South

Southern food. More often than not, the idea of it (hoppin' Johns, hush puppies, grits) is more appealing than the reality (glorified steak houses), but South is a restaurant that brings it on every level from pork ribs to crawfish. A little diner with red walls, strings of coloured light bulbs and a mural painted with a giant Tabasco bottle (not to mention the fake tin roof complete with stuffed opossums), it's about as close to Louisiana as you're going to get in Sydney

The food's great. Chef Leo V Brereton may be Brooklyn born, but he's spent a helluva lot of time in the south. It's a pity the floor staff aren't a little more charismatic. It's a shame, for instance, that they don't know where the local bottle-o is (the restaurant is currently BYO) or aren't more enthusiastic in general about serving customers.

Start with deep fried okra - these nubbly greens are about the size of your thumb and look a bit like a critter from Doctor Who. They serve them here deep-fried crisp and served with aioli. Okra is also an essential ingredient in a great gumbo, giving the dish a very interesting texture. Add to that a superb meaty stock, a handful of rice, chicken and Andouille sausage (garlicky pork sausage) and you have the entree of champions.
A lot of the food served here is of the one-course-only variety, meaning you could potentially get away with eating very well for not very much money unless you decide to hit the ribs, which, at $39 a serve, are not cheap. They are delicious, though. Slow-cooked and served with thick, sticky, smoky house-made barbecue sauce, the meat falls straight off the bone in sweet bites. If you don't want to commit to a whole rack, there are also mini-racks on offer (a half-serve) along with a half a serve of hot wings - spicy chicken wings, fried and served with celery sticks.   
The crowning glory is the pulled pork sandwich - there's a whole menu of sambos, actually - but this here is the pony to bet on. Your regular ol' hamburger bun is filled with striations of slow-cooked pork (to get this gear tender it takes hours and hours, so kudos to them for having it on the menu). Served with a big pickle and a mountain of fries plus coleslaw and barbecue sauce, it's sloppy, sticky, sandwichy heaven.      
If you're after any sides (you won't really need them as each meal is pretty self-sufficient) there's mac 'n' cheese, red beans and rice and yes, corn bread shaped into little corn cobs. Mercy me. For dessert the classics are all here: pumpkin pie with its phat nutmeg hit; sweet, rich, caramelly pecan pie; and fruit cobbler (a fruit pudding). You can have any of these served a la mode (that's with ice cream) but they all come with whipped cream anyway.
South isn't fine dining by any stretch but nor is it trying to be. They're serving great food in a cool room and if you can look past the lacklustre service you'll have an ace time. Get some soul into you.