Cancel that Greek island resort holiday; come to this new waterfront restaurant instead

Previous SlideNext Slide

There’s nothing quite like lounging around on a Greek island, staring out to sea and occasionally ordering more pita bread. With the brain on island time, the only important thing in life is whether to order another glass of assyrtiko.

Somehow, a very big Greek restaurant has magically appeared in a Novotel hotel in Brighton-Le-Sands, destined to sweep you away to whichever Greek island has stolen your heart – Mykonos, Paros, Rhodes or Santorini.

By day, Ammos overlooks Norfolk Island pines framing the blue waters of Botany Bay. The restaurant and its broad terrace are bordered by an azure swimming pool and rows of poolside cabanas, ready for summer.

Come nightfall, the focus is on the warmth of the open kitchen and flames of the open grill; the marble display of shellfish, whole fish and lemons; the ouzo trolley; and the chalk-white Greek cheeses, seemingly cut from the Doric columns of the Parthenon.

It’s the food so many of us grew up loving – pita bread and house-made dips, grilled octopus, kakavia (fisherman’s soup), and lamb.

And the dealmaker? Peter Conistis is in the kitchen, looking as if he has just come home. Peter Conistis! Since opening Cosmos in Darlinghurst in 1993, he has explored every aspect of Greek regional and contemporary cuisine – at Eleni’s (1997), Omega (2004), Alpha (2013) and Ploos (2022) – restlessly pushing to be more creative, to make his mark.

But Ammos is personal. His mother Eleni (85, and still going strong) said, “Why don’t you just showcase the food you have grown up loving?” And so he has.

Luckily, it’s the food so many of us grew up loving, too – pita bread and house-made dips, grilled octopus, kakavia (fisherman’s soup), and lamb. So much lamb. There’s a dedicated menu of five different lamb dishes, including a spectacular pot-roasted Margra lamb neck “with moussaka flavours” ($90).

Joined by astute venue manager Kosta Lambroglou and award-winning sommelier John Clancy, Conistis is in his element, with long-term head chef James Roberts tending the Josper ovens and grills.

The room is a Greek island moodboard, brought to life by Paul Papadopoulos from DS17 Creative Agency, with straw baskets and water vessels in tones of stone and bone, playing off potted olive trees and woven lampshades.

A meal here soon turns into a feast, with recurring themes of rigani, feta, seafood, lamb and lemon. A tumble of dusky gavros ($16) – plump, deep-fried Greek anchovies served with ouzo mayonnaise for swiping. Spanakopita ($28) of leeks, greens and feta, baked in a cast-iron pan with a scrunchy filo top browned in the oven. An icy Fix lager ($14). A lively 2023 Papagiannakos assyrtiko ($19).

Yemistes ($26), little stuffed vegetables baked in a tomato-y sauce that tastes of ancient times. Gorgeous whipped feta ($14) and pita bread ($8). Rustic horiatiki salad anchored by a slab of feta ($24).

King George whiting ($42) comes whole, split and deboned, simply cooked on the wood grill and finished with Greek olive oil and rigani (Greek oregano), and served on fried vine leaves. A giant lamb tomahawk ($56) is thick and meaty, with celeriac skordalia and more rigani, more lemon.

Crowning glory is the shellfish saganaki ($36), a cast-iron pan filled with large Kinkawooka mussels, diamond shell clams and Goolwa pipis rising from a bed of swollen kritharaki pasta, wads of baby spinach in a sauce of tomatoes, leeks, saffron and ouzo. Once the shells open in the heat of the wood-fired oven, ouzo cream and sheep-milk feta are added. I can’t get enough of it.

Desserts are pretty; the lightest being a raspberry tart ($20) freshly filled with fruit, honey yoghurt, jubes of loukoumi, and a fabulous strawberry ice-cream.

This is the first restaurant of several to open in this revitalised hotel precinct, including a more casual taverna-style venue from Conistis. By summer, Ammos will become the place to be. A celebration of Australia’s migrant story, of Greek cuisine, of fire and islands and shellfish, and of one of our more enduring chefs, it brings joy.