Surry Hills fine diner Khanaa is latest restaurant to close its doors
Another Sydney restaurant has been forced to close its doors due to tough trading conditions.
Surry Hills fine diner Khanaa is the latest to shut, in what is now a long line of restaurants and hospitality venues that have been hit too hard by interest rates rises and expense blowouts.
While owner and chef Opel Khan is hopeful of keeping the site, he has announced final service for now.
However, Khan is set to open the affordable French eatery Bistronomie, with mains under $30. A second Bistronomie will open in Khan’s former chef hatted Metisse location in Potts Point. Metisse closed last year.
It’s that ability to improvise that will save businesses.
Passeggiata owner Nigel Ward read the writing on the wall early and reacted swiftly when he saw his restaurant’s numbers begin to dwindle.
“We only had six people in the restaurant on the second last Tuesday of November, [so] we introduced $30 pasta and a glass of wine on Tuesdays and had 64 customers on the second Tuesday of December,” Ward says.
“I don’t like the word pivot, it reminds me of COVID. I prefer ‘adjusted’,” he told Good Food.
Ward also inplemented a BYO night on Wednesdays, an kids’ menu, and will soon add Italian regional dinners to the line-up.
“It’s important to note that not everything has succeeded,” he says. “The bottomless brunches didn’t really work.”
Ward also told Good Food that “function enquiries have tripled”.
Meanwhile South-East Asian restaurant Hey Chu on Castlereagh Street in the Sydney CBD, has introduced a cash-only menu.
The restaurant offers a 10 and under menu from 5–6pm, which includes $1 fried octopus balls, a $10 dry-aged beef burger, $3 crispy pork cannoli and a $10 cocktail (elderflower, strawberry, vodka and lemon).
“We’re looking for fun and edgy ways to get people through the door and keep cash flow alive,” owner Cuong Nguyen said.
Other initiatives include opening earlier, which Pazar Food Collective has done to great effect.
Owner Attila Yilmaz said customers who grab an early table (5pm) and exit by 7pm and pay with cash receive a 20 per cent discount.
The Charles Brasserie offers a $65 two-course lunch and diners can get a a wagyu burger, fries and a drink for $25 at the bar.
At café Morris you can get a sandwich made in collaboration with Fabbrica pasta bar, with prices starting at $10.
Jonathan Jackson, 29th April 2024
