More than two years after opening, Surry Hills’ White Horse is looking different to the restaurant that first opened on Crown Street.
Having been with the team since day one – initially as the head chef and now as the executive chef – Jun Hwang has brought more of his Korean heritage into the food, while retaining the French techniques that have been a part of the restaurant from the beginning.
The result is a menu that features offerings such as W.A. rock lobster stuffed pappardelle, which sits somewhere between pasta and a dumpling. The lobster is inside the pasta, and the dish features a savoury miso broth made with brown fish stock, daikon, kombu and white soy, finished with lobster bisque foam and prawn oil.
Hwang says the broth takes him back to growing up in Korea, where food trucks outside school sold tteokbokki and fish cakes in a savoury broth.
“I used to drink litres of it,” says Hwang.
“That broth has always stuck with me. This is obviously a very different dish, but that memory is in there.”
Hwang says he still likes to cook with the French techniques he learnt early in his career, but the flavours have become much more personal.
“We’re not trying to be a modern Asian restaurant. The foundation of the cooking is still French, but I naturally draw on the Korean food and flavours I grew up with, as well as some South-East Asian influences,” he says.
“Ultimately, I want the technique to be there without getting in the way of food that’s comforting, full of flavour and makes you want another bite.”
On the menu, guests will find highlights such as a seafood pie, with mussels, scallop, prawn, potato, and leek, beneath puff pastry, which is rounded out with dashi and kombu. There’s also a chive pancake that riffs on Korean jeon, topped with taramasalata, trout roe, pickled chilli, and onion; and roasted chicken skin that becomes a shell for spanner crab and cider gel.
Meanwhile, the wagyu tartare is not paired with the usual Dijon, capers, and cornichons – these are replaced with soy, sesame, and shiitake before sitting the beef over a bonito and horseradish custard with crisp potato.
General Manager Maureen Er has also been with the restaurant since opening and says they know who they are now.
“The standards around service have always been high and that hasn’t changed, but there’s much more confidence in how we want White Horse to feel,” says Er.
“Jun has been part of the kitchen from the beginning, and over the past year he’s really made the food his own.
“He’s built on the technical foundations that were there from day one, but brought much more of himself to the menu, and that’s given White Horse a culinary identity that feels very clear now.”
For dessert, the menu features a Pink Lady apple tarte tatin with soybean paste, doenjang folded into the caramel, and whipped vanilla cream. The Adelaide Hills brie ice cream, which has been on the menu since the beginning, is currently served with strawberries and pistachio.
From Friday to Sunday, a six-dish menu for $55 is available, including a black truffle choux; chive pancake with taramasalata and trout roe; lobster-stuffed pappardelle; Bannockburn chicken with gochujang jus; XO fried rice; and brie ice cream. For dinner, an $88 shared menu features eight dishes, including kingfish with yuzu and white soy, duck leg cigar, and Bannockburn chicken.
The White Horse restaurant is open Tuesday to Thursday for dinner from 5.30pm, Friday and Saturday from 12 to 3pm and 5.30pm to 11pm, and Sunday from 12 to 9pm.
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Dining and Cooking