Good Food hat 15 / 20 How we score Seafood $$ $$ This is a bar, but it isn’t your ordinary, everyday bar, because this isn’t your ordinary, everyday pub. What was the Grand National became Saint Peter at the Grand National in August – home to the fish cookery of Josh Niland and newly awarded three hats in the 2025 Good Food Guide. In the next-door restaurant – luxe, comfortable, warmly serviced – it’s all about the seven-course set menu for $275 a jead.
Dish after dish is immaculate, precise and surprisingly classic until it sinks in that the meaty charcuterie, silken noodles and beefy wellington are all, in fact, fish – every part of the fish – and your mind is blown. But this is a bar, and nobody wants their minds blown in a bar. They want a deliciously cold and oily oyster shell martini ($25) while waiting for their restaurant booking, or they want to wander in off the street and see what all the fuss is about over a Resch’s and a cheeseburger ($25).
Never mind that the patty is made with aged yellowfin tuna and the bacon is cured swordfish belly; it’s still a cheeseburger. The corner bar frames eucalypts and Paddo renos through large windows, with rippled glass doors leading to a private dining room. Studio Aquilo worked with the Nilands to create the space and flow, with sought-after booths, high and low tables and paint-scumbled walls the texture of oyster shells.
Add a large bar of magnificently streaked marble and it feels like a seascape. Niland i.
