Bel and Brio in Barangaroo, Sydney: Restaurant, bar or meals to go?

Bel and Brio in Barangaroo, Sydney: Restaurant, bar or meals to go?

Bel and Brio in Barangaroo, Sydney is a restaurant, bar, cellar door, takeaway and food market in one. It’s big, ambitious and offers something different.

To call Bel and Brio a restaurant would be underselling it. This food emporium in Barangaroo, Sydney, is much more ambitious than that.

Corso Brio at Bel and Brio

The restaurant section of Bel and Brio is called Corso Brio, and the menu is unashamedly Italian. But the appeal is in the detail. The tagliatelle comes with venison ragu, Sardinian pecorino and coffee dust, for example.

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Main courses cost between $42 and $59, with options including grilled Abrolhos octopus and slow roasted lamb shoulder with fig vincotto jus.

One key twist is that much of the produce is grown on Bel and Brio’s own farm on the Central Coast. There’s a fair amount of flannel about sustainable farming and being eco-friendly, but at least some of it has a basis in fact.

The bigger, buzzier bar and dining area is a more relaxed affair, with a focus on pasta and pizza. The pizza bases have won plenty of high praise.

Bel and Brio Cellar and Marketplace

Bel and Brio isn’t quite a food hall, more a food emporium with several strings to the bow. One section is a coffee shop, opening early in the morning for those on their way to work. The Cellar, meanwhile, is devoted to wine. It’s both a cellar door and a wine bar, with tastings held regularly and an enormous, curated wine selection.

Perhaps the most interesting section of Bel and Brio, however, is the marketplace. This is ostensibly a posh food shop, selling pantry staples, speciality foods and fresh produce. But it also sells fresh breads, and cooked meals to go. Sure beats a supermarket meal deal sandwich and crisps…

Fresh flowers outside Bel and Brio in Barangaroo, Sydney
Fresh flowers outside Bel and Brio in Barangaroo, Sydney. Photo courtesy of Destination NSW.

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