With almost half as many blog post reviews on Urbanspoon as it costs for one person to eat here, this next restaurant has a lot of hype to live up to. Luckily, a $200 Good Food voucher as a Christmas present afforded me (literally) the chance to dine here as otherwise, I would have resigned it to the “maybe one day” pile.
This fortunate man went to…
Quay
With one of the hottest views in Sydney town no matter where you sit inside, it pays to do your research before even picking up the phone to book. Google “Overseas Passenger Terminal cruise ship dates” to obtain the days when ships will be parked in front of the restaurant, robbing you of your view. Hey, you’re about to spend $175-$225 (not including wine) so you’d better get the view along with your meal. The second thing to commit to before calling is to try and get a weekday booking between Mon-Thurs if you’re not particularly keen on waiting 6 months for a weekend booking. I managed to get a booking 1.5 months from the day of my call simply by cross referencing the list of cruise ship docking times with whatever night they next had free. I promise you if you just do these two simple things then you’re already on your way to a good night.
I’m not really gonna review the food here because honestly, it was all pretty good. Two things were a bit salty: the congee and the XO Sea, coincidentally the two most Asian dishes there, but other than that no complaints from me.
What I will review is the experience. What does spending so much money get you in terms of service? Read on after the food pics to find out. And apologies for the low quality pics not doing the food justice as it was pretty dark inside.
Quay Tasting Menu
Raw beetroot, rosehip cultured cream. Manjimup truffle, violets
Congee of Northern Australian mud crab, fresh palm heart, egg yolk emulsion
Butter and salt
Smoked and confit pig cheek, scallop, kombu, koji, shitake, sesame
XO Sea. Five sea textures
Roasted masterstock duck, persimmon, black rice, miso, endive cream, kailan blossoms
Grass fed pure Angus beef, cultured fermentation of black barley, smoked and raw funghi
Snow egg, custard apple flavour
‘Chocolate ethereal’. Chocolate, almond, muscatel, oloroso caramel
Quay Petit Fours
Whilst Quay was arguably worth the price, I’m gonna write about the quirks and inconsistencies since everyone seems to love reading about things going wrong rather than things going right. You’re all sick by the way. Seriously though, I expected and found Quay’s service to be very polished so it was interesting to see when things didn’t go quite right.
When you first walk through the glass doors of Quay, the maitre’d offers to take your coat which he then passes to one of his lackeys before leading you to your table. It’s hard to describe the the shape of the interior as it’s all curves and straight lines but we had been place at a table on a slight stage which was located behind the tables next to the glass windows. This stage is not very high, maybe 15cm if that, but it’s definitely high enough to cause an embarrassing and perhaps premature end to the night which is why the maitre’d points it out to us as we get to it. Not that this helps other people as we see two other people, one a waiter(!), almost stack it throughout the night both going up and down the stage. While I appreciate that the tables further away from the windows are higher so that you can see over the heads of other people, perhaps it would be prudent of them to spend some money on installing some LEDs that highlight the stage’s edges so that they avoid any costless lawsuits.
You’re allowed unlimited bread but you should probably finish the piece in front of you first lest you want to appear greedy. Of course, offering unlimited bread and trying to catch the eye of the bread waiter is another thing entirely. I had to look around and wait 5-10 mins before the maitre’d asked me if I would like more bread before disappearing to get, and I would like to imagine scold but probably not really, the bread waiter.
Interesting choices of clothing by other diners. Quay doesn’t have many requirements in terms of clothing. From their website:
Please refrain from wearing athletic clothing or footwear. Gentlemen should not wear shorts or sleeveless t-shirts.Footwear: Please refrain from wearing flip flops or ugg boots. Gentlemen should wear fully covered shoes.
This doesn’t stop people from wearing: hoodies, leggings as pants, ugly sweaters, any kind of headgear, runners, anything from Weird Al Yankovic’s music video Tacky. So please if you go to Quay, wear something nice.
The tea and coffee is free as part of the tasting menu so go nuts and try something that sounds interesting or exotic. I highly recommend one of the teas near the bottom of the list as they’re served in a see through teapot with an interesting flower bulb that opens up when it gets dunked in the hot water.
You’re gonna need about 4 hours to devote to this place. I hope you go with someone you like or can have an amazing conversation with otherwise it’s gonna get awkward.
Don’t be on your phone too much when you’re here. It’s all about the food, the view and of course, the people you’re with. That being said, feel free to take any photos you want. You’re paying a lot of money after all.
And maybe last of all, eat slowly! Taste and chew everything!
Quay deserves these metrics:
Masterchef Meal: 5/5. I feel fortunate and slightly superior in having eaten not one but two Masterchef finale dishes as they were meant to be cooked.
Dat View: 5/5. I found myself staring out the glass and thinking, “actually, the Opera House is pretty freaking weird looking and unique.” Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up looking at the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House all my life that they both don’t look like anything special anymore but when you spend 4 hours staring at the Opera House, something starts to click and you find yourself amazed that human beings were able to design and create something so iconic and fragile-looking, much like the food in front of you.
NSFW: 3/5. They should get that stage looked at before some old granny takes a tumble.
Date of visit: 21 July 14. Time of visit: 6:30pm
Man Goes To Eat 