1912 Dining Bar

Note! This place is currently (as of 19−4−15) shut for renovations. It will reopen some time soon, not sure exactly when.

WOW!!! What can I say! Outstanding!
Again, excellent food and wine, very friendly & attentive staff.
Worth every star!
An excellent evening, thank you.

As part of my ongoing mission to try every place that pops up in my Unilocal feed with a 5 star review (within a reasonable distance), I found myself eagerly putting forth a suggestion of 1912 Dining Bar for a Wednesday catch up dinner.
I had seen Barry’s review, and conducted some research of my own. From what I gather, this place is new-​ish and not very well known, but those who have been there seem to love it. I suspect quite a few of the reviews I saw were posted by an owner/​manager/​affiliate, but there were some genuine reviews and some raving blog posts.
I walked down the steps and was quite impressed by the décor and lay out. One side of the stairwell is lined with fake vines leading to a large open dining area with good sized booths on one side and plenty of tables in the middle. My immediate thought was that someone had put a lot of time and thought into this place. And it shows. The bar it self is lit beautifully with some funky bar stools for seating and a few high bar tables. I was surprised to hear live music as I entered, as I had thought they saved that for Friday and Saturday nights. Music is jazzy, singer had a beautiful voice and was friendly and interactive (she thanked us when we clapped after one song).
There was a bit of confusion over beverages, mostly caused by my beer snobbery (I’ll have a Peroni, but only if it’s imported. The Aus stuff isn’t nearly as good. Yes, there’s a difference, and it’s a big one.) (1912 has the real thing if you’re wondering.)
The menu is Japanese fusion with tons of variety and reasonable prices. We had some spring rolls to start, which were served with a chili mayo sauce. I probably would have preferred a liquid dipping sauce, but that’s a personal preference. They were good either way.
For mains we enjoyed the Pork Tonkatsu (a very generous serve of 2 fillets and some cabbage slaw with a peanut-​sesame dressing for $ 21). The pork was nicely fried and juicy and I can’t fault the sauce. The dressing reminded me of one I used to buy in Canada that I can’t find here, but is absolutely delicious. The Wafu Salmon Fillet ($ 25) was also wonderful and cooked to perfection (I can’t stand dry over cooked fish). The Pork Belly was good, but a bit oily for my liking. Obviously it’s a fatty cut of meat, but it felt as if they had drizzled olive oil over the top of the pork. The korokke sides were beautiful. On the server’s suggestion we shared two sides. Both the green salad and the baby potato at $ 5/​each were delicious (although probably not necessary — the size of the mains would have been adequate).
Service was friendly and professional but a bit inconsistent. On one hand, the servers were eager to take away my plate after I finished my main — to the point where they offered to bring me a clean, smaller, plate if I wanted to continue picking at the sides; but on the other hand, when the drink order for the 2 new arrivals was taken, the first person wasn’t offered another round despite having finished their first, and I don’t think we would have received a second round if we hadn’t requested it during a plate-​clearing.
Sadly as one of our party had to leave pretty quickly I didn’t get to try the Spicy Ice Cream dessert (homemade chilli and wasabi flavoured ice cream for $ 8), but I have no problem heading back another time to give it a try. Hopefully more people discover this place as I really want it to succeed. It’s a perfect spot for a relaxing night out, and the food was delicious and a great value.

Cool décor, very interesting venue (mix between a restaurant and bar), great live music, great drinks and exceptional service (the friendly staff are very attentive for a bar type venue — I’ve never seen anything like this before in Sydney so its unique in a way).