Le Grand Grill opens Wednesday, November 11, at 2 Princess Street, Brighton-Le-Sands, with James Roberts leading the kitchen for Peter Conistis inside The Brighton Hotel Sydney. As The Age Good Food describes it, Le Grand Grill is a 150-seat French-inspired steakhouse built around fire, French sauces and Roberts in the lead role.
Le Grand Grill gives Brighton-Le-Sands a hotel dining room built around fire, French sauces and a chef who has spent two decades beside Conistis. Le Grand Grill is built around Roberts's cooking, not Conistis's Greek track record (Theage1).
What to Know About Le Grand Grill
According to The Age Good Food, Le Grand Grill is the ground-floor restaurant at The Brighton Hotel Sydney, a 150-seat site that had sat empty while restaurants opened above it. The address is 2 Princess Street, Brighton-Le-Sands, and the opening schedule is dinner Wednesday to Sunday, with lunch Friday to Sunday. Dinner Wednesday to Sunday and lunch Friday to Sunday will show how the kitchen handles volume and the room suits the coast (Theage1).
The name is local, not imported branding. Le Grand Grill references Brighton-Le-Sands and The Grand Parade, the waterside arterial tied to the suburb. Le Grand Grill is a hotel restaurant. That matters because the restaurant is not being framed as a small inner-city chef counter. It is a hotel restaurant with scale, marble, a walk-in wine cellar and enough seats to carry groups, date nights and business dinners without pretending to be a 20-seat room.
The first month will show Conistis and Roberts's handover in real time. Wait a few services if you are going with a larger group and want the kitchen to settle into what The Age Good Food describes as a 150-seat dining room. The menu has a grill-led structure, and the opening puts Roberts in the foreground.
James Roberts Steps Forward for Peter Conistis
Peter Conistis remains the name that will pull many first bookings. His partnership record spans Alpha, Beta Bar, Ammos and Ela Ela at The Bristol, and Ammos already gives The Brighton Hotel Sydney a Conistis-led Greek dining room above Le Grand Grill.
Le Grand Grill is Roberts's French-inflected steakhouse. Conistis has said executive chef James Roberts will take the lead while he supports. Ammos is the cleaner choice for Conistis’s Greek register. Le Grand Grill shows Roberts working with French-inflected sauces, spice and steakhouse structure after two decades next to Conistis.
Roberts’s background gives the opening its credibility. He worked at Est. before spending the past two decades with Conistis at Omega, Civic Dining and Ammos. Roberts worked at Est.
Roberts grew up around an Algerian-born French mother who cooked dishes such as rabbit tagine and brought spices and olives into ragout. At Le Grand Grill, that shows up in the way French forms are allowed to carry spice: bone marrow with harissa-spiked yoghurt, plus a cucumber salad that Roberts credits to Conistis’s input.
The Order Starts With Fire, Then French Sauce
The steak section gives Le Grand Grill its most direct luxury signal. The restaurant lists True North Beef tenderloin, Kidman cote de boeuf, citrus-fed Chauvel striploin served on the bone, and a Westholme wagyu tomahawk cooked over ironbark and charcoal before being carved tableside. The tomahawk is the room’s headline order for two diners. The tenderloin or striploin gives the grill less tableside drama and more focus on the cooking.
The French side is central. Le Grand Grill’s menu includes steak tartare, French butter, emulsified sauces and red-wine jus. For Sydney diners who have followed Conistis through Greek dining rooms, Le Grand Grill is the pivot to French-inflected steakhouse cooking.
Conistis has singled out the tarte tatin even though Roberts created it. The version in play turns the usually sweet form savoury, with carrot slowly cooked in spice butter. The menu goes beyond steak and sides. Roberts’s dishes bend French forms through spice before the menu moves into the grill.
There is also a scarcity play on the potato side. Le Grand Grill is one of just two restaurants in Sydney currently serving Frites Atelier, the fries created by Michelin-starred Dutch chef Sergio Herman. For a steakhouse, that detail matters more than another generic side dish. It gives the table a specific reason to order fries here, especially alongside red-wine jus, French butter or a bone-in cut (Theage1).
The Wine Cellar Fits a Full Hotel Dining Room
Le Grand Grill includes a walk-in wine cellar. It is a 150-seat hotel restaurant with cellar presence for tartare, duck, wagyu, business dinners and tables that want French cues to run through the meal.
The wine program is part of the case for dinner and larger group bookings. Order by the glass if you are moving between tartare, bone marrow, steak and madeleines; move to a bottle once you understand whether the kitchen is leaning harder into smoke, spice or sauce that night.
Wine and format separate Le Grand Grill and Ammos in the same building. Ammos is the Conistis Greek track. Le Grand Grill is the Roberts-led French steakhouse track, with a walk-in cellar, grill-led ordering and a dining room built to handle a longer meal.
Why Brighton-Le-Sands Gets the Better Deal Here
According to The Age Good Food, Le Grand Grill is a 150-seat ground-floor restaurant in Brighton-Le-Sands with defined signatures: ironbark and charcoal, steak tartare, carrot tarte tatin, Frites Atelier and a walk-in wine cellar. The site is large, the menu is specific, and the kitchen leadership has continuity: Roberts and Conistis have spent decades working together, including upstairs at Ammos. That matters for a suburb where a 150-seat ground-floor room could easily default to broad hotel dining.
The fitout also pushes the restaurant toward a steakhouse mood rather than a neutral lobby dining room. Conistis has described the marble as having burgundy streaks, "like a steak," and the room includes a walk-in wine cellar. Those details point to the intended spend and pacing. This is a room built for a proper meal, not a quick pre-drink plate.
Locals get a French-inspired grill with Conistis’s network and Roberts’s hand on the pass in Brighton-Le-Sands. Visitors staying around the hotel or nearby waterfront get dinner Wednesday to Sunday, lunch Friday to Sunday, and a menu that lets mixed groups choose between tartare, duck in testing, steaks and dessert without a tasting format.
Who Should Book First
The ideal first order is steak tartare, a bone-in cut over ironbark and charcoal, Frites Atelier and French wine. It is also a smart booking for diners who track chef transitions, because Roberts is moving from long-term Conistis collaborator to lead figure.
The opening rush is not built for a quiet two-top with no hotel-restaurant energy. The dining room will have scale from day one, and the Wednesday-to-Sunday dinner schedule means the kitchen will be moving through volume quickly. For a first visit, two or four people can cover tartare, one Roberts-led starter, a steak and dessert.
A first order can move from steak tartare or bone marrow with harissa-spiked yoghurt to one grill centerpiece and lavender-scented madeleines. Conistis’s own enthusiasm points to the carrot tarte tatin when it is available. The Westholme wagyu tomahawk brings tableside carving to one grill centerpiece. Lavender-scented madeleines are the French dessert finish.
Le Grand Grill is worth tracking beyond opening week because it tests whether Brighton-Le-Sands can support a large French-leaning steakhouse led by James Roberts rather than another Conistis-branded Greek room. Watch the steak section, the walk-in wine cellar and Roberts’s savoury French dishes; those will decide whether this becomes a regular hotel dining room or the restaurant that finally gives Roberts his own Sydney audience.
