CBD restaurant Sunda: Where bookings are hot and the menu even better

Bookings are sambal-hot at this South-East Asian restaurant, which opened in March.

Two communal tables dominate the soaring space. There’s now a more intimate mezzanine level, but we sit at the bar and watch head chef Khanh Nguyen, who’s worked at some of Sydney’s best restaurants.

Every plate is a revelation, from one-bite Nyonya pie pastry shells to palm-sugar-sweetened mounds of brittle tempeh with shredded ginger flower.

Perfectly round Wagyu rendang buns are fiery with fermented sambal and springy XO egg noodles are mixed through with a sinful helping of chicken crackling.

Native ingredients like bush tomato appear on lemongrass-sambal octopus and Spanish mackerel with tangy concentrated asam-laksa broth.

Desserts are textural triumphs, especially bika ambon, a pulpous cake for banana-bread lovers. But the dish I’m still craving is an off-menu tumble of buttery roti with Vegemite curry dipping sauce, fragrant with kaffir lime.

• Sunda
• 18 Punch Lane
• 9654 8190
• sunda.com.au