Foundry 616

3 Reviews on “Foundry 616”

• Gemma Lawton

  Foundry616 is a live music and entertainment venue in Ultimo on Harris Street. Ive been here a few times to see various artists perform and have always been impressed by the quality of performances. The club itself is a candle lit bar with a moody atmosphere. When a gig is happening the place can fill up very quickly but can hold a good sized audience. The bar has everything you need as well as snacks and decent sized meals if youre wanting something more substantial. Its so important to support venues like Foundry616 due to the diminishing live music scene in Sydney. Hopefully it can lead by example and encourage other clubs to welcome live groups and bands into their venues as well.

  December 13, 2020, 1:23 pm

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• Eric Tompson

  So fortunate to have something like this in Ultimo. Not only is it one of only a handful of its kind in Sydney, but the musical standard of the guest performers are indisputably high. Can only hope the positive reception paves the way for more entrepreneurial ventures of similar kind.

  April 30, 2020, 1:14 pm

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• Martin Newman

  Around the corner from Frank Gehry’s Chau Chak Wing ‘crumpled bag’ building is jazz club Foundry 616 in the elevated ground floor of a block on Harris Street.When you get there it doesn’t look open. The door, plastered with posters, is firmly shut, no noise emanating from within (they’re careful about not bothering the neighbours). So, aside from it saying ‘jazz’ club out front you don’t get much sense of the atmosphere. It just looks like an office building.Inside is a different matter. Once the band starts up it absolutely heaves with atmosphere. Darkly lit, with candles on the tables the mood is reminiscent of classic Soho jazz bar Ronnie Scott’s. It’s intimate and the acoustics are such that you can both hear the musicians clearly and still carry out a whispered conversation.I had dinner with a friend there on Thursday not expecting anything too fabulous food-wise from a place where the emphasis is on music and drinks. A glance at the menu too, suggested dishes designed to generally cover a range of tastes: beef cheeks, a curry, pizza, steak, chicken, fish of the day. The entrees looked more adventurous.But the dishes we had turned out to be not only very well cooked and conceived, but also admirably filling.We first ordered starters of albondigas – pork, beef and veal meatballs in a rich red wine, olive and tomato sauce – and baked prawns cured in lemon oil, herbs and garlic, and served with diced tomato and toast.The meatballs were dynamite, incredibly tasty with a beautiful savoury, slightly oily sauce and a much bigger serve than you’d expect from the usual entree. The cured prawns too were tasty and plentiful. For mains we ordered the chicken korma with jasmine rice and flat bread, served with coriander and almond flakes on top, and pan-fried chicken, stuffed with pumpkin, sage and feta. The stuffed chicken didn’t feel too rich or creamy and was really complimented by the pumpkin and feta. It came served with pieces of roasted pumpkin, chat potato, green beans and tomato confit, for a very filling meal.The tasty korma came served with a large flat bread that was a cross between a popadom and a paratha, chewy and full of flavour.We supplemented these with a bowl of big fat rustic chips with aioli. Perfectly deep fried, well cooked but soft and fluffy.We didn’t have dessert – we were stuffed – but from what we saw it looked pretty good, including an eye-popping Eton mess.Foundry 616 does lunch Thursday to Friday, otherwise it’s dinner from 6.30pm with music starting at 8.30pm. The mains are mostly just under $30, unless you’re eating pizza, and prebooking a ticket for dinner and the show to reserve a table is a good option and is not too expensive.On Thursday there was a good crowd in to see torch song singer Daina Demillo and the support act, who were real prosStaff also were friendly and attentive. I’d recommend this as a really good night out.

  November 28, 2015, 11:08 am

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