SYDNEY: Tetsuya's for Dad's 60th!: beverly

beverly

SYDNEY: Tetsuya's for Dad's 60th!

Jan 14, 2010 23:23

Tetsuya's
529 Kent St
Sydney, Australia
PRICE: $$$$$
RATING:

TETSUYA'S really needs no introduction, if you know you who's who of global fine-dining cuisine. What I particularly love about Tetsuya's is that the food is different. You'll see barely a dish that is easily recreated somewhere else. It's not just "a good steak", or "great grilled fish", which you'd otherwise expect at a fine-dining restaurant.. Tetsuya's goes beyond that. The ingredients and flavours that are matched together are so unique, I've not tried any of their dishes at another restaurant. This is why I always say they're worth the price - it's just so unique.

Specifically, we were here for Dad's 60th birthday dinner.

My parents are total foodies (hello, where do you think I got my passion for food from?!) and LOVE going around checking out restaurants. They haven't had a chance to go to Tetsuya's so we thought Dad's 60th birthday was the perfect opportunity - to us, it's not really the place to just randomly go, you need an ultra special occasion to warrant it. So this was perfect to celebrate :) Btw, FYI, they only serve degustation there and it's (I think) $175 per person for the degustation. Add $90 for the 9 matching wines.

The atmosphere is somewhat relaxed, with a crisp and clean swing to the decor and ambience. Simple black chairs and a crisp white tablecloth, a plush Victorian-setting restaurant it is not. The simplistic Japanese-style decor works, and the service is exceedingly knowledgable and very polite. And so it was here that we happily ploughed through a 3+ hour degustation dinner - epic!

I actually thought the food wasn't as good as it was the previous time we visited Tetsuya's many moons ago. Not that the quality wasn't good (I don't think that would ever happen!), but just that some of the dishes didn't suit my tastebuds - in particular a pea dish, and a bean dish... both of which totally flummoxed me. Thankfully, those were small and the other dishes were fabulous.

It's a fabulous restaurant and a real dining experience, well worth a visit if you're ever in Australia. An epic culinary adventure :)

Me and the parentals

HELLO THERE

The Tetsuya restaurant is a stand-alone little house in the middle of the city

Waiting for dinner to start... with stomachs rumbling ;)

We were seated at the window facing their little garden

Warm sourdough roll with truffle & parmesan butter - holy crap I LOVED that butter!!
Could eat big gobs of it, it was so airy and fluffy in texture.. mmm....

Chris takes a sip of the Japanese sake

Pea soup with bitter chocolate sorbet - I hate peas so this didn't go down with me.
I likened it to be about as enjoyable as drinking medicine ;)

Smoked ocean trout and avruga - Stunning. Soft raw trout that we mixed in with
a softly-poached egg yolk and masses of caviar. Decadence!

Pacific oysters with rice vinegar and ginger - I'm a huge fan of Tetsuya's oysters.
Such a simple dish but he truly uses the BEST oysters. Outstanding.

Tasty!

Marinated crystal bay prawns with soy caramel - looked rather plain and was
weirded out by eating raw prawns, but oh boy it was good. Delicate texture offset
by the stronger sweet-salty sauce.

Confit of petuna Tasmanian ocean trout with konbu, apple, daikon - My #2 favourite.
Hard to describe this perfection. Buttery-soft fish matched with the sharp flavour of
seaweed bits. Light, yet creamy in texture. Just bliss.

Terrine of Queensland spanner crab with avocado - I wouldn't have realised this was
crab if they hadn't told me. It kinda tasted like an (expensive) fish ball. Hrrmmm..

Some of the wines!

Grilled fillet of barramundi with braised baby fennel - the fish was so moist and tender
it was hard to believe it was grilled and not poached/steamed. A very lightly flavoured
fish, with an olive tapenade to provide that burst of flavour.

Twice-cooked de-boned spatchcock with foie gras - this was SO tender it was a bit
bizzare, almost like fish. I didn't like the squidgy skin encasing it, but the meat was great.

Wagu beef with lime and wasabi - my #1 dish of the night. OUTSTANDING! So tender
yet packed with untampered flavour. I ate it alone, without any of the condiments.

Cannellini beans with mascarpone - a "palette cleanser", apparently. It just made
me feel weirded out I was eating beans (ewww). But that mascarpone cheese was fab.

Pineapple and amaretto sorbet, Chai bavarois - the sorbet was too tart for my liking
but I liked the unusual Chai tea flavour of the bavarois (eg. custard type dish).

Summer pudding - custard, soaked berries and bread with lashings of cream. I didn't
expect to like it but ADORED the combination of tart and sweet flavours. #3 fave dish!

Chocolate chiboust with lemon curd and coffee marshmallow - the choc mousse was
rich and lovely, but lemon curd?!?! Totally spoiled the flavour. Partially saved by the
little coffee marshmallows floating in it (which I rescued from the super-tart curd).