Bentley

A list of Sydney's best restaurants would not be complete without mentioning Bentley, the industrial-chic modern Australian fine dining establishment in O'Connell street. Boasting of a truly impressive wine list - backed up by the walls of bottles of rare and high-end drops - Bentley is equally known for its precisely-executed dishes.

Sydney Rock Oysters, $5 each

I know that in places where they take food extremely seriously - such as Japan and France - top restaurants would pay their suppliers to visit them first in the morning run, so they can pick out the choicest morsels. If that's true in Sydney as well, then Bentley must be pretty high up on the fish monger's list. The rock oysters are juicy, plump and taste wonderfully of the sea.

Rock Oyster + Yuzu Koshu + Scampi Caviar, $8 each

Whilst the oysters au naturel was already pretty impressive, this slightly creamy, gently savoury addition of yuzu koshu and scampi roe takes the oyster to the next level - the sauce enhances the creamy texture of the oysters, and the scampi roe give a little bursting texture as a pleasant contrast.

Fraser Island Spanner Crab + Shitake Mushrooms + Nori, $32

The spanner crabs are buried underneath what appears to be a soil of mushrooms and nori, both of which are known for their umami-ness. This is a simple-tasting, clean dish.

Baby Kipfler Potatoes + Fermented Shallots + Goats Milk + Wakame, $26

How good could potatoes get, I asked myself before trying this dish. The fermented shallots remind me of a very Shanghainese dish, where we use oil to braise shallots until they are bursting with fragrance, and that oil and the resulting almost-burnt shallot are mixed with noodles. Well, there is a similar level of depth-of-flavour here. The baby kipfler potatoes are so creamy and soft, it is a dish where comfort meets luxury.

Scallop Tartare + Avocado + Wasabi Leaf + Almond, $31

The scallops are cut into little chunks and gently marinated, paired with slivers of almond so that there is an interesting contrast between the juicy softness of the raw scalopps against the gentle crunch of the scallop.

Snapper + Hispi Cabbage + Clam Butter, $48

This is a beautifully cooked piece of white fish - what else would one expect from Bentley, really - and the sauce is well balanced, neither so rich as to overpower the delicate flavour of the fish, nor so bland as to make the dish uninteresting.

Aged Duck Breast + Pencil Leeks + Radicchio + Jamon, $50

This is perhaps one of the most beautiful looking dishes on the menu. The duck is cooked until it is only gently pink in the centre. The leeks are softly fragrant, any leek-like taste is unoffensive, and the jamon gives a pleasant and necessary hit of salt.

Coppertree Farm Sirloin (Bone In 600g) + Kombu Butter + Hand Cut Chips, $135

If the previous dish is one of the prettiest, this is certainly one of the most impressive. The sirloin is cooked medium-rare, with a very pleasant char-grilled flavour, but not so melt-in-the-mouth: what this dish provides is that full, satisfying experience of chomping down on a piece of full-blooded, high quality meat. The accompaniments, all of which highly interesting, keeps the dish varied; and the hand cut chips are truly impressive: melty in the middle, crunchy and golden on the outside. It's an expensive dish, but it is definitely worthwhile.

Pumpkin Curd + Brown Butter Ice Cream + Mandarin , $22

I am going to go out on the limb and declare that the pumpkin curd was probably made in a dehydrator, so it tastes a little bit like a fancy roll-up. The brown butter ice cream is not overly sweet (which is how I prefer my desserts). This is a pleasant, fruity, buttery treat.

Olive Oil Ice Cream + Lactose Curd + Pineapple Beer, $22

This dessert caught my eye on the menu because of its very interesting ingredients - the pineapple beer, which is drizzled around the ice cream like a moat, has a kombucha-like, tart fizz, which brings out the fruitiness of the olive oil. The lactose curd adds an interesting richness to the dessert, but I couldn't describe what it actually tastes like if my life depended on it - you will simply have to go to Bentley and try.

Score: 4.5 / 5 
Price: Oh, pricey, but the quality of the ingredients and the skills of the chef speak for themselves. As a general guide, a three-course meal, sans drink, will set you back approximately $120.
Address: 27 O'Connell St, Sydney
Website: https://www.thebentley.com.au/