Quay

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  7     

Quite expensive but amazing flavours, beautiful presentation and brilliant service.

Mar 30, 2012 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  10      Service  8      Value  7     

They are serious about booking 6 months in advance. I had been emailing back and forth trying to secure a table for two. When I thought we had just about settled on a date, the person said at the bottom of the email that there will be a cruise ship docked that day which may obstruct our view. Good thing I read carefully and I quickly changed my date. I also re-confirmed that there would not be a cruise ship docked at the terminal on our new booking date.

We arrive and are shown to our seats, which were in a little secluded area just to the left after passing the hostess station. At first I was a little disappointed, as it seemed that they had shoved two tables into this odd area as we were separated from the rest of the dining room by the bar. We had a lovely view of the Harbour Bridge, and could see all the way through the dining room to the Opera House.

As the night went on, however, I did come to appreciate our little spot. It's a good spot for a romantic dinner, but if you're in a bigger party, it seemed better to be in the main dining area.

We decided to both order the full tasting menus: I ordered the "no red meat" one and my husband ordered the regular one. We also got the matched wines with our respective courses. I was very impressed that they had vegetarian and no red meat menus on hand.

My favourites were the 1st course of raw freshwater marron (a first for both of us), with almonds, bergamot marmalade, grapefruit, and green mango. It was lovely and fresh. I also really enjoyed the poached rock lobster, squid, golden tapioca, and lobster velvet. It was really velvety smooth and rich, and I would've been perfectly happy with a big bowl of it.

Even my vegetarian dish of shiitake, chestnut, and nameko mushrooms with root vegetables, aged gouda custard, hazelnuts and white lentil leaves was earthy and rich.

The weakest dish in my tasting menu was the trumpeter which was a bit overcooked and dry, a mistake I wasn't expecting to happen at Quay. The white nectarine snow egg lived up to the hype and was amazing. My husband enjoyed all of his meat dishes, and said the full blood Wagyu with bitter chocolate black pudding and oxtail consomme was the highlight.

The wine matching was superbly done, and the sommelier was friendly, informative, and knowledgeable. All in all, I'm glad we had finally been to Quay as we have been meaning to for quite some time, but don't think I'll be back again.

The location and view can't be beat. It's definitely a place for a special occasion as it was not very cheap at all, $700 in total for 2 degustations with matched wines and champagne to start. While I did really enjoy my meal, I thought it was a bit overpriced.

Mar 29, 2012 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  8     

Stunning setting, attentive service, wonderful food.

Feb 17, 2012 

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  7     

Overall the staff were great, the wine selection was lovely, and the degustation menu was just fantastic. As for the value, perhaps, it was a bit on the expensive side, but definitely would like to go back for a special occasion.

Feb 10, 2012 

8 Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  4     

The food was beautiful. Art on a plate! Delicious and exquisite! Quite possibly the best food experience in Sydney. Booking months in advance, we went here to sample the 4 course menu and were not disappointed. The wait staff were very attentive, and the food was quite amazing. Expensive eat, but I would definitely return here.

Feb 10, 2012 

7 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  6     

The booking experience was woeful. I tried online and then had to book over the phone as well. I reserved one of the restaurant car spaces (for $25) but when we got there the parking attendant told me that there were no parking spots because there was a cruise ship in. I rang the restaurant and they told me we were in the wrong spot and needed to go to Hickson Rd (I wasn't told that when I booked nor was I told there would be a huge boat blocking the famous view).

Luckily we had a great table on the top level which had a view of the Harbour Bridge but I felt sorry for the people downstairs who only had a view of the side of the ship.

Thankfully things got better from there. We had ordered a book to be signed by Peter for our daughter who is a chef and that was sitting on the table when we arrived. The staff also arranged for her to briefly meet Peter at the end of the night.

The food was as good as expected. The combination of flavours was amazing and everything was cooked perfectly. We had the 4 course $165 menu and between the three of us got to sample 12 different dishes. We all thought the first 2 courses were the best, delicate, light and flavoursome. We had the rhubarb salad, crab congee and marron to start, then the flathead, quail and pig cheek. Third course was squab, pig jowl and wagyu, all cooked perfectly but, perhaps, the flavours were a little overpowering for the delicately cooked meats.

Desserts were the ewe's milk icecream, chocolate cake and snow egg, favourite was the ewe's milk icecream.

Drinks were overpriced, $19 for a glass of Clover Hill sparkling, $10 for a beer, $9 for coffee (with tasty house made petit fours that you can't eat because you're too full!).

All in all, fabulous food, attentive service and great views (when there's no ship). A great place to take visitors to Sydney for a special night out.

Feb 07, 2012 

6.8 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  9      Service  5      Value  6     

A group of 9 of us went for dinner on a Saturday night. We did the 4 courses and plus a few bottles of wine it came to $275pp.

Food was very good but not amazing, I don't think anyone at our table was blown away by anything, and some were a little disappointed. Best reviews were for the 1 course beetroot salad. I really enjoyed the Wagyu beef in the 4th course.

Service - for fine dining I would have expected more. They got peoples orders wrong for 2 of the courses and for all the courses had to ask who ordered what as they were brought out.

With all the hype all of us ordered the snow egg. We all appreciated the effort and delicateness of the dish, however, it was a little bit of a let down in terms of taste. Some did not bother finishing it.

None of us said we would go back. I went to Tetsuya's last year and do plan on going back there. It's worth the extra $40 for the degustation with matching wines.

Feb 02, 2012 

9.8 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  9     

Had a great night here a few weeks ago for my partners birthday. Excellent table, service, ambiance and sensational food. Professional and attentive staff. Tried "Pig Jowl" for the first time ever. Died and went to heaven as I ate the 8 texture chocolate cake.

Hint: Don't book the 6pm sitting if a boat is leaving that night. The cruise ships block most of the view across Circular Quay and as we discovered, they can run late and leave a few hours later after scheduled sailing time. I suggest just going for the later timeslot.

Feb 01, 2012 

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  7     

We had a table with an amazing view that really made our night. Service was impeccable. The snow egg was amazing! The rest of the meal was great but very expensive. Happy to pay the extra buck for the view and service.

Jan 22, 2012 

5.3 Average

Food  7      Ambience  8      Service  3      Value  3     

Disappointed... twice New Years Eve and Jan 18th. Ran out of certain drinks on NYE and the canapes were very difficult to find...trays were empty and servers kept going to the same areas... at $400 x 4 not worthy. Jan 18... ok food but just uncommonly poor and arrogant service for an upscale restaurant... 8 people... $2000... can't recommend on any level.

Jan 20, 2012