After travelling down from Brisbane with my parents and Nanna, we decided to mark my Nan's last night in Australia with a special dinner at Australia's best restaurant and number 29 in the world. After checking in to our hotel, heading our to look around Sydney and heading back to get ready, we caught a taxi in the pouring rain down to The Rocks.
Located on the top edge of The Rocks on the water looking out over Circular Quay with spectacular views of the harbour bridge and Opera house on the upper level of the overseas passenger terminal. The dining room was dimly lit with purple carpet and all glass exterior to provide maximum view of the harbour and sites. The place settings and table were amazing and everything about the restaurant screamed class and elegance.
We were lead to our seats past the long section of the dining area to a circular area on the edge of the restaurant and closest to the harbour bridge with wide panoramic views. After being seated we were presented with a extremely long and varied wine list. Along with the wine list there was substantial list of beer, spirits and cocktails.
We were then presented with the food list that was broken down into 2 sections and very beautifully presented. The first part showed the 8 course degustation as your immediately opened out the menu and when opened out fully it showed the 4 course menu that was broken down into 4 pages with the 5 options for each course on a separate page.
After ordering each of our courses from the extremely efficient, courteous and polite staff but who didn't deviate to much from the script, we were presented with an amuse bouche to cleanse our palates for the culinary extravaganza to come. Served in a tiny curved glass was a mix of a tiny piece of marron tail, served over shaved coconut and a subtle Asian style jam. Very nice and good mix of flavours.
After the amuse bouche they came around with a basket filled with 4 types of bread. I went for the black sesame and grain bread which was accompanied with beautiful french butter served on a white rock. They also came around again with the basket after the first course and i took some Sourdough bread that time. Both breads and the butter was first rate.
For my first course i went with the Sashimi of corner inlet rock Flathead, trumpeter topped with shavings of black tipped abalone, raw sea cabbage, nastricums, warriguls and periwinkles and combined with a smear of salt cured wild oyster cream. Perfectly balanced, wonderful technique and intricacy to the preparation of the dish and the flavour. Despite all the fish and seafood flavours it wasn't overpoweringly fishy and was a dish very much worthy of a three hat restaurant.
The next course was a dish of rock lobster, squid, golden tapioca and lobster velvet. Decadent, luxurious and again excellently presented with the lobster sitting in the middle of shaved squid (look of linguini) and the lobster velvet was incredible.
The main course i choose was the poached Wagyu beef encased in a sauce and bread crumb of farro, buckwheat, hazelnut and Ezekiel. The beef was sitting on a bed of black pudding puree. The beef was of the highest quality cut, cooked to perfection and was fall apart tender. The coating added a bit of crunch to the beef and added some additional flavour whilst the black pudding puree was very nice and complemented the beef well. (Surprising that i have like Black pudding at both Aria and Quay despite loathing it normally).
Served with the main course was a share plate for the whole table of leaf salad with a red wine vinaigrette. Whilst very, very good especially the vinaigrette, i thought given the quality of the restaurant and the variety of the main course putting down one generic side was strange.
On to the most important course of the meal and the one i had been looking forward to, desert. Having seen it on TV and in the Quay cook book i went for the 8 texture chocolate cake whilst my mum went for the other well known desert of Guava strawberry snow egg. The chocolate cake was presented as 7 textures with an 8th a chocolate sauce poured into the middle which melted the centre casing and allowed the chocolate to flow over the dish. A very nice touch of culinary theatre. Unfortunately the cake itself was the slightest of let down with the dark chocolate layer slightly overpowering the other layers. At any other restaurant it would have been a more than acceptable dish but with perfection expected it was not up to the level of the others.
However the snow egg which i was allowed to try was magnificent with the egg having to be cracked and the many different layers giving a great mix of flavours and textures.
After the desert we were served tea or coffee (i went with a Darjeeling tea) and petit fours which were two types of truffles, a dark chocolate truffle filled with amaretto and muscatels and covered in chocolate crispies and a milk chocolate and caramel truffle filled with hazelnuts. Both were superb and an excellent finish to the meal.
Everything about the meal showed off why this is considered the best restaurant in Australian and highly regarded world wide. From the prime location and impressive view of Sydney, to the service, outfitting of the restaurant, serving bowls, plates and utensils (each dish was presented in a unique and unusual bowl or plate) and most importantly the food it screamed class, sophistication, quality and the whole dining process was thought through and perfectly executed. Whilst there was little use of high tech techniques or gadgetry, that by no means meant a lack of innovation. Everything about this meal (except for the slight disappointment with the chocolate desert) was superb and is well worth a visit (if you can stand the extensive wait for a table - 2 months for a week night and 6 months for a weekend).
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