Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
7
Places to Eat in . . . Sydney, Australia
For lack of a better term, cuisine in Australia's most cosmopolitan city has been
labeled Mod Oz—a melding of local ingredients with an international grab bag of
culinary traditions, the birthright of this polyglot nation of immigrants. Even though
it's hardly a new phenomenon—the first Mod Oz menus appeared in the early
1990s—its spirit still energizes the dining scene in this Pacific port, where ambitious
young chefs become celebrities overnight.
Of course the pioneer Mod Oz restaurants are still out-
standing and breaking new ground. The serene setting of
elegant
Tetsuya's
(529 Kent St.;
&
61/2/9267 2900;
www.tetsuyas.com)—two starkly contemporary dining
rooms overlooking a traditional Japanese garden—is a
metaphor for Tetsuya Wakada's brilliant cooking, which is
a paradoxical blend of Japanese delicacy and maverick
imagination. The only option here is the pricey, precisely
choreographed 10-course tasting menu: Dishes might
include a shot of pea soup with bitter chocolate sorbet, a
leek-and-crab custard, a confit of seaweed-crusted Tas-
manian ocean trout on a bed of daikon radish and fennel,
or grilled Wagyu beef with wasabi and lime. Book 4 weeks
in advance, and prepare to be wowed. Tetsuya's col-
league Neil Perry at
Rockpool
(109 George St.;
&
61/
2/9252 1888;
www.rockpool.com) is fanatical about
sourcing, whether it be sustainable local seafood, his
award-winning wine list, or his select cheese board. But
what vaults this gleaming wood-burnished restaurant to
the top is his globe-trotting range of preparations—dishes such as grilled king prawns
with goat-cheese tortellini, pine nuts, and raisins; a whole john dory pan-fried with
Indian spices and served with tomato, braised silverbeet (Swiss chard), and cardamom
sauce; or sautéed bass grouper with
vongole,
cabbage, serrano ham, tea-smoked
potato, and herb butter sauce.
The city's most dazzling panoramic view, day or night, is at
Quay
(Upper level,
Overseas Passenger Terminal, Circular Quay West;
&
61/2/9251 5600;
www.quay.
com.au), with its wall of windows overlooking the harbor, Opera House, and Sydney
skyline. But chef Peter Gilmore's subtle, playful cooking, with vegetables and herbs
from Quay's own farm in the Blue Mountains, more than lives up to that view. Signa-
ture items include poached rock lobster with lobster-and-tapioca dumplings, crisp
pig-belly confit with a braise of abalone and soft curds of handmade tofu, or his
wondrous “sea pearls”—tiny opalescent globes of sturgeon roe, abalone, tuna, scal-
lops, octopus, eel, mud crab, and oyster pearl meat. The floor-to-ceiling harbor
Rockpool's chef Neil Perry sources
all his ingredients locally.
