Four hours and Forty minutes. That's how long dinner took for only 12 courses. It almost got to the point where I couldn't appreciate the food because it was taking so long. We had a 25 minute wait between the second and third courses. Those courses were oysters with a rice wine vinaigrette and kingfish hamachi. Nothing that had to be cooked, but still took 25 minutes. But I'm getting off course.
The restaurant, Tetsuya's, is probably Sydney's first fine dining restaurant. It's been open for quite some time and has had the title of Sydney's best restaurant (though it has slipped compared to newer restaurants that have opened). The menu was a set 10 course meal, but we opted to add on the pacific oyster course.
The meal started with a cucumber soup with sheep's milk ice cream. The cucumber soup was very good, but the ice cream was a bit too rich. There wasn't enough acid to help cut the fat. It was a good start.
We then moved to the pacific oysters with a rice wine vinaigrette. They were good plump oysters with a sweet flavour. The vinaigrette was a little overpowering for the oyster's flavor, but it worked. This was paired with a Japanese sake. I'm not a huge sake fan, but everyone else said it was good. The sake was also paired with the next course which was kingfish hamachi with black bean paste and orange zest. The black bean paste added a good warmth and depth to the raw kingfish.
We then moved on to a course that I don't fully remember. It had an avocado soup with two types of fish and osetra caviar. It was very good, but every time the waiter said the type of fish, I couldn't understand. This was paired with probably my favorite wine of the night which was a light Riesling. I couldn't get a list of the wines, but all but one were Australian.
Next we moved to the signature course. The confited Tasmanian ocean trout. This was good, but a very large portion. Too big for my liking. It was covered with a seasoned seaweed and sitting on a bed of green apple and celery. It also had a quenelle of ocean trout roe. They paired this course with an Aussie Gewurztraminer.
The next course was pretty ho hum. It was a white fish with raw bean sprouts and an emulsion of fish stock and olive oil (fancy mayo). This was the first course that really lacked any seasoning. It could have benefited from a pinch of salt. Don't remember what wine this course was paired with.
We then moved into the meat courses. The first was definitely my favorite. It was a crispy pigs tail wrapped in iberico ham with a bit of Tasmanian rock lobster. I'm a salt fiend and this one was spot on with the porky goodness of the pigs tail and the salted cured ham and the sweetness of the lobster. Perfect. They served this one with the only non Australian wine. It was a Spanish red that was similar to a Cabernet Franc, but not. That was the description we got. Very informative.
The next two meat courses could have benefited from salt. The first was a quail breast served with something I can't remember. They chose an Aussie Sangiovese for this one. The description again was "like a Chianti, but not." The last meat course was a slow braised Angus grass fed beef braised for 40 hours. A person without teeth could have eaten this with no problems, but again needed a bit of salt. They served this one with a Hunter Valley Shiraz that was rather blase.
By this time we were a good four hours in and sitting on chairs that look like you could buy them at Ikea. Needless to say, not something you want to sit in for four hours. The brought out the first dessert course which was a blood orange and black pepper sorbet and summer pudding. I was a big fan of the sorbet. The summer pudding tasted like a run of the mill strawberry shortcake. These courses were paired with dessert wines that I have a hard time mustering down. Well that and it was already quarter to midnight. It got to the point where I had to ask the waiter if they could fire the last two courses a little quicker or else we wouldn't be out before 1am. The second dessert course was a white pear granita with white pears and a bit of either amaretto ice cream or almond biscotti. Not sure which, but it was a nice light refreshing course.
I wasn't sure what was coming last, but I was wishing they ended with the granita. That was until they brought it out. It was an amazingly smooth textured carrot cake with a cream cheese ice cream and salted peanuts sitting on a dollop of caramel. I could have had two or three of those, easily.
Overall the food was good, with a few misses for me. But with 12 courses that's going to happen. The restaurant space itself was pretty blah. It felt like we were sitting in a large conference room with a few random sculptures around. The furnishings didn't come across like a fine dining restaurant. The tables felt like bar tables and the chairs were horrible. My back was getting pretty sore by the middle of the meal. The service itself left a little bit to be desired as well. They were pretty good with our table but I saw numerous times where they'd bring courses out to a table when a few people weren't at their seats. They wouldn't bring everyone's dish out at the same time. They'd bring it in waves. It just seemed pretty loose for a fine dining establishment. The wines on the whole were nothing special. They were good matches with the food, but didn't seem like anything you couldn't find at your local bottle shop.
It was a good experience and I'm glad I can check it off my list, but the price vs value just wasn't there. But I did learn a valuable lesson. Next time I book a reservation at a restaurant serving a 10 course tasting menu, I'm certainly going to ask that they have it completed in 2 hours max. My meal at Alinea was under 4 hours (though just barely) but that was for 24 courses. And I'm going to stop in to test the chairs before booking.
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