Chef Peter Morgan’s Rusty Pig is an inviting back-to-bricks dining room with a long bar made for eating and a firey wood-powered grill directly behind the bar and in full sight of customers. On it, Morgan cooks almost all of his small menu.
The scent of smoke, searing flesh and aromatic vegetables waft out into Oxford Street – as good a drawcard as it gets.
Vegetable dishes are heroes here. Pumpkin, honey, miso butter and goat’s curd has epic flavour: the umami power of the miso, the concentrated flavour of roasted pumpkin and the crunchy texture of pepitas.
Chicken with charred red pepper was as smokey as an Aussie bush fire. The chicken had a hard char and a juicy flesh. Morgan makes his own bread and his little loaf brushed with confit garlic and lamb fat is very toothsome.
The wine list is basic. Chef has kept the beverage offer to just a few whites and reds. Rusty Pig is a stand out. It is humble and exciting, confident and accomplished and simply, delicious.
