Sahtein’s food is made to luxuriate over, but its dining room still lacks one thing

Back in the late 𝄒90s, I spent a few years working the overnight shift at Pancakes on the Rocks, turning and burning racks of ribs, flipping pancakes and deep-frying potato wedges.

To this day, I can’t hear the words “short stack, whipped butter and maple syrup” without immediately conjuring up the smell of a full ashtray (you could smoke in restaurants back then), the feel of splattery little oil burns on my forearms and the sound of Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time on repeat.

Despite the horrible hours and bad pay, I loved working in The Rocks. I still get excited to visit the area today, weaving down cobbled streets, through tunnels of Sydney-cut sandstone and hunkering down in all those cosy pubs. And so, whenever a new restaurant opens in the neighbourhood, I prick up my ears.

Which brings me to Sahtein, a new one from Hunter Street Hospitality, the ambitious group backed by Australia’s largest private credit manager, Metrics Credit Partners, and current keeper of Rockpool Bar & Grill’s flame. You can find it inside the Argyle Stores, the heritage-listed former customs house that holds other Hunter Street venues including El Camino Cantina and the recently relaunched Ananas.

Some readers might remember the huge, convict-hewn sandstone building as The Argyle – a mega bar and club of the mid-aughts. Back then, it felt pretty natural to see a bouncer out the front. The hospitality group has maintained that presence at the entrance, as a safety measure against underage drinking. Even so, it feels a little jarring.

Until February, the space was contemporary Australian restaurant, The Dining Room, which opened midway through 2025. At the time, Good Food Guide co-editor David Matthews described it as “peak luxury grill”. And now? Sahtein delivers a menu of Lebanese dishes that feel made to luxuriate over, in a huge, dramatic dining room of dim lighting, local Sydney sandstone and hand-hewn timber beams. Matthews also described the space as “so cavernous that it struggles for energy”. It’s an issue, unfortunately, they haven’t been able to remedy.

It’s definitely a 180 in terms of restaurant direction, though. Because of the nature of the menu – many of the dishes are designed to sit on the table for the duration of the meal – you can just take your time with it. A very cool thing in the age of the two-hour turnaround.

When it comes to Lebanese representation on Sydney wine lists, Sahtein does better than most. I count eight wines in a generally exhaustive and impressive list. There’s also Lebanese beer, and a list of Lebanese-inspired cocktails such as the Leaf Whisperer – fig leaf-infused gin, a lick of riesling, bergamot, and verjus. Or order an arak – the anise-y Mediterranean spirit is perfect to start with and finish on.

There are moments that are really sit-back-and-sigh delicious. Roasted eggplant dip is beautifully smoky, dotted with pomegranate jewels and a scattering of parsley. Sesame-crusted falafels are crunchy, dark and aromatic on the outside, bright green and fluffy on the inside. While we’re on the subject of flavoursome fried things, cauliflower florets have an almost tempura lightness to them, served on a thick roast cashew and red capsicum sauce.

There are moments that are really sit-back-and-sigh delicious.

If you’re keen to really fill the table, don’t miss the thick slices of halloumi served with fresh fig quarters. Roast chicken with garlic sauce and hot honey is a juicy, moreish highlight. Lamb kofta is well-seasoned, but spends a little too much time on the grill – nothing that a serve of vibrant, fresh, peppery tabouli and some house-baked pita bread can’t save. Unfortunately, a fattoush is dressed with so much acid, the crispbread, tomato and cucumber salad is difficult to eat.

A dish of warm buttered chickpeas reads well on paper, but the reality is somehow both chalky in texture and sour in flavour. Perhaps the biggest shame is a $65 250g fillet of snapper that’s so thoroughly cooked, it lands on the table with the skin curling in on itself. It goes back to the kitchen unfinished.

Dessert is a win on both visits. Super-firm nublets of nougat are perfect with a Lebanese coffee. Or there’s a pretty dessert of rose-flavoured clotted cream injected into honeyed kataifi pastry scattered with slivers of pistachio and dried rose petals.

There are definitely good things here. Floor staff are incredibly friendly and well-meaning, even if they do give the table a little too much space at times. And hey, the dishes that work really work. But there’s no escaping the exposed feeling of that dining room, which even when half-full still feels empty.

There’s heart at Sahtein, for sure. But the restaurant lacks that unmistakable Rocks soul.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.