After a week in Tokyo where Kevin was consumed by what can only be presumed to be the Swine flu, we ventured to Australia.
Having spent so long in South East Asia already, it was a bit strange how we had not visited Sydney before and so we were looking forward to some nice weather and good food as well as a view of Sydney Harbour's famed NYE fireworks.
We arrived early on the morning of the 29th, eager to catch a few hours of sleep after spending 8 hours on an overnight flight with far too many crying children and their rather ineffective parents. But before that, dealing with Australia immigration and customs was a right pain in the arse. Out of all the countries in the world, why does Sydney have to be so over the top with security? We had a much smoother exit going to both London and NY recently.
Nonetheless, we accepted that we live in a world where air travel has become more about pain and less about convenience.
We had decided on convenience by staying smack in the city center at the Swissotel Sydney along Market Street just neighbouring Sydney Tower:
A quick walk took us to Darling Harbour:
Followed by a one stop on the subway to Circular Quay - where Sydney Harbour, Sydney Bridge, the Opera House and what seemed to be all the tourists in the world had congregated.
The venue for our pre-NYE dinner the next day at the Quay Restaurant (more on that later)
On our first night there, we had a reservation at Pier Restaurant, an understated seafood oriented restaurant sitting on one end of Rose Bay, one of the myriad of bays surrounding the Greater Sydney area. One of the ways to get there was to take the 15 minute ferry ride from Circular Quay to Rose Bay:
The understated exterior of the Pier Restaurant just before dinner time:
One of the many post-modern apartment complexes in the Rose Bay area:
Our amuse bouche, kingfish tartare with capers, a touch of lemon? in a cone - clean, fresh fish with a nice balance of saltiness and acid:
A view from our table as the sun began to set:
Appetizer for Leeann consisted of spanner crab raviolis in seafood consomme
For Kevin it was a yellow fin tuna tartare with oscietra caviar, oyster cream and soy & mirin jelly. Conceptually very interesting, but the portion was a bit too big and there was perhaps a bit too much jelly in there making it a bit mushy.
Kevin's main course was another interesting combination. Roasted barramundi served with Serrano ham, witlof (which is basically an endive leaf), dutch carrots and a touch of bitter orange. The fish was roasted perfectly and the combination with the ham was just right:
Leeann opted for the slow roasted lobster with white asparagus, kale and lobster jus - Leeann was well into this dish!
Pier is known also for their desserts. Leeann's multi-layer mango construction with cereal called "migas". Bread crumbs, grains, a Sauternes custard topped with a mango egg and passionfruit icecream. Creativity and execution on top form here:
This was a wonder for Kevin. A deconstructed blueberry cheesecake icecream made with goats curd powder, chestnut crumble, white chocolate yoghurt and blueberries. Simply magical.
Pier was opened only in 2005 but has quickly gained a reputation for being one of the top restaurants in the world taking 3 stars in Australian Gourmet Traveller 2010. With Greg Doyle running the kitchen and Katrina Kanetani the pastry chef responsible for creating the awesome desserts, we would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone going to Sydney.
A view as we were leaving:
A meal for 2 with 1 glass of wine cost about USD250.
The next day, we met up with Kevin's uncle, aunt and cousin for lunch:
Then we headed to the railway station to have a quick look:
The Christmas spirit in Australia:
We decided to hop on the Sydney Light Rail bound for Lilyfield to have a look at the Sydney Fish Market.
A derelict shipyard off Sydney Fish Market:
Peter Doyle's Seafood Market:
Our oyster shucker:
Leeann's grilled abalones and scallop:
Some uni (sea urchin) which tasted a bit off (note to all, do not have the 'fresh' uni in Australia)
Oyster selection at Sydney Fish Market:
The rather disappointing Chinatown in Sydney:
The Rocks, the area just off the Sydney Bridge at Circular Quay which highlights some of the more historical facets of Sydney:
That evening we found ourselves at another one of Sydney's more prominent restaurants - Quay Restaurant. Run by Peter Gilmore, the restaurant took the Restaurant of the Year Awards in a few of the Australian publications for both 2009 and 2010 so we had high hopes. And although December 30 was not actually NYE yet, they had a special menu for AUD210 per person for an 8 course set menu and some pretty decent views of Sydney Harbour and the Opera House:
An amuse bouche of tuna tartare with oyster foam and pearls. Nice balance of flavours:
One of the Quay Restaurant's signature dishes, the Sea Pearls. Starting from the 12 o'clock position: tuna sashimi with oscietra caviar, octopus, mud crab, abalone and sea scallop. Presentation wise great, the abalone tasted great, but I think it was more novelty than flavours:
Mud crab congee with palm hearts. A Chinese touch to this rice porridge made it quite an interesting dish. Deep, powerful flavours made this quite a decent dish.
Pork belly with braised abalone, tofu and mushrooms. A moderate variation of some classic Cantonese dishes, this was not a bad course, although the roasted pork belly was a tad on the chewy side.
View of the Opera House from the restaurant:
Kevin's gently poached partridge breast was probably one of the highlights of the night. Served on top of a black pudding and walnut mash and some truffle custard and palm of hearts, the slight poaching of the partridge kept the gamey-ness of the meat and made the meat seem almost raw. This was beautiful:
As Leeann wasn't too big of a game bird fan, the partridge was replaced with fresh picked peas. It looked a bit uninspired, but the peas were gorgeous!
This was followed by a slow cooked lamb loin, and although we were in lamb territory, this dish was nothing particularly special, but it wasn't bad either.
Leeann's choice of white asparagus served under a pinenut truffle mash - refreshing and simple:
A view of the restaurant from the outside:
Going back to the food, our first dessert was a white peach granita served with peach icecream. Very peachy flavour as one would expect, quite an interesting combination.
Some petit fours:
Kevin's favourite of the evening was the eight textures of chocolate. Not as chocolatey as one would think, and a decent finish to the meal.
We had high hopes for this meal, and while the food was decent, it was a bit disappointing given the NYE type price and execution of the dishes. We would give props to the nice twist on contemporary Australian cooking and perhaps the combination of the set menu just wasn't put together with as much thought as there should have been. The location at Sydney Harbour was superb and we couldn't have asked for better seats. Service was very good, although as the restaurant got more packed (we had a 7pm seating), the wait staff's attention became increasingly divided also.
Our experience at the Pier Restaurant was better and the food was also much better value there. But with that said, we would still recommend going to the Quay Restaurant on a normal day where the food vs value ratio might be more worthwhile. Meal for 2 with 2 glasses of wine was approximately USD380.
The view of the Rocks as we were leaving the restaurant:
Sydney Harbour Bridge from the Rocks area:
Overseas Passenger Terminal, where the Quay Restaurant is at:
Circular Quay piers:
Martin Place:
The next day was the last day of 2009 and we decided to take a risk and head over to Bills, Bill Granger's cafe restaurant which also happens to have a branch in Kamakura, Japan. Located in Darlinghurst - an area slightly to the East of downtown Sydney, this brunch pad is known to have a bit of a queue on weekends. We went early (around noon) and was told it was going to be a 45 minute wait with about 3 parties in front of us. We normally don't wait, but having come this far, we decided to go for it... 30 minutes later, the maitre d' comes out and tells everyone that the kitchen can't handle any more diners and it would ANOTHER 2 hours before we would see any food being served, so we had no choice but to find something else! How sad..
So instead, we headed over to Rockpool Bar and Grill where Kevin had their famed Wagyu burger and Leeann had a mince Wagyu bolognese. Oh, and a very nicely done margarita to go with it the burger too!
From there, it was only a 5 minute walk over to St. Mary's Cathedral:
As we were heading into mid-afternoon, we decided to go and check out prime spots to see the fireworks at midnight. Not too far from the Cathedral was the Sydney Domain/Botanical Gardens, and with 3pm just around the corner, this was the scene at one of the viewpoints:
Talk about ridiculous. We decided it was better to try out luck nearer the time at Circular Quay.
But before that, we headed back to Darling Harbour for the 9pm mini-fireworks session... which was not bad, but nothing spectacular either.
We headed back to the hotel to do some packing and to sort out our next morning's early flight out to Wellington, New Zealand and with 20 minutes to go before 2010 kicked in, we headed on foot with the hoards of other revelers down towards the Sydney Harbour and managed to find a semi-decent vantage point along King Street:
We had heard many stories about Sydney's fireworks being the best in the world and although we weren't necessarily standing in the best location, we'd have to say it was quite spectacular.. and if we were to do it again, it would be wise to consider getting a yacht and sitting out in the harbour with some wine and chilling for the afternoon!
Sydney reminded us a bit of Toronto and a bit of Chicago and while there were forgettable experiences (namely with customs, people in the service industry, unfriendly people, stores closing at 6pm, and everything being crazy expensive.... the city does have a few good things going for it. The food was generally above par, the city is easy to get around (even by foot) and the weather is pretty gorgeous. The other low point was the Swissotel Sydney though. We've stayed in more than a few Swissotels and the chain is generally considered to be fairly decent based on our experiences, but this one was weak on service, cheap on amenities and everything seemed a bit disfunctional... and to charge close to USD500 a night for that was just short of daylight robbery. Normally we are quite open to cities and cultures, but Sydney was mildly disappointing overall.
But with that said, we were only there for 2.5 days and we didn't really venture out to the suburbs of Sydney... so we may have missed out a bit there. Perhaps next time?
Having spent so long in South East Asia already, it was a bit strange how we had not visited Sydney before and so we were looking forward to some nice weather and good food as well as a view of Sydney Harbour's famed NYE fireworks.
We arrived early on the morning of the 29th, eager to catch a few hours of sleep after spending 8 hours on an overnight flight with far too many crying children and their rather ineffective parents. But before that, dealing with Australia immigration and customs was a right pain in the arse. Out of all the countries in the world, why does Sydney have to be so over the top with security? We had a much smoother exit going to both London and NY recently.
Nonetheless, we accepted that we live in a world where air travel has become more about pain and less about convenience.
We had decided on convenience by staying smack in the city center at the Swissotel Sydney along Market Street just neighbouring Sydney Tower:
A quick walk took us to Darling Harbour:
Followed by a one stop on the subway to Circular Quay - where Sydney Harbour, Sydney Bridge, the Opera House and what seemed to be all the tourists in the world had congregated.
The venue for our pre-NYE dinner the next day at the Quay Restaurant (more on that later)
On our first night there, we had a reservation at Pier Restaurant, an understated seafood oriented restaurant sitting on one end of Rose Bay, one of the myriad of bays surrounding the Greater Sydney area. One of the ways to get there was to take the 15 minute ferry ride from Circular Quay to Rose Bay:
The understated exterior of the Pier Restaurant just before dinner time:
One of the many post-modern apartment complexes in the Rose Bay area:
Our amuse bouche, kingfish tartare with capers, a touch of lemon? in a cone - clean, fresh fish with a nice balance of saltiness and acid:
A view from our table as the sun began to set:
Appetizer for Leeann consisted of spanner crab raviolis in seafood consomme
For Kevin it was a yellow fin tuna tartare with oscietra caviar, oyster cream and soy & mirin jelly. Conceptually very interesting, but the portion was a bit too big and there was perhaps a bit too much jelly in there making it a bit mushy.
Kevin's main course was another interesting combination. Roasted barramundi served with Serrano ham, witlof (which is basically an endive leaf), dutch carrots and a touch of bitter orange. The fish was roasted perfectly and the combination with the ham was just right:
Leeann opted for the slow roasted lobster with white asparagus, kale and lobster jus - Leeann was well into this dish!
Pier is known also for their desserts. Leeann's multi-layer mango construction with cereal called "migas". Bread crumbs, grains, a Sauternes custard topped with a mango egg and passionfruit icecream. Creativity and execution on top form here:
This was a wonder for Kevin. A deconstructed blueberry cheesecake icecream made with goats curd powder, chestnut crumble, white chocolate yoghurt and blueberries. Simply magical.
Pier was opened only in 2005 but has quickly gained a reputation for being one of the top restaurants in the world taking 3 stars in Australian Gourmet Traveller 2010. With Greg Doyle running the kitchen and Katrina Kanetani the pastry chef responsible for creating the awesome desserts, we would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone going to Sydney.
A view as we were leaving:
A meal for 2 with 1 glass of wine cost about USD250.
The next day, we met up with Kevin's uncle, aunt and cousin for lunch:
Then we headed to the railway station to have a quick look:
The Christmas spirit in Australia:
We decided to hop on the Sydney Light Rail bound for Lilyfield to have a look at the Sydney Fish Market.
A derelict shipyard off Sydney Fish Market:
Peter Doyle's Seafood Market:
Our oyster shucker:
Leeann's grilled abalones and scallop:
Some uni (sea urchin) which tasted a bit off (note to all, do not have the 'fresh' uni in Australia)
Oyster selection at Sydney Fish Market:
The rather disappointing Chinatown in Sydney:
The Rocks, the area just off the Sydney Bridge at Circular Quay which highlights some of the more historical facets of Sydney:
That evening we found ourselves at another one of Sydney's more prominent restaurants - Quay Restaurant. Run by Peter Gilmore, the restaurant took the Restaurant of the Year Awards in a few of the Australian publications for both 2009 and 2010 so we had high hopes. And although December 30 was not actually NYE yet, they had a special menu for AUD210 per person for an 8 course set menu and some pretty decent views of Sydney Harbour and the Opera House:
An amuse bouche of tuna tartare with oyster foam and pearls. Nice balance of flavours:
One of the Quay Restaurant's signature dishes, the Sea Pearls. Starting from the 12 o'clock position: tuna sashimi with oscietra caviar, octopus, mud crab, abalone and sea scallop. Presentation wise great, the abalone tasted great, but I think it was more novelty than flavours:
Mud crab congee with palm hearts. A Chinese touch to this rice porridge made it quite an interesting dish. Deep, powerful flavours made this quite a decent dish.
Pork belly with braised abalone, tofu and mushrooms. A moderate variation of some classic Cantonese dishes, this was not a bad course, although the roasted pork belly was a tad on the chewy side.
View of the Opera House from the restaurant:
Kevin's gently poached partridge breast was probably one of the highlights of the night. Served on top of a black pudding and walnut mash and some truffle custard and palm of hearts, the slight poaching of the partridge kept the gamey-ness of the meat and made the meat seem almost raw. This was beautiful:
As Leeann wasn't too big of a game bird fan, the partridge was replaced with fresh picked peas. It looked a bit uninspired, but the peas were gorgeous!
This was followed by a slow cooked lamb loin, and although we were in lamb territory, this dish was nothing particularly special, but it wasn't bad either.
Leeann's choice of white asparagus served under a pinenut truffle mash - refreshing and simple:
A view of the restaurant from the outside:
Going back to the food, our first dessert was a white peach granita served with peach icecream. Very peachy flavour as one would expect, quite an interesting combination.
Some petit fours:
Kevin's favourite of the evening was the eight textures of chocolate. Not as chocolatey as one would think, and a decent finish to the meal.
We had high hopes for this meal, and while the food was decent, it was a bit disappointing given the NYE type price and execution of the dishes. We would give props to the nice twist on contemporary Australian cooking and perhaps the combination of the set menu just wasn't put together with as much thought as there should have been. The location at Sydney Harbour was superb and we couldn't have asked for better seats. Service was very good, although as the restaurant got more packed (we had a 7pm seating), the wait staff's attention became increasingly divided also.
Our experience at the Pier Restaurant was better and the food was also much better value there. But with that said, we would still recommend going to the Quay Restaurant on a normal day where the food vs value ratio might be more worthwhile. Meal for 2 with 2 glasses of wine was approximately USD380.
The view of the Rocks as we were leaving the restaurant:
Sydney Harbour Bridge from the Rocks area:
Overseas Passenger Terminal, where the Quay Restaurant is at:
Circular Quay piers:
Martin Place:
The next day was the last day of 2009 and we decided to take a risk and head over to Bills, Bill Granger's cafe restaurant which also happens to have a branch in Kamakura, Japan. Located in Darlinghurst - an area slightly to the East of downtown Sydney, this brunch pad is known to have a bit of a queue on weekends. We went early (around noon) and was told it was going to be a 45 minute wait with about 3 parties in front of us. We normally don't wait, but having come this far, we decided to go for it... 30 minutes later, the maitre d' comes out and tells everyone that the kitchen can't handle any more diners and it would ANOTHER 2 hours before we would see any food being served, so we had no choice but to find something else! How sad..
So instead, we headed over to Rockpool Bar and Grill where Kevin had their famed Wagyu burger and Leeann had a mince Wagyu bolognese. Oh, and a very nicely done margarita to go with it the burger too!
From there, it was only a 5 minute walk over to St. Mary's Cathedral:
As we were heading into mid-afternoon, we decided to go and check out prime spots to see the fireworks at midnight. Not too far from the Cathedral was the Sydney Domain/Botanical Gardens, and with 3pm just around the corner, this was the scene at one of the viewpoints:
Talk about ridiculous. We decided it was better to try out luck nearer the time at Circular Quay.
But before that, we headed back to Darling Harbour for the 9pm mini-fireworks session... which was not bad, but nothing spectacular either.
We headed back to the hotel to do some packing and to sort out our next morning's early flight out to Wellington, New Zealand and with 20 minutes to go before 2010 kicked in, we headed on foot with the hoards of other revelers down towards the Sydney Harbour and managed to find a semi-decent vantage point along King Street:
We had heard many stories about Sydney's fireworks being the best in the world and although we weren't necessarily standing in the best location, we'd have to say it was quite spectacular.. and if we were to do it again, it would be wise to consider getting a yacht and sitting out in the harbour with some wine and chilling for the afternoon!
Sydney reminded us a bit of Toronto and a bit of Chicago and while there were forgettable experiences (namely with customs, people in the service industry, unfriendly people, stores closing at 6pm, and everything being crazy expensive.... the city does have a few good things going for it. The food was generally above par, the city is easy to get around (even by foot) and the weather is pretty gorgeous. The other low point was the Swissotel Sydney though. We've stayed in more than a few Swissotels and the chain is generally considered to be fairly decent based on our experiences, but this one was weak on service, cheap on amenities and everything seemed a bit disfunctional... and to charge close to USD500 a night for that was just short of daylight robbery. Normally we are quite open to cities and cultures, but Sydney was mildly disappointing overall.
But with that said, we were only there for 2.5 days and we didn't really venture out to the suburbs of Sydney... so we may have missed out a bit there. Perhaps next time?
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