Grana is an Italian-inspired all-day dining venue in the Hinchcliff House, an old heritage-listed sandstone building, formerly a wool store, in Sydney’s Circular Quay.

Grana, Italian for grain, is apt name for the store since the flour is milled on-site and it features a bakery by day with croissants and breads (or ala carte too) and the main menu hosts a range of breads and pastas.

The venue’s is expansive and it is beautiful, with its restored sandstone walls and wooden floors. There’s long bench tops, bar tables and plenty of smaller tables for a more intimate setting. It is bright and open with plenty of fruit and plants as decorative features.

The menu is organised under bread and dairy, pasta, seafood, meat, market (vegetables and salads) and desserts.

The bread and dairy section features plenty of cheeses and breads, we opted for a few slices of the house made sourdough with heritage grains from Gunnedah and served with a creamy macadamia butter. The foccacia looked amazing too.

For pastas, the seaweed gigli with Moreton bay bug and arrabbiata sauce, was topped with Sicilian furikake. This is kelp infused pasta dough made into cone shaped bell flowers. Whilst the pasta was nice, there was not much of the bug and we felt the tomato based sauce needed a bit more depth of flavour since it was a bit of a watery tomato consistency.

The Capelli, angel hair” egg dough with, anchovy, lemon, 24 chilli and pangrattato was a lovely Pasta, presented beautifully. We’re not sure of how the anchovy was in it though, as you couldn’t see them, nor taste them.

The Market fish was excellent. On our day of visit it was a blue eyed trevalla with salmoriglio, resting on black barley and greens.

There are so many great options from tartare, chargrilled chicken, lamb, pippies, oysters and more. The polenta as a side dish is one we also highly recommend.

We enjoyed our visit, though quite disappointed that we booked for 7:30, yet the table was not ready. We were advised to wait in their attached bar downstairs, since the top one was full and the waitress would come and get us. After buying two drinks, by 8pm we asked how things were progressing as we hadn’t been informed. The table before still hadn’t left. We finally were seated by about 8:20. With no apology, it was a bit frustrating, especially on a late dining booking.

The food here is great and ambience is lovely, though maybe wait until the crowds die down.

Grana
Ground Floor, 5–7 Young Street, Sydney
(02) 7228 1400
Hours
Mon to Sat 6.30am–11pm
grana.sydney