydney rock oyster

6. Cured silver trevally with avocado and fermented nashi pear. The loin is sliced finely and made into round discs and served on of a mixture of avacado, pumpkin seed paste, pear and mandarin oil – a lot going on the plate which i enjoyed greatly. Citrus notes of varying intensity in each bite and its great to mix up the portions of the fish and the base mixture.

Paired with a fermented carrot and liqourice juice.

1. A malt barley sourdogh, served with sourcream and sour paste – the sourdough uses recycled material from the day before.

2. Roasted quail liver with yuzu shoyu sweetcorn foam and burnt apple miso. Pickled radish and chopped taragon on too – Quail nicely cooked, the miso sauce is the star for me. I couldn’t get enough of the umami rice flavour with hints of sweet earthy notes.

Paired with apple and sorrel juice. Wasn’t a fan due to it also including a bit of fennel which I thought overpowered the other flavours.

1. Western australia marron with coral trout butter, served with muntries compressed in passionfruit, whey fermented carrots, pickled choko and spiced carrot puree – the marron is cooked in its shell before finished on the grill and it was perfectly cooked. The different accompaniments were all well thought out in its uses and it was hard to choose which one was best. My favourite dish overall

Paired with celery juice mixed with lemongrass and smoked coconut.

1. Milk bun glazed with porcini shoyu seasoned maple butter – couldn’t get enough of the butter!

2. Rangers valley wagyu beef rib cap with Jerusalem artichoke mushroom miso puree and wasbina leaves. The wagyu is slow cooked 30 hours before finished on the grill, and it just melted in my mouth. The beef trimmings is used to make the jus. The fermented puree was heavenly.

Paired with beetroot and blueberry kombucha

1. Mead vinegar custard with frozen raspberry and strawberry consommé – i love berries so this dessert was made for me, vinegar in the custard was subtle and well balanced with the mead.

Paired with virgin vermouth

1. Salted banana ice cream with coffee and hazelnut. Coconut and blacked banana jam is mixed in with coffee and finished with banana amazake coffee oil – a nice balance to the first dessert with its more bitter and sharp flavour. The coffee oil was a nice finishing touch for me.

Paired with barley koji kavass

1. Spiced pumpkin madeline with cream and honey

The use of koji fermentation is used efficiently and widely throughout the meal. Each bite was complex but delicious, Sixpenny delivered a unique dining experience which I’d love to visit again soon.