Quay Restaurant

There you can have a unique dining experience. The food is tasty and innovative, but not cheap at all. However, I can guarantee that you will have really pleasant memories from this restaurant.

Was there with my parents!
The view is stunning! We were lucky enough to sit on the table right at the window with the view straight to the harbour bridge!
The service was outstanding so was the food!
Was a wonderful experience!

Every time I book a trip home to Sydney, it's true...I'm probably more excited about putting together the "hit list" of Sydney's best eats then actually seeing my family and friends. Shhh...

Quay Restaurant, of course, has featured year after year without any availabilities while I've been home, but this time...it seemed as if the food gods from above cleared their schedules to let me in.

Recently voted Number 26 (up one place from 2010) on the coveted S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant’s list, Quay has become the number one restaurant in Australia and also named the Best Restaurant in Australasia.

And if there was an award for Best View in Australia, I'm confident that Quay would have been a serious contender...

Situated by the Overseas Passenger Terminal in the dress circle of the harbour, our table was in the tower block offering the most spectacular views, sweeping from the Opera House to the Harbour Bridge - WOW!!

With my belly still stuffed from my late lunch, and some time constraints, our table of six opted for the 4-course menu for $155 which had 5 choices per course. There was definitely no food envy for me...I think I nailed it with my choices :)

With a lychee martini in one hand, the waiter kicked off our 4-course menu with a sumptuous display of chef Peter Gilmore's culinary genius, offering us an amuse-bouche of eel jelly with carrot puree topped with crumbs.

Next up for me were the Sea Pearls, a signature dish which I had read much about, made up of sashimi tuna, sea scallop, crab, and smoked eel with octopus. Four perfect spheres were presented like gems on a plate. Our waitress suggested that we dissected these pearls and ate half at a time to really enjoy the flavours, before coming around the plate again to devour the rest.This seemed to work...and dare I say, my two favourites of scallop, and the smoked eel and octopus pearls seemed to balance out the blandness of the tuna and crab pearls...

Then there was the black lipped abalone. Served with pearl oyster mushrooms and rare breed pig belly. This was absolutely delicious, with all the gorgeous flavours infused in the earth and sea consommé. If anything, the pork belly probably wasn't necessary - not because it didn't come with crackling ;) but because I was having the Berkshire pork jowl as my main course. Oink Oink.

The jowl is the fleshy part under the jaw of the pig. Coated with a maltose crackling and served with a cauliflower puree and prunes, this incredibly soft and tender piece of meat was certainly a highlight for me.

And then the finale. The main reason for my wanting to get a table at Quay. The Snow Egg. A poached meringue egg, with a “yolk” of custard apple ice-cream, coated in a crunchy golden praline maltose shell, and sits on a bed of guava granita and a slick of guava fool.

"Heavenly" sums up the taste quite nicely, and I would go as far as saying that this is probably THE best dessert I've ever eaten, and more scrumptious than Noma's "Snowman" - but only just...

At just over $200 a head for the 4-course meal including cocktails, wine and coffee, it's difficult to say whether Quay steps up to my belly's expectations. Service was as good as any medium priced restaurant I had been to in Sydney, and the dining room lacked the grandeur I was hoping for...but I guess the magical views compensate that.

Food wise, it was very good. I particularly enjoyed the Asian influences throughout the menu, with a Modern Australian flair. Like all the "hot tables" right now, the trend seems to be about the nature based cuisine movement which is centred on the idea that we can save and protect diminishing or disappearing plant and animal species by eating them, mixed with molecular gastronomy. Noma's head chef, René Redzepi, and Fat Duck's, Heston Blumenthal probably demonstrate these best.

Definitely worth going to if you fancy splashing out on the most incredible dessert ever, and a view to match.

For full review and pictures, please go to www.gourmetbelly.wordpress.com

Made reservation to this restaurant few months in advance. This restaurant live up to it's standard. Amazing view of Sydney's harbour, beautiful ambience and atmosphere inside the restaurant. The food was exquisite and delectable, food was of very high quality and only the freshest produce was used. Excellent service, staff was very polite, friendly and attentive. Overall, a fabulous and memorable dining experience at this restaurant.