A 23-year-old Australian born Chinese girl, grew up in the country, now living in the city…

Quay won SMH’s Good Food Guide “Restaurant of the year” award, with an 18/20 ranking and 3 Chef’s hats! Being the restaurant of the year, you would expect perfect service, but it didn’t quite hit the mark. When we settled into our table (with a frickin’ FANTASTIC view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House!) a family friend accidentally spilt their glass of water onto the table. Not only did it take an AGE for the waitress to notice, but when she did – all she did was this: she went away for a few minutes and came back with 2 pieces of square foil (same size as napkin) and two napkins and placed them over the wet patch on the tablecloth.

Seriously? As a waitress at the “Restaurant of the year” – that’s what you come up with? This is how you treat customers? You can’t even be bothered changing the tablecloth? Not only did her “solution” ruin the aesthetics of the dining area, but when the guest especially requested the waitress change the tablecloth, the waitress said: “I have to ask my manager about it.” Seriously?! You need to ask your manager for permission to change a tablecloth? Do you think the manager will actually say no, especially after the customer requested it? Bleh!!

She certainly did not seem like a n00b waitress and she couldn’t have been busy with other customers at that time, because we were the first to arrive! After that “incident”, funnily enough, she didn’t come near our table anymore, and other wait staff served us and they were really friendly and helpful. It’s not even like we were being unreasonable or rude when we requested the tablecloth change… Apart from that – the rest of the dining experience was quite enjoyable!

We ordered the 7 course degustation (Tasting menu) and it was definitely a treat and a half multiplied by 2!

This actually wasn’t officially on the menu – but was rather a small, little welcoming dish, courtesy of the kitchen

Sea Pearls: Sashimi tuna, aquaculture caviar, sea scallop, smoked eel, octopus, mud crab, abalone – this is Quay’s signature dish and with good reason! 5 balls of “fishy brilliance!” That shiny silver stuff on top is edible too!

Mud crab congee: Hand shelled mud crab, palm hearts, Chinese inspired split rice porridge

Crisp confit of pig belly: braise of abalone, silken tofu, Japanese mushrooms, chive flowers

Gently poached quail breast: bitter chocolate black pudding and walnut crumbs, truffle custard, fresh palm hearts, white borage buds – the black pudding in this tasted odd. It was salty.

Slow cooked pure bred Suffolk lamb loin: young vegetables, garlic custard, roasted quinoa, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, hazelnuts

White peach snow egg – I really like this dish too, I think it was guava sorbet, but it also had a hint of strawberry, the hard, top bit from creme bruleé, frothy, wispy stuff from soufflé and custard… Look at that oozy, custardy goodness ooze out… *drools*

Eight texture chocolate cake featuring Amedei ‘Chuao’ Chocolate – I actually had this last November at the Aids trust of Australia, Food and Wine fair – I think this is called Eight texture chocolate cake, because of the hot chocolate melty goodness drooped on top… hm…

Coffee, Tea Petits Fours

Quay
Overseas Passenger Terminal, The Rocks, Sydney 2000