There’s an exuberant air at Granger & Co in Kings Cross. They don’t take reservations, so people queue expectantly amid the buzz of the square, which makes the wait easier. The shape of the place is striking. Loosely based on an Italian railway station bar, it is beautifully set up with long glass walls, outer rim tables and comfortable bar stools. It feels light, airy and spacious, even though it’s really just a single big room.
Granger & Co looks toward Australia for its heart. This is Oz through and through – sunny, breezy, amiable, relaxed. Bill Granger himself is known as a man who offers up a really good brunch, but clearly he does a great dinner, too. Unfussy, tasty and imaginative, with the kind of trendy menu one expects from 21st-century metropolitan food – small dishes, grains, barbecue, raw, mixed ‘n’ matched.
The food is light but just enough, inventive without being experimental, unpretentious and matey, with a contemporary panache. I loved the tuna poke, whipped avocado, tofu & chia cracker – it’s his best dish in terms of flavours, combination, and freshness. My friend also loved the burrata with crushed tomatoes, miso aubergine and tofu.
We washed it all down with a good white wine, adequate but not high-end. Bill Granger has brought a kind of Aussie-style sunshine to King’s Cross. His dishes are well thought out, and they work. We went to relax and have fun, which is precisely what you can do at Granger, while eating well at the same time.
Young, trendy foodies have realised this and fill it every night. As we left, the dancing fountains in the square had been lit up and we laughed with that warm glee that comes at the end of a good night.