What are the opening hours?

Monday 5pm - 8:30pm Tuesday 5pm - 8:30pm Wednesday 5am - 8:30pm Thursday 5pm - 8:30pm Friday 5pm - 8:30pm

http://bayswaterkitchenette.com/

Bayswater Kitchenette, Shop 1/51 Bayswater Road Rushcutters Bay, Sydney (2026)

19/09/2025

After running BK for 6 years, I thought I was ready for a longer break☺️… but it turns out, I miss cooking, connecting, and being part of this amazing community way too much. ❤️

So, I’m starting something new soon!🎉🎉🎉
It’s not another restaurant (yet 😉😂), but it’s something close to my heart — a way for me to keep sharing food, flavours, and love with you all.

🍴 Follow to see what’s next. I can’t wait to cook for you again! 🥰

A PRESTO Alessia 🤗

❤️
🔪

30/05/2025

Living and working in the same neighbourhood means our neighbours aren’t just faces we pass by, they’re our guests, our regulars and part of our daily lives. We wanted a place that felt local, authentic and alive with connection and that’s exactly what we found. The people around us weren’t just strangers, they’re the ones who stopped by, shared stories and made our little corner feel more like home.

To our neighbours, our regulars and our community, thank you.

What began as a simple idea grew into something far more meaningful because of you. You didn’t just support us, you became part of our story, and allowed us to become part of yours. The laughter shared over counters, the quiet conversations in familiar corners, the way this place filled with life because of the people who called it theirs, these are the moments we’ll carry with us.

We set out to create something local, something real. But what we didn’t expect was how deeply you’d make it matter. You turned transactions into relationships, a business into a gathering place, and strangers into friends.

So this isn’t just a goodbye, it’s a thank you. For trusting us with your celebrations and your ordinary days and for letting us be part of the rhythm of your lives. The memories we’re taking with us are yours as much as they are ours.

Wherever the next chapter leads, we’ll remember this, the best part of what we built was you.

With love and gratitude,
❤️ A + G ❤️❤️

1 LEGO Mini-figs made for us by Christine
2 Best $1.89 spent at Officeworks. Hopscotch for all!
3 Harvey 🐶
4 COVID times. We survived two lockdowns
5 While everyone else was batching cocktails in bottles during Covid, we had APERITIVO HOURS and were serving them from the window in takeaway coffee cups with a crocchette for your afternoon walks. So much so that when a man came over to order a coffee, he didn’t believe all the people walking away with cups were not drinking coffee 😆
6 The garden when we opened
7 Little Chico yearning for us when we were away
8 Everyday is an ordinary day at BK
9 That time I was invited to be on a podcast
10 Friends repping BK
11 What you find when cleaning calamari

Continued in captions

29/05/2025

The last stop of our first trip to Italy was to Lido Di Pomposa to meet Nonna (who was staying at her Summer house) and these are some things I learnt about her/ happened while we were there:

We had a trip planned to Italy for July 2020 but then COVID came. Nonna told us she had started making pumpkin tortelloni (her specialty) in December as she anticipated our arrival and she was so disappointed when we couldn’t come. So finally, after a long drive from Lake Garda to the Adriatic coast, Nonna was so excited to see us.

We’d been in a car all day having left in the morning and arriving late afternoon. We wanted to freshen up but Nonna told us we weren’t allowed to use the shower because she had asked the family over to dinner and she didn’t want us to mess up the bathroom so she asked us to use the shower by the pool. In Italy, even private communal pools need to be manned by a lifeguard who records the time you arrive and leave. You’re also required to wear a swim cap and rinse before you’re allowed in. We had a swim and then used the shower by the pool. It must have been a strange sight to the neighbours because the pool to the complex is next to the front entrance, the shower was ‘open air’ and there two women were soaping up in their front garden 😂

In Summer, Nonna rents the same chairs at the beach every season. She is the ultimate Nonna and everyone in town also calls her Nonna. She spends the whole day down there, only breaking to return home for lunch and a nap. Malfada is her friend from Milan who also summers there and she has rented the chairs next to Nonna for the last 18 years.

Nonna is a Formula 1 fanatic and Ferrari is her team. We returned home one afternoon to find that she had changed into a red dress and was watching the preliminaries. When I asked her who her favourite driver was she said she didn’t have one because it was about the team. The couch was blue when we arrived and Nonna removed the covers to reveal red for the race. She told me it was important for the team to feel your support. Nonna’s company used to make the uniforms for Ferrari and she was so proud.

Continued in captions.

28/05/2025

It was just this morning, a young man stuck his head in the door whilst we were prepping and ask “why don’t you open on the weekends?” He ended up repeating it three times because he couldn’t comprehend it. Funny because he didn’t have anything else to ask and that’s all he wanted to know ( the explanation is in Monday’s post if you don’t know why).

Not only were we a Monday to Friday restaurant (down to Monday-Thursday for the last few months) but we also took advantage of the rhythms of the neighbourhood. We’re a neighbourhood restaurant so if you weren’t here, neither were we.

What did we do when we took our breaks? Most of the time we took the opportunity to rest. Every other time we left our husbands at home and we went off on an adventure together!

Life is for living and the one thing we agreed to when we started BK was work/life balance. Anyone in hospitality knows how hard it can be especially when your partners and family are not on the same schedule. We’d spent our whole careers, sacrificing our personal lives for the industry and thought, what’s the point of employing yourself if you can’t give yourselves the conditions you want or need?

Our first trip away to Italy was thanks to our accountant, James, who advised us it would be “tax-deductible” because it was for research. ..so why not?

Our other trips were because we could and because you loved following our adventures so much, we even let you come along to the last one ❤️💚

1 The longest 12 mins of our lives
2 Capri
3 + 4 the best of Rome
5 Verona
6 + 7 Uluru
8 Very Far North NZ (that’s what it’s really called!)
9 staying with friends in NZ, Ale making pasta in her pjs
10 + 11 Yoga retreat in Kangaroo Valley, we cooked for them too
12 Florence with Ale’s sister Chiara
13 Bologna
14 Comacchio
15 Dolomites
16 Us cooking again in Uluru
17 tour guide made me a dessert damper in Uluru for my birthday

26/05/2025

SOME COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS + THINGS

HOW DID YOU + ALESSIA MEET?

I live across the road and Alessia was the manager of the cafe I went to everyday. One day, Alessia asked her boss Michael (who is also our friend, neighbour and ally- pic 3) if he would let her use his restaurant, Farmhouse, to do a pop-up and if all went well, she would do them monthly. I offered her some help to source ingredients and prep, she asked me to come to dinner and as they say, the rest is history!

ARE YOU + ALESSIA A COUPLE?

No we are not.
Alessia has been married to Erich for 24 years and I’ve been with Daniel for 16 years. We are business partners who consider each other as family.

DID YOU PLAY GOLF TODAY? (Pic 5)

Robert had a few pairs of plaid pants and would get annoyed with this question. (They were a fashion statement people, not sportswear 😂) He would get so annoyed he would tell people that he would start charging them $1 every time if they continued. It became official when Alessia actually put the buttons on the till for him to add charges. Some of the other charges were for: “why don’t you open on the weekend?”, “why are you wearing a skirt?”(it’s not a skirt, it’s a sarong.) and generally just asking too many questions.

In a tiny restaurant like ours, if you happened to brush up against Robert, the Boys and married men with their wives laughing hysterically at them would be accused of “inappropriate touching”. Easy $$$ to make but don’t worry, we have cameras. Everyone knows what was really happening 😂

WHY DON’T YOU OPEN ON THE WEEKENDS?

In theory, that’s what restaurants do.

We wanted to be the type of place for locals to drop into on their way home from work. You didn’t want to cook but wanted something simple and nutritious that didn’t taste like ‘restaurant food’ or takeaway. More like a diner, rather than a restaurant. Somewhere you would feel comfortable coming straight from the gym or across the road to fetch a dessert in your slippers (pic 6).

Continued in captions.

23/05/2025

Who was Robert?

Roberto, Robertobertollini, Bobby, Butterscotch…? The man, the myth, the legend?

He was the ultimate bestie, a true hospitality icon and our first waiter. His wit, his camp charm and old-school professionalism helped shape the foundation of Bayswater Kitchenette.

Robert came out of hospitality retirement when we decided to open the shop because I asked for his help. He took it on as a ‘hobby’ and saw it as a bit of fun while he was pursuing his passion to work in t travel. Robert had extensive experience working in some of the best restaurants in Sydney, as well as owning his own (La Cucina in Auckland) and had also worked as a first class flight attendant for Air New Zealand.

Robert had the kind of vibrant, magnetic personality who lived for the spotlight, whether he was serving tables in a show-stopping outfit, dishing out razor-sharp one-liners, or basking in the glow of well-earned praise. He wasn’t just a waiter; he was a performance artist whose stage was the dining room, and every shift was his encore. Alessia and I called him the ‘star’ of the show and referred to ourselves as his ‘back-up dancers’. He was chuffed when we put his name up in lights! -(see drinks fridge 😆)

Robert was the perfect blend of skill, personality and heart and he was really special to many of us. It was a short illness and he passed away just over three years ago. Even though he’s no longer with us, he’s still part of the story. His legacy lives on in the culture and standards he helped establish ❤️💚

(Pic 14 + 15, Robert aka Maurizio would get hair envy. We never knew who was coming to work but didn’t mind as long as one of them did 😂)

23/05/2025

We were a tiny team just hoping for the best when we opened our doors that Monday evening at 5pm. Unlike a lot of new restaurants, we didn’t have a budget for PR.

We wanted a local business and we had faith that we could grow it organically. In theory, our postcode 2011 had a population of almost 30000 residents and we knew, if our business couldn’t sustain itself within this postcode alone, it would be because we were doing something wrong as we were also locals. It was mid-Winter and we served 5 guests the first night followed by 8 the next and so on.

And then we got our break. We didn’t get reviewed the usual way but our restaurant’s uniqueness was noticed and we were published in some major publications ❤️💚

23/05/2025

This is little Madeleine (2021).

Madeleine was only 18 months old when her parents first brought her to BK and they almost dined weekly. As she grew and became accustomed to the routine, we knew she was ready to sit on the ‘big chair’. We had a set of yoga cushions in the corner and she knew to grab them on the way in to take to her chair. She would climb up and sit herself down and watched patiently while Alessia cooked her dinner. Her favourite dishes were the fried calamari, broccolini with feta and banoffee pie. I’ll never forget the first time her parents gave her a taste of the Banoffee. I just so happened to look over at her and her eyes popped wide open as to say “what was that??” 👀

Madeleine adored Robert. One night, we turned around and she had tied the napkin around her neck (linen napkins are so versatile!) because Robert was wearing a neckerchief and she wanted to be like him ❤️

The family moved back to the States a few years ago and on their last visit, as we said our goodbyes, she didn’t quite understand what was going on but she knew she was sad.

It’s not going to be easy for all of us so let’s try and think of all the good times before that time comes ❤️💚

23/05/2025

When we first walked into this space, it felt so right for us but it was actually a restaurant designed for someone else. All the equipment in here had a past life so all the things we rescued from closing restaurants also felt right at home.

What we discovered quickly was because the restaurant was essentially second-hand , we had to ‘decode’ everything instead. The stove had its own quirks, the fridges hummed a tune we didn’t recognise and a switch we needed to turn on the freezer was buried so deep and high, we needed to squeeze ourselves into a gap and use a stool on top of the bench to reach it.

When someone says they’re going to “MacGyver”something, it means they’ll fix, create, or solve a problem using whatever random materials are available often in a clever, improvised, or unconventional way. For us, it was a necessity. The landlord told us everything was in working order, we just had to work out how.

We’re now experts at climbing ladders as our dry store and freezer hang down from the ceiling. The heaters outside do not have a switch, we climb a ladder with a lighter and control the level of heat by using the tension of elastic bands. The window needs a cork stopper to stop it from opening ‘too’ much which we discovered late one night meant we couldn’t close it. The only solution for stabilising the outdoor tables is cardboard as cork and wedges can’t mold to the slope and nuances of the pavement and the list goes on 🙃

Here is a picture of us when we bought our new dishwasher to replace the one that broke down in Week 3. It was an unexpected and very costly expense but we realised very quickly, absolutely worth it! Look how happy we were knowing that finally, we’d be able to just press a button and something would work the way it was supposed to ❤️💚

23/05/2025

BABIES OF BK 👶🏻❤️

In a suburb where dogs outnumber children, it has brought us such joy watching the families who come by the shop grow. The children don’t see it as a formal place of business but rather us as Aunties who they come and visit or wave to us when they walk by. Cuddles and high-fives are always in abundance! ✋🏼❤️

We’ve watched parents go from dating to marriage and now see their babies growing up. These have been some of the really special moments. A couple of these babies have been dining with us since they were in utero and one of their Mumma’s was even here the day she was due to give birth! It’s been such a pleasure watching them tasting and enjoying Alessia’s cooking the entire time ❤️💚

(In order by age:
EVA - ❤️ed SUPER GREEN SOUP and ROAST PUMPKIN + CREAMY COCONUT SOUP.
Always wants to eat THREE-CHEESE CROCCHETTES.

LEVI: PASTA ALL THE WAY 🍝❤️

AYMAN: has started eating solids but unfortunately won’t be able to use the rest of his voucher 😞

23/05/2025

FRIENDS OF BK 🧑🏼‍🦳👨🏻‍🦰👨🏼‍🦱👩‍🦱👩🏻👦🏼🧓🏽

Here’s to all our friends who stepped in and helped out, lent us a helping hand during our busy times and our staff shortages!

Most of these friends and locals have full-time jobs so they are our unsung heroes. They’re the ones who didn’t just see it as a job but as a way to support us ❤️

Andrew, Sandra, Kylie, Timbo, Hamish, Mariana, Arno, Wah, Mary, Anissa, Lyly, William, Marcin (always finding staff for us) and also to our friends, Akira (Pasta e Basta), Andrea and Michele (Acciughe Salate) who took over our shop for pop-ups so we could go on holidays!

YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST! ❤️💚

23/05/2025

WHO’S THIS GUY?

Daniel -our helper (unpaid) + my BF

You’ve either seen him sitting at the counter having dinner or he’s the random guy who walked in off the street somewhere in the middle of the rush and started washing dishes and organising the kitchen.

There have been too many times when Alessia and I have become overwhelmingly busy unexpectedly. We live across the road so Daniel became the first person we would call for a favour when we got stuck.

Washing dishes was and is not Daniel’s favourite chore. One day, when we needed some help, Alessia tricked him into helping us by asking if he wanted to play the ‘Washing-Up Game’. The aim was to have everything cleaned in the fastest time. His competitive nature meant he became good at it quite fast 😂

Daniel knows the drill. He knows the 20 minutes he gives us when we’re in this situation makes a huge difference to the rest of our night. When we text ‘SOS’ he knows we’ve reached the extent of our capabilities and so he drops what he’s doing and always tries to come to our rescue!

He specialises in chats about football (soccer) and triathlon and he’ll always ask if we need anything from the supermarket when he’s nearby. He’s the guy we send running to the shops to buy broccolini when we’ve run out too early in the shift and he’ll drive to the Fish Markets or go to fetch an ingredient from Marrickville so we can keep doing what we have to do.

Daniel is not someone with experience and has never worked in a restaurant before so thank you, you do good 😊

Our heartfelt thanks also go to our friends and families for your love and unwavering support over the years. It’s what has made BK a true family business❤️💚

Bayswater Kitchenette

19/09/2025

30/05/2025

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Monday	5pm - 8:30pm
Tuesday	5pm - 8:30pm
Wednesday	5am - 8:30pm
Thursday	5pm - 8:30pm
Friday	5pm - 8:30pm