The Fenwick

The Fenwick stands on Weston Street at Balmain East, with the water immediately in front of it. The building went up in the 1880s as a boat store for J. Fenwick & Co, and the sandstone and timber beams came through the conversion intact. From the tables the harbour opens west to Barangaroo and north to the bridge, and the East Balmain ferries dock near enough to watch them come and go through lunch.

The kitchen works four services. Breakfast is Saturday and Sunday only, between 8 and 10, taken as walk-ins with no bookings. Lunch runs every day from midday until 3. Dinner is on seven nights, at 5.30 from Monday through Thursday and at 6 for the rest of the week, with the Sunday service finishing at 8 rather than 9. Takeaway is available from 8 in the morning until midday on weekdays, and until 4 on Saturday and Sunday.

Upstairs, The Fenwick Gallery changes its exhibition through the year, so a table downstairs comes with whatever is on the walls that month. The gallery seats 50, or holds 60 standing, and can be booked on its own for an event. Parties of 11 to 20 sit down to a shared banquet, at either of two levels. Street parking around here is scarce enough that most people arrive on the ferry, which docks a few steps from the door.