Asian fusion, coffee and cocktails – what more could you want?
Seamstress is a gorgeous four level venue housed in a former textile factory.
The street level houses the Drystore Espresso weekday-only cafe with a handful seats and sandwiches, catering for the corporate crowd.
Down in the basement is the Sweatshop bar. Almost a polar opposite of the top level cocktail bar, it has the vibe of a classic “dirty but nice” basement bar.
The first level houses the restaurant dining space and is in the style of a long dining hall filled with scattered tables.
Finally, the second level is home to the cocktail bar. The more elegant level of the four, it has a mixture of coffee table-style seating and booths accompanied by leather armchairs and floor lamps.
The building’s previous use is maintained throughout the levels with clothing and tapestry hanging from the ceiling and sewing machines built into some of the tables. Dimmed lighting, exposed brickwork, unstained timber and chipboard furnishings add an element of what could be described as grungy intimacy.
On this particular visit, the restaurant was fully booked but I was able to be seated at one end of the cocktail bar upstairs. The food menu is mixture of bar snacks, à la carte sharing plates and set banquets. The sharing plates are all available in three sizes, cater for varying party sizes, and is a creative mix of pan-Asian cuisine. Scallops, soft shell crab, duck, salmon, tofu red curry, wagyu – there’s a dish for everyone. The kitchen prides itself on being vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and allergy friendly. The banquets comes in two choices and two sizes, 8 and 10 courses, and are a selection of the à la carte dishes.
I went all out and ordered one of the 10 course banquets, for one. Seamstress’s banquets are known to be huge and a bit of a challenge of sorts and the staff were a bit surprised when a solo person ordered one. Designed around sharing, the 10 courses are divided up into blocks of 2 or 3 dishes served at a time.
The first set of dishes were Maple seared scallops with smoked rainbow trout, crispy shallots, apple salad and spicy nam jim dressing and Snake bean and golden sweet potato wontons with green pea purée. Tender, perfectly cooked scallops with a nice sweet and spicy accompanying salad. The wontons were also well cooked and full of flavour.
These are two of the most popular dishes and are highly recommended to order when dining à la carte.
These were followed by Crispy soft shell crab with apple and celeriac slaw and sriracha mayonnaise, Spice-rubbed Atlantic salmon with Thai pepper sauce, black rice and pineapple and sambal salsa and Roquette and broccolini salad with pickled ginger and tofu and tahini dressing. Another excellent selection of dishes with a tropical and spice theme, although the salad felt a little out of place.
The final sets of savoury dishes was the Housemade red curry with kataifi-wrapped tofu, winter mushrooms, baby corn, Thai eggplant and bok choi, Honey soy braised wagyu shin with parsnip puree, crumbed cauliflower and vanilla caper salad and Caramelised eggplant with red miso and silken tofu sauce, crispy spice-crusted firm tofu and toasted sesame seeds. This is the point where the quantity of food started to feel a little overwhelming, but I pushed through. There is a bit of a tofu trend throughout the dishes and I’m not the greatest fan but still enjoyed it. The eggplant dish didn’t seem to fit with this combination of dishes and could possibly have been served earlier on.
Finally, there was not one but two dessert dishes, each served separately. There was the Lychee, plum wine sponge, raspberry coulis, popcorn sesame cream and yuzu curd and the Puffed rice coated banana fritters with dips of coconut anglaise, chocolate rum ganache and hazelnut praline. Two equally well presented dishes that were a perfect conclusion to a mammoth dining experience.
After completing dinner, I enjoyed a few cocktails which the friendly bar staff made based on my desired tastes. Service throughout the night was excellent with staff explaining components of dishes as they came out and the bar staff providing welcomed banter.
Seamstress is an intimate yet bustling venue that caters for any occasion with coffee, drinks and food on offer and is well deserving of its previously awarded titles of Cocktail Bar of the Year and Best Restaurant Bar.