Firedoor

Meh, I really wanted to like this place as it’s been hyped up quite a bit, but I found myself just «whelmed» by it. Here’s the breakdown:
The good:
–The décor– super swanky feel, great attention to detail throughout the restaurant
–The bread– OMG I should have just ordered multiple orders of this– thick chewy amazing sourdough bread and a BACON infused butter to go alongside it. Seriously could have licked the bowl clean
The ok:
–The rest of the food. Everything else just tasted very similar and lacked a good dose of salt. We opted for the king prawns (they left my poop line in which I was not impressed with), the cos lettuce (not grilled enough so it was just limp and flavourless), the roasted cauliflower (good, but difficult to cut as it was underdone) and the lamb (super fatty, but the sauce and vegetables that came with this dish were great)
The bad:
–The service. Good gracious. I went on a Tuesday night so it wasn’t exactly bumping, and yet it still took ages and ages to order, get more wine and settle the bill. Wasn’t impressed.
For the same price (each of us paid $ 130 with booze) I would recommend going elsewhere!

I wanted to like this restaurant. Great idea, lovely staff, excellent cocktails, big wine list and everything looked great on the plate– but for me an expensive restaurant has got have amazing food. There were too many dishes that tasted the same. I get that smokey is a main theme due to fire cooking, but for gods sake someone throw a lemon, a pickle, some butter or chili on something! The Mahi Mahi was nicely cooked but differed very little in flavour to the beans with almonds, Marin with pomelo and black squid. The best steak is the 500g wagu tbone but otherwise nothing special. Perhaps my sense of taste was muddled by the plumes of smoke hanging in the room? Not so sure I’ll be coming back.

The restaurant has been open for just five months. From cocktails to dessert, the service at the bar was impeccable, attentive, and simply spot on. Each dish we ordered clearly respected the ingredients. Nothing was overdressed, overly seasoned, or overdone. Our party had not one complaint across the board. What a great experience for walking in! It’s no wonder bookings are recommended.

What a disappointment! As a confirmed carnivore I have been soooo looking forward to a meal at Firedoor. Smoky flame cooked flavours… increasingly awarded chef… very excited. We arrived on time to be shuffled off to a tiny bar table to wait 20 minutes for our table. We ordered a bottle of white from the extensive but largely unheard of wine list only to be told they had no chilled bottles but they could throw it in the fridge for a bit if we wanted… we moved to red. The menu listed all the various woods on the back, but didn’t link them to any of the meals so no idea what wood was used for what meal. There was a very strong smell of dope wafting around he restaurant, but we were told it was just the hay they were using on the flames. Yea, right… Given the quality of the meal I think the chef was smokin’ the hay…
The waitress was not much help and showed little knowledge of the menu. We were told the meals were designed to share. The first plate arrived — lamb tongue — on the waitress’s recommendation. There was barely enough for one person let alone 4! We ordered 8 dishes, including the $ 126 ribeye. Yes, $ 126 for a 500g ribeye on the bone. Of the 8 dishes, only one was interesting and smokily tasty. The artichoke and ham dish was universally applauded. The other meals were, well… bland. No woody, smoky, interesting flavours at all. Most disappointing was that $ 126 steak. It was just meat. Nothing special. Blandasaurus. The only winner was our dog as we took the bone home. But he didn’t bother with it either.
In the end we didn’t have dessert or coffee and it still came to $ 130 a head for a very, very average and bland meal. Hate that.

Dry aged Beef is terrific but no where near $ 130 terrific. 2 hour wait for food to arrive after being seated and then a rush to get us out in time for their next seating. average food aside from the dry aged steak. Despite a famous foodie sitting at the table next to us I found it far from worth the hype or effort getting a reservation. Much better options at better prices around Sydney.

This is a bit on the pricy side, but it’s well worth a visit if celebrating a special event. Everything is cooked over wood, so it adds a whole new dimension to the food. They do change their menu regularly, and having it been some time since my visit I don’t remember exactly what we had! I do remember the meat was good. Very very very good.
Service was perfect.
It came out to $ 120 per person, we did order drinks though!

Sydney still has tons of room for amazing restaurants and Firedoor is a new entrant that sure has what it will take to be great.
Not an overly original contribution with the now closed «The Woods» which was in the Four Seasons having given Sydney amazing wood fired food with better service and more inspiration than Firedoor is offering.
The set-​up and décor is world class with the food simple and wholesome. The Chef is a master and the food that comes to your table allows its ingredients to scream through. Simple, healthy and high quality dishes arrive just in time.
Downsides to our experience include the Sommelier not being able to attend out table because he was fixing something that was broken out the back? Also whenever a waiter came to the table with one of the amazing dishes they mumbled and half the table missed the magic of learning about the dish.
It is exciting to see restaurantuers take chances and build on success of the past. Book a table and enjoy the amazingly simple food presented by Firedoor.

The Sommelier, Phillip was absolutely spot on! In fact In my opinion Phillip made the night. Food was good however below what we expected, as the chef creates a new menu every night, I wonder if that’s the reason some of the dishes lacked that wow factor. I love the concept of eating what the chef decides on the day however my expectations go up as a result. I will admit out of 7 dishes 2 of them screamed perfection certainly a ¹⁰⁄₁₀ but the chefs menu for me contained too many dishes that didn’t achieve anything more than being different, the journey of wine on the other hand was sensational and unexpected. We would return because of Philip without question. Cost $ 330 for two, probably not likely to spend that again.

On a recent trip to Sydney, I read about Firedoor’s opening and decided to pop in one night with a friend without a reservation, but we did not realize it was actually the first week they were open and were not accepting any diners. The hostess graciously recommended other restaurants and said we could have a drink at the bar, which we decided to do. Just as we were settled into our seats, she approached us and let us know that the chef would like us to dine with them and offered us a table. We were ecstatic!
On the menu for May 7^th, we ordered the white tuna, pomelo and shaved fennel to start, which was a great, refreshing dish and the combination of flavors worked well together. The live prawns were excellent and the quail was my absolutely favorite! Despite being full, we finished our meal with the banana ice cream, smoked ganache and wild honeycomb. Highly recommend!