Recent Reviews and Media Coverage:

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Sunday Telegraph, 20th May 2007

'. . .  this is the fare you're served in Sydney 's finest city restaurants, but it comes in the suburbs at an eatery that its many regulars are lucky to call their local.'

Gourmet Traveller

'It’s so warm and cosy here you’ll feel like you’re in the French countryside, not the inner-west.'

SMH, 'Good Living' by Simon Thomsen - 17th November 2006

    'For diners who love intelligent, detailed, adventurous French food combined with relaxed surrounds.'

‘The McGraths have created accessible fine dining at an affordable price… Perhaps this is the future of high-end French dining, which many perceive as too expensive and too stuffy. If you had to decide where your final repast would be, then Bistro Ortolan would serve a fitting elegy.”

Paul McGrath grew up in County Cork, Ireland and started his apprenticeship at Ballymaloe House where he developed his passion for the importance of premium, seasonal ingredients and their proper handling and preparation.  Here the meat was reared on the restaurant’s free range farm; the fruit and vegetables grown in it’s organic gardens; and the seafood sourced directly from nearby fishing boats. He went on to work in a variety of other Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe which allowed him to develop his classic technique.
He arrived in Australia in 1997, keen to experience ingredients and cooking styles not widely used in Europe. In Sydney he worked in a variety of kitchens, including Reds Restaurant, Lothars on Pymble Hill, Ampersand, and more recently, for exclusive catering companies where he personally cooked for the rich and famous, including Queen Elizabeth, the Sultan of Brunei, Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark.
Jenny McGrath grew up in Sydney and worked in many top restaurants, including Ampersand, Quay, Becasse, and Establishment.

Paul and Jenny met shortly after his arrival in Australia 12 years ago when they were both working at Reds Restaurant. Both are passionate about hospitality and together they have cultivated a distinct style which led them to open Bistro Ortolan in September 2006.
True to his origins, Chef Paul McGrath insists on top quality ingredients favouring those that are organic or bio-dynamic. Together Paul and Jenny present a memorable dining experience of contemporary French fare.