Hurricane’s Bar & Grill Bondi Beach

Hurricane’s Bar & Grill Bondi Beach

Shop 8, 164 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach, NSW

I cannot stop waxing lyrical about the amazing meat available in Australia. In particular, the ribs here are a world apart from any serratus anterior - porcine or bovine - ever to enter my mouth. My first post as a medical student here will likely disappoint cardiologists but Hurricane’s is home to my personal rib apotheosis and probably the first place I’d bring anyone who comes for a visit. Documented below is an amalgamation of two feasts I’ve had there, one dine-in and one from the adjacent take-way stand.

Only available if you dine in is the Herbed Roll ($4.50) and it alone justifies braving the meandering queue and forking out the service charge. The crunch of the crust as I tore the oven-warm loaf apart seemed composed specifically to make my mouth water and taste buds tingle in sweet anticipation. Next, the smell hit like a knockout punch, a divine combination of thyme and basil doing pirouettes around the base elements of yeast and butter. Finally, placing it in my mouth elicited a shiver of ecstacy at the gorgeous mouthfeel of crunchy crust and pillow-soft interior combined with a robust herbiness and olive oil richness.

Now, a visit to Hurricane’s is – by definition – only complete after a Full Rack of Hurricane’s Pork Ribs ($36 dine-in or $29.50 take-away). The meat set the standard for balancing fall-off–the-bone-tender with sink-your-teeth-in meaty bite for that perfect rib texture. However, the magic was in the basting fluid imbuing the meat with a smoky perfume and rich, caramelised sweetness balanced with a hint of tartness that couched the porcine meatiness beautifully.

Against the gastronomical epiphany I just mentioned, the Full Rack of Hurricane’s Beef Ribs ($29.50 take-away) was no contender. On its own, the beef might have been pretty good but next to the pork it came across as chewy, tough and difficult to eat. The bones popped right out of their meaty sheath to leave you with a huge, steaming, man-sized hunk of cow that even plastic cutlery stood no chance against. That – to me – detracted from the quintessential experience of tearing meat off the bone with your teeth.

You have to get Chips ($3 take-away) to go with your ribs as these lightly salted, thick-cut fries are absolutely perfect to soak up all the delicious drippings. The mealy potato magically absorbs all that meaty character when swirled around vigorously and emerging covered in a sticky, glistening coat of pork juice.

If – for some inexplicable reason - you don’t want to get your hands messy, the Hurricane’s Beef Burger ($13 take-away) is a good bet. The massive patty weighs in at a quarter-kilogram of solid chuck beef and literally dwarfs the bun, not something you see everyday. It was remarkably moist for such a huge amount of meat and was probably grilled slowly under low heat - by grilling standards anyway - as it was evenly medium despite the considerable thickness.