In a year of low-risk restaurant openings, Ashe reminds us we can have more

At his follow-up to King Clarence, Khanh Nguyen plays his greatest hits – Vegemite curry butter, chicken crackling noodles – plus fun new material, making it a two-hat hit.Good Food hatGood Food hat16/20Critics' PickAshe, SydneyModern Asian$$How much flavour is too much? What’s the upper limit for salt and acid and fat and fire? I came close to the answer underground recently at Ashe, but rather than crash through the ceiling, I walked away with my head spinning from some of the city’s most inspired cooking.Indomie-like noodles raked through housemade XO sauce with the acid pop of Geraldton wax, scattered with crackled chicken skin. A soft-set circle of silken hor mok with persistent curry heat, topped generously with crab meat, dotted with shredded makrut lime, coconut cream and finger lime and set to spoon and smear onto rice crackers and witlof. Chef Khanh Nguyen.Jennifer Soo Order the pâté en croûte with flavours of grilled pork banh mi, and it tugs at the intersection of French and Vietnamese cuisines, flipping a sandwich spun from colonialism back on itself until it resembles the finest French charcuterie, livers and all, right down to the Maggi-seasoning aspic and the mound of pickles on the side.Sound familiar? If you’re from Melbourne, it might: these dishes and more were conceived at Sunda and Aru, two headline restaurants opened by chef Khanh Nguyen determined to knit the chef’s South-East Asian and Australian identities together, to take the food of his heritage in new directions.Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.Sign upSince Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt (Bentley, Eleven Barrack) brought Nguyen back to Sydney in 2024, the chef has continued the work at King Clarence, but there it seems more fun, more frivolous, less occupied with the mission. A side quest, he’s called it.Ashe, dark and brooding below Angel Place, is Nguyen advancing the plot. Not only is he rolling out the greatest hits – here’s his Vegemite curry butter; there’s a papaya salad tangled with kangaroo jerky – he’s dropping more plates that come out swinging. Cuttlefish, say, that’s grilled hard and fast, given crunch with banana blossom, then splashed with ink, sauced with a sour orange curry bolstered with prawn stock and topped with Yamba pipis. Fried oxtail dumplings from the snacks section threaten to overwhelm the palate, especially when you’re encouraged to scoop smoked bone marrow onto the rendang-spiced filling, but the heat and acid of fermented chilli sauce brilliantly brings them back from the brink. For Savage and Hildebrandt, who opened Ashe and neighbouring bar Vespertine just as they were calling time on Bentley, it’s a rare instance of the pair handing the reins to someone else. But this is the arc here, a 20-year odyssey of once-scrappy underdogs maturing into elder statesmen, determined to conquer the CBD, to bring Bentley back better than ever. Maybe this is their side quest. Years ago, when I was cooking for them, you’d often see them jump from Monopole to Yellow to Bentley over the space of a single service. They still venue-hop, but Ashe is much more of a team game.Crispy rice salad.Jennifer SooIt’s Nguyen’s impossible cake – a bittersweet condensed-milk creme caramel and a coffee-wattleseed sponge that magically switch places as they bake – that’s selling out every service. And the exceptional seafood platter, although surely something of a collaboration, has his name all over it, from the oysters in coconut vinaigrette dotted with curry oil to the raw scallops bright with green nam jim and grounded with cured pork jowl. Order it. Hildebrandt has overseen the wine list, and it’s stacked with labels that can hold their own with Nguyen’s cooking – spellbinding aged riesling, more than two pages of chardonnay – but he’s content to let his somms deliver it, even if they could skip the part where they slide into the banquette alongside you.The cooking? There’s no faulting Nguyen’s ideas, but it can feel like every dish is trying to be a smash hit. On its own the dry-aged pork cutlet – marinated in curry paste, grilled, then fanned out over rhubarb-rosella jam – is a lead single. Likewise the crispy rice salad, which comes topped with a fillet of perch that’s broken up tableside then tossed together with about nine other fragrant elements. I’m sure it’s hard for waiters to recommend the plain rice (actually two rices) when there’s so much else to bat for, but a bowl on your table, plus a few quieter moments, would mean you’d really feel it when the beat drops.But then who’s complaining? This has been a year of low-risk concepts and consolidation. Ashe and Vespertine are here to remind us that we can have more, much more. Chartreuse slushies, crackling noodles and all.The low-down Atmosphere: Dark, lamp-lit ash tones with the odd flash of fire Go-to dishes: Shellfish plate ($72, serves two); chilled spanner crab “hor mok” ($32); pâté en croute with flavours of grilled pork banh mi ($36); creme caramel impossible cake ($28) Drinks: A list of power and personality to hold up to the party on the plate Cost: About $190 for two, excluding drinks This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazineGood Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.From our partners