13.11.10 – Quay
Just a bit of context for you all. It all started back in July when I was ringing around to see what bookings I could get for my birthday dinner with the (_I_)head. Turns out, not any at a week out from the anticipated date. A combination of curiosity and being fed up with rejection led me to start asking when the tables were available. I was already on the phone with the restaurants, so the (_I_)head and I figured we should just take the plunge and give ourselves something to look forward to by making some bookings. This is how we came to dine at Quay in November. It wasn’t that we were celebrating a special event or anything like that, we had just built up a schedule of bookings after being tired with being turned down all time. It looked something like this:
- September 2010 – Sepia
- November 2010 – Quay
- April 2011 – Tetsuya’s
Mind you, it was only July and there was plenty of time before we would actually eat anything.
So, continuing on, this post, as you may have already figured, is about our experience at Quay. It was a frantic one to begin with, being held up in traffic and running late before facing the challenge of finding parking in The Rocks. WHAT? $25 parking?! We had no time so we had to go with it. We got into the carpark and snaked our way to the bottom level only to realise that there were no free spaces… and that we had to do a 50 point turn to get back out because at the end of it all, was a friggin’ WALL! Garh!! It worked out in the end but I had to leave my keys with the valet which I wasn’t too at ease with, but alas, there was no other choice given that we were already 20 minutes late. Finally, we arrive at the restaurant and are seated and settle in but not long before I realise that I have left my camera in the car. It was another 10 minutes before we actually told the wait staff that we were ready to dine because David had to run back to the car, the poor thing. It was ok, because I had plenty of time to soak in the amazing view… not. We were fortunate enough to be booked on a day that the Overseas Passenger Terminal was in use by giant cruise liner. *Sigh* Anyway, on with the pictures. I wish, they had turned out more nicely. Damn you, noise! This is the best I could do. It seems I should probably look towards getting something with a bigger sensor…
The menu
Oxtail consomme and jersey milk curd
Have I mentioned that amuse bouches are usually my favourite course? This was amazing! The creaminess and silkiness of the curd worked really well with the salty, savoury consomme.
Smoke eel & sea scallop pearl, horseradish
This was uber impressive on the mother of pearl dish that it came out on. That’s silver leaf on top. Seafood dishes like these are a real winner with me. Derishus!
Salad or pink turnings & breakfast radishes, violets, olives, pine resin, balsamico
It was pretty and all but we felt jipped being served a plate of vegies… We want our $26.25 back, please. We were hoping that Peter Gilmore would somehow be able to make radishes and goat’s cheese taste good, but alas… he could not. We regretted not asking for an alternate dish. I was really disappointed with this because it actaully affected my perception of one of the later dishes.
Gentle braise of pearl oyster, shaved southern squid, lettuce hearts, golden tapioca, lobster velvet, oyster cream, pea flowers
Deeeeeeeeeelicious! This one was also a winner. Now THIS is the kind of salad I’m talking about.
Butter poached partidge, pumpernickel, morel and ethical foie gras pudding, walnuts, quinoa, truffle custard, milk skin
This was originally quail breast on the menu but we had been informed at the beginning of the meal that it would be partidge instead. This was awesome. The meat was so succulent and I guess you could tell by the way that it looks. It resembles a sliver of liver, but I don’t remember it being slimy. The quinoa was a nice touch, I think it really made the dish, giving it that extra dimension of texture.
Poached Blackmore wagyu fillet, Tasmanian wasabi, morels
This was good. But it would have been better if we hadn’t been assaulted by that plate of radishes. As you probably already know, wasabi is made of horseradish. I couldn’t help but shudder a little when the wasabi butter reminded me of that dreaded salad. A real shame, really, because I loved the wasabi butter that accompanied a dish we had at Sepia in September.
Slow braised Berkshire pig jowl, maltose crackling, prunes, cauliflower cream, perfumed with prune kernel oil
I liked this dish. The crackling made me think of the dish as a meaty creme brulee. Pork works well with sweet flavours so I thought the prunes complimented it nicely. David didn’t think so though, ’cause he hates prunes.
White nectarine snow egg
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it lived up to the hype! I forget exactly what it was, but I think it was a bed of moscato granita and white nectarine ice cream in the centre. Different to the widely known guava version, but delicious nonetheless. The icing sugar was a doozy, though. Choked on it a couple of times.
Preserved wild cherry compote, coconut cream, chuao chocolate crumble, sugar crystals, cherry juice and chocolate sorbet
This was ok, but only because I’m not a real big fan of dark chocolate. By this stage I was completely stuffed so I didn’t have the appetite to finish it. That’s ok, that’s what boyfriends are for 
The dinner was good, but we don’t rate it as highly in our books as all the hype does. It probably just comes down to personal taste. If I were to dine again at somewhere I’ve eaten before, I would return to Sepia before going back to Quay.
