Howard Chen

3 weeks ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

“I could eat two or three serves of this,” someone at the neighbouring table blurts out. A generously layered beef shin lasagne gleaming with vodka sauce and Parmigiano is quickly disappearing from the plate. The handmade pasta is the work of chef-owner Nicholas Giannopoulos, who’s just opened Sippenham with his best mate Stephen Mandis. Giannopoulos is captaining his first kitchen, after a childhood watching his dad work at Luna Blu, a long-closed Tuscan 20-seater in the Italian Forum.

3 weeks ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

Punchy aromatics escape through the pyramid of banana leaves and paper, held together by a rubber band. Unfurling the parcel is akin to unwrapping a gift: the excited anticipation is almost too much. This is the joy of nasi bungkus, Indonesian wrapped rice that’s customised to your liking with curries and sambals.

3 weeks ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

Growing up as a 1.5-generation kid in Midwest America, pancakes were ubiquitous in my life. My family wasn’t particularly wealthy and pancakes were a way to make a dollar stretch. On the weekends, my mum would make danbing, a Taiwanese egg pancake that’s savoury and sweet, with a bouncy, chewy texture known as QQ. On family-holiday road trips, my dad always made sure we ate at the hot breakfast bar of our motel, which – you guessed it – had pancakes.

4 weeks ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

There are three inescapable truths to life in Sydney: train delays, yarns about property and queues for the hottest new opening. If you’re lucky, you can hit the trifecta in one day. We’ve seen lines snake for Lune’s expertly engineered croissants and Mensho Tokyo’s steaming bowls. The common denominator? The venues made a name for themselves elsewhere, then travelled it to Sydney. The latest to do so is Age 3, Japan’s “fried sandwich” store. And it opened to immediate (and two-hour) queues.

1 month ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

“You can get to anywhere in the world from Sydenham,” Stephen Mandis tells Broadsheet. “It’s the hub of the inner west: it connects the east of Sydney, it connects the south of Sydney, the station is there, the airport is five minutes away.”The affection Mandis and his lifelong friend Nicholas Giannopoulos have for what’s arguably an out-of-the-way suburb makes it the ideal location for their coming-soon venue: Sippenham, a 20-seat pasta and wine bar just 250 metres from Sydenham Station.