I wouldn’t say traveling to Sydney was impromptu since I bought my flight ticket at least 3 months ahead. But it was a trip I didn’t think I would make if my colleague hadn’t asked me. Keke.

The first thing I did when I knew I’ll be travelling to Sydney was to search ‘Best restaurant in Sydney’ on the internet. Ha. And names like Tetsuya, LuMi, Sepia, Long Chim, Momofuku Seiobo came up. Oh, wow! So many! However, I could only have 1 atas fancy meal because my colleague didn’t share the same philosophy in food as me; Not everyone splurges on food and it isn’t nice to excuse myself too often to do my stuff since it’s a trip to travel together.

I narrowed down to Quay because I felt it was only right to eat Australian cuisine in Australia. Hee. And reservation was made via email.

For my 9pm appointment, I reached Quay punctually. However, I was informed my table wasn’t ready. Was led to a table in the bar area where I waited for 20 minutes. And for my dinner, I was given a table by the window with a very good view of Sydney Opera House. I was initially worried there wouldn’t be a view because I was exploring the area the previous day and there was a huge cruise ship blocking all view from Quay.

And between the AUD245 tasting menu and AUD180 4-courses menu (pages 1, 2), I went with the tasting menu. It’s the only right thing to do since I was on a trip. Keke. And with that, I commenced my AUD245 tasting menu dinner with:-

  

1) Dish #1, Complimentary (above) – Amuse bouche was potato cream sprinkled with burnt leek. And hidden at the bottom was yolk and salmon roe (ikura).

2) Dish #2 (above) – Salad of slow cooked carrots, sheep milk feta, smoked almonds, sherry caramel, pepitas, oca. And this was surprisingly good! I normally stay away from carrot if I could; A weird habit cultivated from my teens cause I read carrots are high in sugar. But this dish was so good! I really enjoyed it. Carrot was well cooked while retaining its crunchiness.

3) Dish #3 (above) – Chawanmushi of cauliflower, mud crab, broth. With crab from Northern Queensland, this was magically good. I wasn’t expecting the taste to blow me away. Not with its deceivingly plain plating.

  

4) Bread, Complimentary (above) – When I had my orders taken, I was informed by the waiting staff that the bread will come after my second course. I guess previous diners must have enquired lots. And for a solo diner, I was also given a whole sourdough which I could enjoy with either butter or sea salt infused with saffron, flowers and thyme. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the bread much. Barely finished one-quarter of it.

5) Dish #4 (above) – Smoked confit pork jowl, fermented mushroom custard, milk skin threads, young walnuts. I was pretty alarmed at how fatty it looked from the top. But after slicing through it, the texture of the meat beneath was amazing.

6) Dish #5 (above) – Uni, koshihikari rice, cured egg yolk, fish maw, ama ebi, umami broth. For this dish, the waiting staff poured the broth from a tea pot before me. And I watched the fish maw, etc melt away like ice. Rice beneath was similar to risotto. Really nice.

7) Dish #6 (above) – Roasted duck, XO stone pot rice, pickled mountain turnips. Quay’s definition of claypot rice must be scorched rice because it was mostly crunchy. It was a good thing pickled turnip was included because the dish was on the heavy side.

8) Dish #7 (above) – Arkady lamb, cavolo nero, garlic, seaweed, caper leves, nasturtium, orach.

9) Dish #8 (above) – Snow egg. Placed on curd (made with vanilla custard and cream) and granita, I was told to break the sphere to get to the ice cream within. And this dessert was no easy feat to make. To make the crunchy shell, maltose tuile was melted over the two hemi-spheres of soft poached meringue (that’s placed together to form a complete sphere) with a blowtorch; Maltose tuile wraps around the meringue under heat. I recommend watching Quay’s video on it so that one could better appreciate the dessert!

10) Dish #9 (above) – Eight textured chocolate cake. I read much about Quay’s chocolate cake prior to my visit. So when I realised the desserts on my tasting menu were ‘snow egg’ and ‘honey honey’, I asked if it was possible to somehow include it into my menu (I even said I don’t mind ordering it as a-la carte. Ha). And my waiting staff suggested swapping ‘honey honey’ for ‘eight textured chocolate cake’. And that, I did! Keke. The eighth texture to the cake was the hot dollop of chocolate which the waiting staff placed onto the cake. And the magical moment was when the hot chocolate melted the topmost layer of chocolate within seconds. Amazing, amazing piece of art.

11) Dish #10 (above) – Petit fours.

12) Coffee/tea, AUD10 (above) – Would have skipped my usual black coffee if I knew it was chargeable.

Had the chance to speak to one of the staff while waiting for my second dessert. And through her, I learnt the chocolate cake was originally on the degustation menu but was removed because it was too big a portion for guests to finish both the ‘eight textured chocolate cake’ and ‘snow egg’. She went on to say I made the right choice in swapping the ‘honey honey’ for it. =p And knowing I was from Singapore, the staff also shared they had a head chef who left Quay to open Whitegrass. When she mentioned that, I immediately recalled the pork dish at Whitegrass being very similar to Quay’s. Ahhh, now I know… So I guess if one wishes to try Australian cuisine but can’t fly to Australia anytime soon, one may visit Whitegrass? Same same but not.

For payment with credit card, an automated portable machine was used. During which, the waiting staff stepped aside for me to key in the tip amount. And between options of ‘percentage’ and ‘manual’, I went with keying in the tip amount manually. Do also note there’s a surcharge for using international credit card. I thought I exchanged sufficient Australian currency, but I was wrong. Ha.

Quay is definitely a restaurant one must visit when in Sydney. I couldn’t stop raving about my dining experience to my (foodie) friends after my dinner. It was so, so good.