Telephone: (02) 9130 7101 - bookings recommended
Trading hours:
Open 7 nights - 6pm dinner
12pm lunch Sundays only
Website: http://www.hurricanesgrill.com.au/
Note: There is also another branch in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Please see website for details.
Hurricanes is arguably the best place in Sydney for BBQ pork ribs. I'm personally not too impressed with the dim lighting where you can't see your dinner date clearly, or your food in all its glory, but the taste definitely makes up for that.
I do forewarn that the food takes between 30-60 minutes preparation and cooking time - if you get bored enough you can walk up and watch them smoke up some dishes in the windowed cooking area.
Bookings are essential to avoid disappointment (but even when you book you could be asked to wait "at the bar" for a couple of minutes) as I rarely see this restaurant with no queues on any given night.
Upon ordering, the first thing served is a complementary fresh, crusty bread roll, served on a wooden board and all (I'm sold by gimmicks).
Below: by the time I took this photo, my eating buddies had already taken a rib out of this plate. These are the BBQ pork ribs - a half rack serve (which is already huge). Their secret, I believe, lies in their smokey BBQ rib sauce... finger lickin'!
Below: Garlic beef burger, served with baked potato/chives/cream. The waiter actually asked us how we wanted the patty cooked - yes I didn't believe minced beef patties could be cooked differently but they can! We ordered medium which was a safe bet. And low and behold - it came out medium! You can be suprised how wrong some restaurants can get "medium" - but this came out dry and brown (no blood) enough to be medium and slightly pink in the middle without giving us food poisining. Garlic sauce is served on the side (so you can control how many packets of gum you will have to chew after the meal, hehe) with the salad and the bun-top. Filling & tasty!
Other noteables:Peri Peri Chicken - This was actually my favourite dish of the night. I am not a big red meat eater, I tend to feel sick and it doesn't motivate me at all because its often too chunky for my liking. So we ordered a half of this Peri-Peri Chicken (you can order half or a full chicken). I expected a barbeque chicken with Nandos-esque peri-peri sauce to come out - boy was I wrong - and glad to be! Hurricanes have definitely formulated their own take on peri-peri and I have never been happier to be proved wrong. The sauce was a delightful combination between chilli and barbeque - it held the same "hurricanes rib sauce" feel to it. Chicken could have been slightly more tender, but the sauce is pretty good that it does the job perfectly.
Some of my friends have complained about the service of this place - truth be told most of the waiters are probably backpackers from around the globe trying to make ends meet - but don't go in there expecting star-class treatment. The expected waiting time for food is printed on the menu, so if you read this before you go, don't go after not having eaten for 10 hours because there's not much they can do to make the food come out faster (unless its a salad or something).
Located in a prime location (right off Bondi Beach and cafe strip), it's a great destination for meat lovers, tourist friends and a heart dinner.
Hurricanes' success has led to an offshoot to their original business - the
HURRICANE’S EXPRESS TAKE-AWAY - BONDI BEACH. I've never personally been there, but it's located right next to the restaurant at Bondi Beach and looks like it's open at all hours if you are in need of a rib-fix. Not such a bad idea!
