Claude's

4.3 Below Average

Food  6      Ambience  4      Service  5      Value  2     

A very disappointing trip to Claude's last Saturday. A hyper expensive 8 course degustation menu that managed to deliver zero memorable dishes. All the ambience of the Supreme Court library. Charged us corkage (at $25 per) on 3 bottles more than we actually brought. Could not recommend it for any reason.

Feb 13, 2012 

5.8 Average

Food  5      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  4     

Three of us dined on a Thursday night and had the degustaton with matching wine.

A motley of delicately cooked and assembled vegetables with slivers of protein, sans sauce or seasoning, baby-food for the glitterati, mash for the paddo-set - all easily plated by a 2nd year apprentice. Molecular gastronomy without the molecular or as it turns out, much gastronomy either.

Wine pours generous, perhaps, to distract us from the food? Service polite but perfunctory.

Verdict: ingredients of impeccable provenance, cooked simply with minimal seasoning, texture or processing. Individual elements failed to meld into a seamless whole but languished, piecemeal on the plate.

Bland, insipid, bland. What planet were you on? Shame on you!

Dec 17, 2011 

3.3 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  2      Service  5      Value  1     

Wow, what a horrible place. Firstly, the set menu is laughable, $135 for the worlds tiniest portions. The ambience is stale and boring. You'll find lots of plastic surgery and plenty of wine wankers. The price does not justify the quality of food at all. Cafe Sydney, Pier and even Wildfire leave this place for dead. There was no imagination in the menu at all, the chicken liver was borderline horrible (a couple who were eating nearby could barely stomach it)

The dessert and the wine were good, but not great for what you'd expect at this price point. Don't waste your time or money. Sydney has far far better to offer.
The only good thing about this place was the company I was with and the wine.

Nov 24, 2011 

5 Average

Food  5      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  3     

Soulless overpriced food. Small portions which didn't satisfy. Hideous charges for byo. Indifferent service. Chef clearly absent in both mind and body. Don't waste your money. There are plenty of good restaurants around showing verve and passion. Those qualities clearly left Claude's a while ago. Tragic.

May 19, 2011 

5 Average

Food  5      Ambience  5      Service  7      Value  3     

This was a great letdown for us. I've never written a review before but I felt I had to this time hoping it will help others who want to try out this restaurant.

Claude's is completely over-rated! First of all, the prices are ridiculous for the quality of food you get. I had the duck and it was so chewy it was even difficult to cut it with the knife. My friend had a 'lamb pie' as an entree, which looked exactly like a tiny sausage roll!! I have to say though the souffle was pretty good.

The service was OK but we had to ask a few times to order another bottle of wine. This could be OK for an average restaurant but if you're playing so 'hard to get' like Claude's, you should do better. The atmosphere is pretty bland too. You walk into a white room with absolutely no soul or liveliness. I get that they're trying to create an intimate space but it was quite stiff and not very pleasurable really. That said, I could have gotten over everything if the food was outstanding but it isn't and it's a real shame.

May 13, 2011 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  8     

Why do people write such lengthy, boring reviews? Nothing better in their lives.
Anyway, Its been a while since I've been back but I really can not fault the food nor service. What a wonderful time we had.

Feb 04, 2011 

7.5 Recommended

Food  5      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  5     

Having heard of Claude's downhill slide from greatness, both from reviewers on this page and also from the Herald, my wife and I went to this small dining room for her birthday.

We almost missed the front door, if not for our fellow diners who were lingering outside and who had apparently also booked a table tonight with us. This, coupled with the fact that we have to ring the bell (ala My Kitchen Rules) puts us off a little bit prior to any dining experience. What's missing are bags of presents we are supposed to bring for the host!

So I suggest that the management there do away with the bell and the locked front door for a start. Not only it was confronting for first-timers like us (and you would like to have more first-timers before they become your regulars), but it is also quite distracting for those who are already seated at their table.

But enough about this, let's get on with the food and the dining experience. Firstly, to the staff. The waitress and sommelier were very helpful in their service and for us it was the highlight of the night. They were friendly and the waitress, upon knowing that it was my wife's birthday, produced a surprise slice of cake with a candle on top at the end of our tasting menu course.

But alas, the high points end there as the food did not quite match the service. In our estimation, the tasting menu was over-priced. It was more of a $110 ish price instead of $165. My first thought is that we should give chef chui the benefit of the doubt. After all, Claude's still young under her tutelage but on second thoughts, that was 6 years ago!

Any menu problems and food experimentation should have been ironed out in 6 years, wouldn't it? So, after 6 years, and in 2011, the food should be superbly prepared and cooked? But alas, it does not match the price and other similar-priced tasting menu on offer elsewhere. The highlight of the food experience coming only in the desserts - the infamous souffle is one of the best we've tasted!

Should we still give chef Chui the benefit of the doubt? Maybe just one more time. But if our next visit does not significantly improve our taste bud, sorry to say, but claude's is indeed on a downhill slide.

Jan 10, 2011 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  6      Service  9      Value  9     

A truly great restaurant, Chef Chui Lee deserves three Hats, the degustation with truffle option was so divine it was truly inspirational. Her take on French food has truly matured to the point of excellence par non. The staff were ever so pleasant and helpful yet not overbearing. We will be back!

Oct 11, 2010 

6.3 Average

Food  6      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  5     

Last visit was 2009 just after the whole place was redecorated so I was recollecting from the photos I took that night. The place is quite clean with minimal decoration but with some thoughts put into it but I think they can do better in the lighting department.

Service was quite attentive. Food wise, me and my wife got puzzled at the place for this was the 2nd time we came and same cloud arise when we walked out, it's not easy to describe Chui's style of cooking as she kind of trying to infuse asian into french, like cured trout with shiso surround and next to the fish is a piece of deep fried something that you can find @ dim sum trolley in chinatown.

Plus the flavour is half way house between those 2 cultures, we just asked ourselves "why she needs to do that?" as some of the stuff she did to the food did not enhance the flavour profile of the dish but rather complicate it and that's the reason we were quite foggy in tasting her dishes.

I think at that time the restaurant does not warrant 3 hats, probably mid 2s but ain't going to find out if she's improved or not as we had no desire to go back from our 2 disappointing visits.

Aug 26, 2010 

2.8 Not Recommended

Food  3      Ambience  1      Service  6      Value  1     

Have you ever had the feeling that you have been fleeced? I have and it was by ‘Claude’. I had heard so many whispers over the years about what goes on behind the clandestine, secure blue door at 10 Oxford Street, now I know.

From the moment we walked in the door and had it calmly double deadlocked behind us by our smiling hostess, we knew we were in for something special. It was only later that we realised that they don’t lock the door to stop people coming in.

The first thing that hit me like a wet tepid tea bag across the face after entering the building, was the insipid musac playing and the deathly quiet clanging of cutlery belonging to a lone elderly couple dining who had past their “conversations at dinner” age. The tiny room was distastefully adorned with a white theme that seems to lend itself to a breakfast room in a high class Russian hotel and not a top Sydney eatery.

So what about the food. To start we were given 2 marble sized duck pate balls coated in a pastry crust. Although the pastry was crisp and fresh, the injected filling tasted more like a ball or lard than duck pate, sticking to the roof of my mouth as I tried to swallow, an unpleasant experience not worth the taste.

Next to arrive was another complimentary dish, a miso and seaweed mousse served in a very small ovate ramekin. I must say that this truly was inedible. Grayish green in colour and garnished with a few flecks of black dried seaweed, it had the consistency of semi set jelly with the saltiness of anchovies. We both had one spoon and went no further.

Although we came intending to get the tasting menu, we ordered alacarte, not willing to commit to the $165 p/h for the tasting menu after the experience of the first two dishes. For entree we ordered the “Spanner crab beignet” and the “Rock oyster in egg drop broth”. The spanner crab sat on the plate with a salmon roe jelly and some veggies, which did look appealing, however, it was overcooked and over salted again (the theme for the night).

The Rock oysters arrived, all 3 of them, shriveled and black, sitting in a very salty chicken broth with some straw mushrooms and chives with an egg dropped in it, as the name would suggest. Overall I would have preferred by grandmothers chicken soup which is a lot cheaper and much more satisfying.

For mains we both ordered the “Fillet of Angus, Black Olive Relish”, which I would have to say was the only saving grace of the meal. Arriving at the table after a 20 minutes wait between courses, the fillet was presented proud, on top of beautifully roasted cubed beetroot and tomatoes with a black olive relish drizzled over. The meat itself was cut into perfectly round medallions, which I have to admit was a bit 1980’s (but fitted in with the theme of the place), however, once I tasted my first flavorful, delicate, juicy mouthful I was taken over with that fuzzy feeling that you get when your senses are completely overwhelmed. This was close to the best steak I had ever devoured.

Upon finishing the steak I asked if I could speak to the kitchen staff to let him know that I had just eaten one of the best steaks I have ever had. The waitress assured me that it would be fine to go into the kitchen and give my compliments to the kitchen staff. So I did, when I got inside the kitchen the waitress announced my presence to the chef and told him that I had something to say. So I said “I just wanted to say that, that was the best steak I have ever had”. The kitchen staff looked up for a second grunted and got back to chopping his veggies. I wasn’t too impressed by his attitude, but I can’t presume to know the reason fro his mood.

Anyhow, finally we had dessert. Which was nothing special and walked away with a $300 dent in my wallet, without wine. Overall I would have to say it was a really bad dining experience and I will never be back. I advise anyone under the age of 60 to go to one of the 100 better inner Sydney dining establishments, that offer a better environment, more reasonable prices, more menu variety and happier kitchen staffs. For me, Claude’s a really expensive steak with unnecessary commentary.

Mar 23, 2010