Haymun Win

Haymun Win is a freelance food and drink writer and editor whose work centres on detailed coverage of new dining and drinking venues and the ideas that shape contemporary food culture. She contributes to Broadsheet, where she has been writing since 2024. Alongside food, she also writes about fashion and lifestyle news for other publications. Her pieces stand out for early, on-the-ground reporting, clear menu and price detail, and an emphasis on the concept behind each venue rather than just its launch.

First-look coverage of new restaurants and bars

A large portion of Win’s work is “first look” reporting on restaurant and bar openings, often timed to coincide with a venue’s debut or expansion.

In these stories she introduces the operators, outlines the concept, and walks through the menu in enough detail that readers understand what makes each place distinct. Her coverage of Indonesian restaurant Kenangan’s second CBD location, for example, dwells on eight-hour braised beef ribs, Kalasan fried chicken and loaded coconut milk ice-cream, using specific dishes to signal the restaurant’s style and strengths.

When reporting on the arrival of Nasi Padang chain Sederhana, she notes that the outpost serves around 25 Padang-style dishes, highlighting key items like ayam pop and beef rendang made with a signature 20-spice paste.

Win’s profiles of restaurants often foreground the culinary idea and how it is executed, rather than just listing offerings. Her piece on Delmonte, the Italian wine room and restaurant in the King & Godfree building, explains that the menu spans northern Italy and puts salumi, pasta and Piedmont wines at the centre, positioning the venue as the “crown jewel” of a wider precinct revival. In her coverage of cocktail bar Privé from the Reine & La Rue team, she maps out the French-accented drinks list, calling out Kir Royales with Louis Roederer champagne, cypress Martinis and boozy hot chocolates to convey the bar’s mood and level of ambition.

When she writes about omakase restaurant Kirishima, she describes its 23-course format, the 12-seat room and the way the menu pays homage to Japan’s Kirishima mountains with inventive small plates and seasonal nigiri.

She also spends time on large-scale and high-profile openings, articulating how multi-level venues and big hospitality groups present themselves.

Her report on Rockpool’s steak frites bistro 7 Alfred focuses on the single-minded menu, the wave of steak frites nights and pop-ups across the city, and the fact that the 168-seat restaurant booked more than 350 reservations for opening day, illustrating both demand and positioning. In her story on The Waterside Hotel, a seven-level pub, she breaks down the outdoor terrace, rooftop bar, multiple event spaces, ground-floor beer garden and a three-level Southeast Asian restaurant, showing an interest in how disparate spaces and concepts fit together inside one project.

Across these pieces, Win presents new restaurants and bars as part of a broader hospitality landscape rather than standalone launches.

Bakeries, desserts and niche pastry trends

Win devotes significant attention to bakeries and dessert-led concepts, often zooming in on doughs, techniques and flavour combinations. Her story on Scroll Lab, a bakery dedicated to scrolls, explains that the Brunswick West shop has flavours like Thai milk tea with crispy rice and palm-sugar caramel, and Vegemite with honey, parmesan and olive oil, while also noting that the dough is a cross between milk bread and brioche that stays soft and fluffy. This mix of flavour detail and texture description is typical of her pastry coverage.

In her profile of gluten-free bakery Itera, founded by the team behind Kudo, she points out that the business has moved beyond a pint-sized space to a large former factory, and that it specialises in coeliac-friendly sourdough and canelés. She then extends the picture with the dine-in menu, which includes congee pot pies and prawn toast-style tiger prawn burgers, framing Itera as both a production bakery and a destination café. Her reporting on Remo’s pasta and tiramisu bar similarly emphasises accessibility and dessert: she notes that the venue offers gluten-free tiramisu, Roman-style pasta bowls for less than $20, and $8 tiramisu, underscoring its value proposition and tight focus.

In another bakery story, she writes about a new venture from chef Shaun Quade, describing bee sting croissants and three-day sourdough, pointing to a recurring interest in process and craft rather than just output.

Taken together, these pieces show a consistent sub-beat around baked goods, sweets and casual carb-driven dining, with Win paying close attention to how bakers differentiate themselves through technique, flavour and pricing.

Dining trends, features and lists

Alongside venue-focused reporting, Win writes longer-form features on dining culture and trends. In her piece asking what happened to brunch, she notes that people are no longer lining up for hotcakes and avo toast in the way they once did, and explores how enthusiasm for the meal has cooled and what has replaced it.

The story treats brunch as a cultural phenomenon rather than just a category of dishes, and reflects a willingness to step back from openings to consider broader behaviour.

Her 7 Alfred coverage situates the restaurant within a wider resurgence of steak frites, referencing other local steak frites nights and pop-ups, so the piece functions as both a venue introduction and a trend story. Win also contributes to collective round-ups of standout dishes, adding her picks to a list of the best things the Broadsheet team has eaten in a given year, which further underlines her role as a tasting, opinionated voice within the food section.

Across these features and lists, she connects individual venues and dishes to shifts in how and what people eat, balancing practical information with an eye for patterns in dining culture.

Overall, Win’s body of work at Broadsheet and beyond is distinguished by detailed first-look coverage of openings, a strong focus on bakeries and desserts, attention to pricing and accessibility, and an interest in the evolving habits that sit behind food trends, complemented by additional fashion and lifestyle writing.