Al Fresco Long Lunch

Presented by Surry Hills Creative Precinct and The Sydney Connection

Supported by City of Sydney

The best table in the restaurant isn’t in the restaurant it’s at Ward Park, Devonshire Street on a lazy summer’s afternoon. We're bringing dining to the park in one mammoth event celebrating all the diverse and tasty cuisine our hood has to offer.

Over the next month we will introduce you to the restaurants and bars who have created a diverse menu of dishes and matching beverages for you to dine on at Al Fresco Long Lunch.

SOUL Dining

Soul Dining is a contemporary Korean restaurant on Devonshire Street, which opened in December 2018. Set in a beautifully designed room with low lighting and plush blue velvet banquettes lining the walls.

Illa and Daero met decades ago back in South Korea. Illa’s background is in design, marketing and PR, Daero has worked as a chef for fifteen years.  While their shared heritage would suggest otherwise, Soul is their first Korean restaurant venture – and even now, the team shies away from any definitive cuisine label.

Daero has worked hard to produce a menu that in no way reflects what Australians typically know to be Korean cuisine (you won’t find Korean barbecue or fried chicken – at least not conventionally, anyway.) Soul is instead inspired by a culmination of countries and ways of eating.  

Traditional fermentation methods and ageing techniques are used for the house-made kimchi and soybean paste. Applied to a range of dishes from gnocchi to short rib, tartare to toasted sandwiches, Soul offers a rare exploration into contemporary Australian cuisine from the Korean perspective. 

Illa is behind the restaurant’s interior that, like the fare, is not what you might first expect. The walls are painted charcoal revealing patches of exposed brick and a sleek circular light installation rounds the ceiling.  

The dark tables and seating are rounded by a deep blue velvet lounge, elements which give the feel of a small bar – especially when paired with the well-crafted wine list. 

Tradition has been reworked for the contemporary plate at Soul, a welcome addition to the Devonshire strip. 

Al Fresco Menu

Curly Corn on the Cob (around (V) (GF)

Korean Pancakes

Galbi Rice Bowl - basically our BBQ Beef on rice with veges