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2007 Good Food Guide - Sydney winners announced

Zubberah

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royal618

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Tetsuyas is indeed brilliant. Food is amazing and wait staff are ninjas.

However, my only complaint is the matched wines. IMHO they were not on the level of the food, and a severe disappointment.

Heading of to Marque next weekend for their degustation, which should be very interesting!
 

Homme

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Originally Posted by Zubberah
Been to all the 3 and 2-star restaurants and largely agree. Glad Rockpool and Balzac got downgraded. The former has been grossly over-rated and over-priced for sometime (although American tourists seem to love it) and the latter is just far too salty. My only grip: Tetsuya's should really be in a class of its own. Near perfect and deserving of its #5 best restaurant in world.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/good-livi...222074915.html

http://www.smh.com.au/news/good-livi...222070830.html



I think i read in the article that Rockpool narrowly missed out on getting a hat back.
 

Aus_MD

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Originally Posted by Zubberah
Tetsuya's should really be in a class of its own. Near perfect and deserving of its #5 best restaurant in world.


I agree. Tetsuya is the Armani of restaurants. I would qualify your statement slightly:

... deserving of its Restaurant Magazine placing as #5 best restaurant in world.


IMG_9576.jpg


The man on the left is Australia's chief judge in the restaurant assessment panel. Why am I not surprised that his tastes and my own do not coincide?
 

royal618

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I would have said Rockpool was the Armani to be honest!
smile.gif
 

Aus_MD

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I see Rockpool as Prada.

Another of the judging panel, Franz Scheurer:

Formal -

franz_kilt.jpg


Informal -

Fsbike.jpg


I'm beginning to see why my assessment of restaurants is a little different from the judges'.
 

royal618

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What's your favourite or favourites at the top end of town?
 

Aus_MD

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Originally Posted by royal618
What's your favourite or favourites at the top end of town?

Therein lies the difficulty. With whom am I dining - professional colleagues, business colleagues, friends, family? Each might have a different answer, but I would rate Guillaume (a "3 hat" restaurant) in the top rank but find Forty One (1 hat) to be comparable.

For an intimate or family meal L'Unico in Balmain is my favourite, and in my mind outranks any of the other Italian restaurants that made it to the list. It seems that the Italian Consul General shares my view.
 

royal618

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Originally Posted by Aus_MD
Therein lies the difficulty. With whom am I dining - professional colleagues, business colleagues, friends, family? Each might have a different answer, but I would rate Guillaume (a "3 hat" restaurant) in the top rank but find Forty One (1 hat) to be comparable.

For an intimate or family meal L'Unico in Balmain is my favourite, and in my mind outranks any of the other Italian restaurants that made it to the list. It seems that the Italian Consul General shares my view.


Sure, and that's a fair point, and that's the difficult thing with dining.

You've answered the question with both Guillaume and Forty One, which in essence was: what do you believe to be the ultimate dining experience in Sydney (or NSW) for that matter?

As mentioned before, I enjoyed the food at Tets, however the wine let me down. I've only been the once and I'm sure I'll return. It's a damn good question though, and one I find hard to answer. I should note that Becasse in Albion St was also very good, however I have not been to the new location.
 

Aus_MD

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"Ultimate dining experience", then I would have to add Icebergs at Bondi, but mainly for the location rather than the food and service.

You raise a very important point, though, which is that I am judging the whole dining experience. For me this includes food, wine (and winelist), service, ambience, location, novelty, knowledgeability of the sommelier and waiter, and a host of other factors. It is necessarily a subjective process, and I find the idea of "Sydney's Best" to be as meaningless as "who is the world's best tailor?".

I have been to Tetsuya often enough to know that its "product" is rather variable (I guess this is a consequence of employing transient staff) so to say that it is the best begs the question "when?".
 

royal618

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Originally Posted by Aus_MD
"Ultimate dining experience", then I would have to add Icebergs at Bondi, but mainly for the location rather than the food and service.

You raise a very important point, though, which is that I am judging the whole dining experience. For me this includes food, wine (and winelist), service, ambience, location, novelty, knowledgeability of the sommelier and waiter, and a host of other factors. It is necessarily a subjective process, and I find the idea of "Sydney's Best" to be as meaningless as "who is the world's best tailor?".

I have been to Tetsuya often enough to know that its "product" is rather variable (I guess this is a consequence of employing transient staff) so to say that it is the best begs the question "when?".


Yes, Icebergs can be such a dramatic location. The last time I ate there it was late lunch in autumn, and a storm was coming in. We were still drinking away away as the sun was dipping and it was an amazing view. However, you could get the same view eating fish and chips on the beach, albeit getting a sandy bum and blasted by the wind. I thought the food was quite good, but not as good as it gets.

I too will judge by all factors. I was dining at Uchi Lounge on Sat night, which for the other readers is a moderately priced modern Japanese restaurant (not a fine diner), and was absolutely horrified when the waitress filled our wine glasses to the hilt so she could get rid of our bottle. Food wasn't great either, summoning an "OK, for the price that wasn't bad" type response.
 

timekeeping

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How about the Bather's Pavillion? I have very fond memories of the degustation menu.. The location is great, too.
 

royal618

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Originally Posted by timekeeping
How about the Bather's Pavillion? I have very fond memories of the degustation menu.. The location is great, too.

Haven't been in a while. I don't like going there as the clientele it attracts seem to be type of people I loathe - 40-somethings who live on the north shore of Sydney who talk *loudly* about their children's private school eduction, their new 4WD and Gucci, Prada and D&G, sweetie darling I'll have another glass of Bolli thanks.
crazy.gif


Nice spot indeed, but there's better IMHO.
 

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