Tetsuya's

Shortly after Christmas G and I enjoyed dinner in Sydney, at Tetsuya's (Tetsuya's website), my Christmas present to him.

Tetsuya's is on Kent Street, in the Sydney CBD.  The main dining room, where we sat, looks over a small Japanese garden.  We didn't get much of a chance to have a look around the restaurant, but there seemed to be at least two main dining areas (ours was the smaller), and the website advertised private dining rooms too. 

Tetsuya's was recently ranked the 17th best restaurant in the world by San Pellegrino (website), the highest ranked Australian restaurant.  Incidentally, El Bulli was ranked first. 

The food at Tetsuya's was magnificent.  A degustation menu, described as between 10 and 12 courses, and then when you include the palate cleaners and the petit fours with coffee it turned out to be 13 courses, including the optional oyster course.

The courses (accompanied by sour dough bread with butter mixed with ricotta, black pepper and truffles):
1. Tomato gazpacho with goat's curd - a wonderful taste of great tomatoes
2. Port Douglas oysters served with rice wine vinegar, finger limes and chives - creamy oysters with a deliciously tart dressing
3. Jamon served with Sicilian olives and grapes - absolutely melt in the mouth
4. Roasted scampi served on braised witlof - sweet scampi with smoky, bitter witlof was a fantastic taste combination
5. Octopus ravioli in a tomato, black olive and oregano sauce - odd combination, strange texture of the octopus but a wonderful taste
6. Confit of trout - the best dish.  Soft, delicious trout with a crisp kelp skin on a bed of trout roe.  Absolutely amazing
7. Chicken breast with foie gras and corn potatoes - the chicken was "medium-rare" but really was just beautifully moist and did not appear to be uncooked in the middle
8. Wagyu with soy and sour cherry sauce and braised leeks - the beef was amazing, so tender and the sauce was a great sweet/salty blend
9. Cannellini beans with caramelised soy sauce and mascarpone - weird mushy beans in an amazing sauce
10. White balsamic ice cream in a strawberry and watermelon bath - the ice cream was fantastic, the fruit was so intense
11. Tetsuya's summer pudding - white chocolate custard, summer pudding and then fluffy white chocolate mousse on top, phenomenal, probably the best dessert
12 Salted sable with lemon cream and leatherwood honey - even the honey was spectacular
13. Petit fours with coffee - coffee and date friand (delicious and moist), chocolate macaroon with pink peppercorn filling (awesome) and green tea marshmallow (disgusting, even Tetsuya can't make green tea flavouring taste good)

The coffee was served in what looked like Hagi-yaki (the pottery that was made in the town in Japan that I lived in) and was dark, but not too strong.

We just had a bottle of champagne to share and a glass of muscat with dessert, although there is an option for a wine course to match ($90 per head) but I couldn't bring myself to drink that much. 

There were at least 15 waiters and 2 restaurant managers that we could see, and the service was impeccable - friendly and attentive but discreet when required.

It was an absolutely fantastic night, we arrived at 7pm and left around 11:15 - there were sufficient breaks between courses so that it wasn't until right at the end that I felt really full.  I would love to go again - it would be interesting to see what Tetsuya produces in winter - although I would need to book now for that!