There’s a small restaurant tucked into Reservoir Street that Surry Hills locals have been quietly keeping to themselves — and judging by how full it gets on a Friday night, the secret is well and truly out. Mishy’s Surry Hills has quietly grown into one of the suburb’s most beloved dining spots, built almost entirely on the strength of word of mouth and the energy of its owner, Michelle Powell.
Powell — known to most simply as Mishy — is a familiar face in Sydney’s restaurant world. She previously worked as a chef at Bistro Rex, the well-regarded French bistro on Macleay Street in Potts Point, where she was among the founding kitchen team. But after years of cooking for other people’s restaurants, she decided it was time to go it alone. She opened Mishy’s just over three years ago, at 45, with a modest budget, no business plan, and — until the night before the doors opened — no name.
The address itself raised eyebrows. 113 Reservoir Street has a reputation among those who know it: a string of businesses have come and gone there over the years, with nothing lasting since around 2014. Powell was aware of this going in, and admits the early months were genuinely difficult. She had little money, no publicity, and was hands-on in every sense — at one point borrowing $60 to buy a part to fix the dishwasher herself.
But she kept going, and she kept cooking.
Her approach centres on what she calls elevated home cooking — dishes built around produce she selects herself on weekly trips to the market. The menu weaves native Australian ingredients through familiar formats, with a result that feels both grounded and inventive. House-made pasta is stuffed with spinach and ricotta and finished with a warrigal green sauce. Murray cod arrives with crispy skin and a native curry sauce, macadamias, and sea purslane. Oysters are dressed with finger lime. Kangaroo salami comes alongside parmesan and bright, zingy peppers.
The standout for many diners is the scallops — a dish Powell developed during her Bistro Rex days and holds close to her heart. Hervey Bay scallops are served in their shells on a bed of creamed leeks, finished with vadouvan-spiced oil, native karkalla, flash-fried curry leaves, and grated cashews. The aroma alone is enough to turn heads across the dining room.
There’s also a 300-gram steak from northern New South Wales, served with fries, priced at $76 — a figure Powell acknowledges is below what the dish would typically command elsewhere. She describes it as a kind of community service, and it has been on the menu since day one.
By Christmas 2023, about six months after opening, the restaurant was full. Powell recalls hearing genuine laughter in the room and feeling, for the first time, that things were going to be all right. The locals from surrounding streets had found their way in, and they kept coming back. No social media strategy, no press coverage — just people telling other people.
These days, Mishy’s draws a mixed crowd. Regulars from the neighbourhood share tables with international visitors — many of whom have discovered the restaurant through Google reviews or, increasingly, through AI-assisted searches. The restaurant holds a 4.9-star rating on OpenTable. Powell has noted that guests sometimes arrive having specifically searched for highly rated Surry Hills restaurants, filtering for places with strong review counts. It’s an organic kind of reach she seems to appreciate.
On any given service, Powell is in the room — moving between the door, the bar, and her diners, checking in on the kitchen, keeping everything humming. The hospitality, she says, is as important to her as the food. She credits the support of friends and local regulars with getting her through the harder stretches, and still finds it remarkable that there are people living around the corner who haven’t discovered the place yet. To her, that’s not a problem — it’s a sign there’s still room to grow.
Mishy’s
113 Reservoir Street, Surry Hills
Tuesday 11am–3pm | Wednesday to Saturday 11am–3pm, 5.30pm–10pm | Sunday 11am–3pm
mishyssydney.com.au | @mishys_sydney
Published 18-September-2026
