Saturday night was an interesting night at the Quay. After waiting six months, two of us were getting excited as the morning arrived. First time trying a three chef hat restaurant and listed as number 29 out of 50 top restaurants around the World so as a food lover, you wouldn't miss this opportunity. Did it live up to my expectations? Yes the food was great and the highlight of Quay, I must say would have to be pork other than the guava snow egg signature dish. Peter Gilmore takes pork to another level (a Masterchef saying). It was cooked to perfection: tender meat, crispy skin.
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| Menu |
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| Menus |
My friends and I tried the four course dinner menu - two entrees, one main and a dessert dish. At first I thought I'd be hungry still if I just had those dishes but it was certainly fulfilling. If you're not full, unlimited sourdough with four different selections available. I think there was white, wholemeal, polenta and can't remember the last one, it could be wholegrains. To cleanse our palette, we were served a amuse bouche that was really refreshing. It was raw native freshwater marron with pomelo, young almonds and green mango.
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| Amuse bouche |
The first entree I chose was the fragrant jasmine poached chicken, shaved hand dived scallops and smoked white eggplant cream, pea blossoms perfumed with Korean virgin black sesame oil. I must say This is a cold dish and the chicken tasted pretty ordinary. As Caramel Egg pudding suggests - it does taste like an asian cold dish called pulled chicken. There was a white crispy vegetable that scallops that were shaved into strings intertwined to give a different texture but wasn't that special. I did however, love the soft fresh scallops that melted in my mouth. I don't think I've tried such sweet fresh scallops before that were raw without the fishy smell.
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| Fragrant jasmine poached chicken, shaved hand dived scallops and smoked white eggplant cream, pea blossoms perfumed with Korean virgin black sesame oil |
My next entree choice was the lobster covered in golden tapioca and looks a bit like caviar but not as salty. I must say this dish sounds really exotic but it's pretty ordinary. I think because squid isn't that tasty and I only really liked the lobster velvet. That was creamy and smooth. The best fresh lobster is from Masuya on O'Connell Street in Sydney, it is so sweet and fresh there.
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| Gentle poached southern rock lobster, hand caught Tasmanian squid, golden tapioca and lobster velvet |
Other dishes my friends tried looked nice but I didn't get to taste them so couldn't comment. The only thing I do add is that the congee of Northern Australian mud crab was really fragrant. I could smell it as I walked around to take a photo of it on the other side of the table.
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| Congee of Northern Australian Mud Crab, fresh palm heart and egg yolk emulsion |
The sashimi entree looked like a snail without the shell. It looks pretty delicate put together.
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| Sashimi of corner inlet rock flathead, Tasmania trumpeter, salt cured wild oyster cream, black lipped abalone, raw sea cabbage, green raddish, nasturtiums, warrigals and periwinkles. |
If you're chosing a main dish, you must have this pork selection from the menu. The pork is simply divine as I first mentioned. The skin has maltose which gives it a sweet crispy skin a bit like a toffee coat. The meat just falls off so easily. The cauliflower cream was great and there's a bit of sweetness and sourness from the prune that accentuates the taste of the pork. People normally cook baked apples with pork but prunes was used this this case to make it different but nice. There was an overload of prunes so hopefully you'll like prunes. The waiters did tell us to smell the pork but it was that strong like the one at Quarter 21. It's on the other table next to us but you could smell the trail. It was beautiful so this was nothing like that.
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| Berkshire pig jowl, maltose crackling, prunes, cauliflower cream, perfumed with prune kernel oil |
I tried a bit of the pig cheek which was an entree and the meat was as tender in this dish too. I loved the crispy artichoke that came with the dish. It had shaved scallops in this dish again and that scallop again is so soft and sweet to my liking :)
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| Smoked Confit pig cheek, shitake, shaved scallops, Jerusalem artichoke, Juniper bay |
There's no denying that my favourite part of every meal is the dessert. Famous through Masterchef, the snow egg is a bit hit. My friend L said that the snow egg is too sweet and she didn't like it. For me, I'm not into meringue but I do like guava and having shaved iced with guava juice was refreshing. Interestingly enough we were told to tap the egg before we cracked it. Inside you can see egg-like yolk. Rather interesting and tastes great! It wasn't sweet at all and apparently depending on seasonality, sometimes you don't get guava egg but some other flavour.
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| Guava Snow Egg |
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| Cracked Guava snow egg with meringue and custard inside |
Besides the guava egg, the ethereal sheets were divine. It was special because the textures were thin but crispy and there's flavours of chocolate and caramel all mixed to bring delight. I didn't have this dessert but even having one piece was enough to make me love it.
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| Ethereal sheets |
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| 8 Textured Chocolate Cake |
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| 8 Textured Chocolate Cake |
This cake was so rich in chocolate that I can't eat chocolate for a while. There's a recipe on the Masterchef website for this cake but after having tried it, I don't think I'll want to make it but I may try and make the Quay Snow Egg as that tastes better.
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| Petit Fours |
So there you have it, the entire - four course meal for $165. We had additional coffee or tea and complimentary petit fours. I couldn't finish it because the eight textured cake was enough to send me to on chocolate avoidance. I had the Darjeeling tea in a interesting teapot whilst my friends had coffee.
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| Darjeeling tea and coffee in a flask |
Overall the experience was good and the food was filling even though the portions were small. The service was friendly but the place needs a bit of a renovation. There's still outstanding views as it boasts the iconic Opera House outside the window sill. As one lady puts it, I had to rebook the restaurant the other night as some cruise ship was stationed at the Overseas Passenger Terminal blocking the marvellous views.
Summary Review of the Quay:
Food Review: 8/10
Ambience Review: 7/10
Service Review: 8/10
Price: $$$ (expensive)
Overall Review: 8/10
The Quay
Upper Level, Overseas Passenger Terminal
5 Hickson Road
The Rocks NSW 2000
(02) 9251 5600
Website: http://www.quay.com.au
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