Sydney’s CBD has never been short of places for a business lunch. Finding somewhere in the middle of the city that does Greek food properly, without turning it into either a quick takeaway or a very formal affair, is a different story. Phillip St is having a go at exactly that.

The new restaurant sits inside the Deutsche Bank Building at 126 Phillip Street, surrounded by offices, barristers, bankers and the usual weekday rush. Inside, things loosen up a little. The menu is made for sharing, the pita comes off the grill and most of the food is designed to land in the centre of the table rather than in front of one person.

That immediately makes it feel more Greek than a lot of restaurants that work much harder to tell you they are Greek.

Greek Food, Right in the Middle of the CBD

The setting is polished, which makes sense for Phillip Street, but the menu itself is reassuringly familiar. Bread, dips, seafood, grilled meat, potatoes, Greek salad and things you actually want to pass around.

You could come in for a quick weekday lunch, but the menu is clearly more fun with a few people. Handmade pita is $10, then there’s taramasalata with sudachi and salmon roe, smoked eggplant, tzatziki and spiced feta before you even get near the main dishes.

There are a few less obvious choices too. Cypriot sausage comes with black garlic tahini, pickled onion and sumac, while split king prawns are served with avgolemono butter and mandarin. It’s recognisably Greek without feeling like someone has photocopied a taverna menu.

Start with the Bread and Dips. Obviously.

There are restaurants where bread is what you order because you need something while you wait. At a Greek table it is half the point.

Phillip St has understood that. Order the pita, put a few dips down and start there. It gives everyone something to do while the rest of the table gets organised, and it buys you enough time to debate how much food is too much food.

The answer, at a Greek restaurant, is generally more than you initially ordered.

Familiar Food Without Making It Feel Old-Fashioned

The pastitsio imagery says quite a lot about what Phillip St is trying to do. These are dishes Greek and Cypriot families already know. They haven’t been disguised beyond recognition just because the restaurant happens to be in one of Sydney’s premium office towers.

That balance matters. Sydney already has plenty of “Mediterranean-inspired” restaurants where you need to read the menu twice to work out what the inspiration actually was.

Here, the references are obvious. There is feta, avgolemono, loukaniko, oregano, skordalia, ladolemono and proper Greek salad. The kitchen has played with the details, but it hasn’t thrown away the reason people like the food in the first place.

Save Room for the Lamb

The slow-roasted lamb shoulder is probably the easiest order on the menu if there are a few of you. It comes in two sizes, with charred herb salsa and the roasting juices, and is exactly the sort of main dish that belongs in the centre with potatoes and salad around it.

If making decisions after two drinks is not your strength, Phillip St also has two parea menus. The $75 classic banquet covers pita and dips, tuna crudo, lamb shoulder, Greek salad, potatoes and baklava. The $90 version adds king prawns and meatballs.

For a work lunch where nobody wants to be the person controlling the order, that may be the smarter move. Everyone eats, everything gets passed around and there is significantly less menu administration.

A Very Sydney Version of a Greek Lunch

Phillip St feels particularly well placed for the way Sydney actually eats during the week. It opens Monday to Friday from 11am until late, so this is not really a Sunday-family-lunch restaurant. It’s somewhere for a long Friday lunch, a client meal that you actually want to attend, or drinks after work that become dinner.

There is something quite fitting about putting this style of Greek dining in the financial district. Greek food has always worked best when nobody is in too much of a hurry to claim their own plate. The CBD could probably use more of that.

And if you are going with a group, order the pita first. We feel quite strongly about this.