Quay Restaurant

ambiance/​/​*****
intimate seating with mirrors strategically placed to enhance the space
gorgeous wraparound view of the harbour with the sydney opera house
our view was originally blocked by Queen Mary II, which was disappointing
until we got an awesome time lapse video of the ship leaving port
our spectacular evening ended with a fireworks show behind the opera house to send off the cruise~ it only happens once a year, but it made our dining experience even more unforgettable!
service/​/​*****
the service was impeccable… exactly what you would expect of a top 50 restaurant experience
the team was very observant and customized the delivery of the food to our pace of dining
food/​/​*****
8 course pre-​fixe menu with the wine pairing is AMAZING
my favorite discovery was this wine from serbia~
the others ordered the non-​alcoholic pairing, which was also exceptional in its own rite
as the dishes are rotated based on season, nothing i say may be applicable
the wagyu rye crisps and raw funghi are deliciously plated
uni and koshikari rice are served in a rich broth
lastly, who can forget peter gilmore’s signature snow egg? it’s beautifully presented
~*~
top 50 restaurant is enough a reason for anyone to want to try this place
yay for memorable get togethers~ thx cozzies!
we know the fireworks were really for us ;p

Simply the best! Deserves 6 stars and I have NEVER said that about anywhere!
It was the most perfect evening. The views. The food. The service.
Ordered the 8 courses. They wouldn’t change any items on the menu but said we could add it on.
In the end. Stuck to the 8 courses but wanted to try the crab congee. But end of the day, it’s just rice with lots of water.
Did add the 8 textured chocolate cake. Which was Devine and they wouldn’t let us take away. That was a big let down.
It goes against everything I believe in. Wasting food. But such fantastic food!
If I had to choose a favourite restaurant, this would be IT!
I could go on and on abt the night.
Got the matching wines which didn’t disappoint at all. Everything just complimented each other and got better.
At first bite, I must admit that I was very disappointed with the snow egg. But it got better. Very different experience.
I can’t rate this place highly enough!
What I dislike about fine dining is that they never live up to expectations. I was wary. But this is exactly what fine dining is!

Look, I loved it. Great food, and it’s pretty obvious as to why it has the reputation that it does.
We went there for a work lunch, of all things (Yes, we agreed to chip a bit in on the budget.)
A stand out dish for me, was the pork with maltrose crackling. I don’t eat fat at all, but I ate every bite of that! It was spectacularly good. Sweet, crunchy, soft, beautiful.
People complain about the serving sizes, but for me, they are perfect. Not being a big eater, I like not having to send a half eaten plate back, it embarrasses me, and sometimes I know I have offended the chef.
That won’t happen in Quay, and if you are like one of my companions, you may find yourself stopping for a burger on the way home. Don’t do that, don’t be a pig, just enjoy what you were served, because it’s all bloody marvellous!
Do have the snow egg, or, if you are a chocolate lover, that dissolving ring thing that had a colleague clutching her heart she was so excited!
Give it a go, at least once to see what all the hype is about, but Sepia is better.

One of the most well-​known fine dining restaurants in Sydney. There’s no doubt you’re in for an elegant and classy evening overlooking the magical landscape of the harbour and Sydney Opera House. Despite it being fine dining, the portion sizes were quite substantial. However, I found most of their dishes resonated with a smoky flavour throughout. Nonetheless, the snow egg dessert seriously lives up to the hype! It is absolutely divine!

Great location, great space, with one of the best views in the world. But they are the only positives. This restaurant seemed to have a good buzz about it, but I couldn’t find anyone who actually liked the food. Personally I haven’t eaten food this bad in many years. Everything was fatty, overly creamy and phlegmy. I couldn’t even swallow my pork dish and had to spit it out in the rest room. How one could make pork taste like the fatty foam that you clean out of the dishwasher filter is beyond me. Even the desert tasted like it had cleaning product cooked into it. Someone else described it as tasting like urea.
Service was also bad. The wait staff knew nothing about the dishes and took people’s half full wine glasses when they were not watching. I talked to the chef who was pleasant and earnest in the food he was creating, but his intention and my food experience were polar opposites.
It saddens me to be leaving such a negative review, and I held off to regain some objectivity, but the food was terrible and experience lacking.

For our first night in Sydney, we had decided to eat at Quay — we knew the view would be spectacular (and it was), but it was also on the 51 – 100 portion of the best 50 restaurants in the world, so we figured we would be remiss if we didn’t pay a visit while we were south of the equator. We arrived right on time and were seated promptly on the circular nook upstairs. From our seat, we could see both the Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House with ease, and it was great to see the opera house light up in its subtle lighting once it became dark enough. While we were seated quickly, the timing of the service was absolutely dreadful. I can understand that some people want to take their time — and that is totally fine. But for an 8-​course dinner to go over 3 hours, with only the amuse-​bouche and the first course taking up the entire first hour, is neearly unacceptable in my book. It was clear that we were not going to simply chew the scenery the entire time, and the fact that the pace remained inexplicably slow was difficult to understand. We were quite exhausted by the end due to waking up early to fly to Sydney, and both my wife and I were barely awake the last few courses as a result. The servers themselves were very personable and nice to chat with, but the timing — yikes.
The other reason that I don’t give Quay a perfect rating is that the price definitely does feel high relative to what you are served. The biggest dishes by far are the dessert dishes, which to me is puzzling… one would expect the mains to be the biggest. While the ostensible mains (the crayfish and the duck) were both delicious and expertly prepared, they were quite small. On the other hand, the snow egg is quite large due to the quantity of shaved ice utilized in the dessert, and it was definitely more filling relative to the other parts of the meal! The food was absolutely delicious (which I will talk about next), but I question whether the value proposition was here for this meal, even if it is a higher-​end restaurant. Perhaps you are paying for one of the best views you can have, but I did not feel like the amount of food matched up.
As for dinner itself, we started off with a couple of dishes utilizing sheep’s milk. The amuse-​bouche was sheep’s curd served with nitrogen-​frozen sorrel, making the dish an interesting contrast between the warmth of the curd and the cutting coldness of the sorrel. I really liked the first official course, which was the summer salad with sheep’s milk feta and young almonds. The feta was delicious and not overly heavy, and the young almonds really added an interesting texture and a lighter, less developed flavor than regular almonds do. The smoked Wagyu with the fermented rye chips and mushrooms was an interesting take on a tartare-​style dish; the beef was very smoky, but the rye chips accentuated, rather than complemented, the more bitter aftertaste of each bite. I liked it quite a bit, but as with almost all dishes here, it was too small. The rice dish with uni and prawns, topped with thinly-​sliced salted yolks, was also very well-​done. The uni is mixed in thoroughly into the rice, giving every bite that nice, slightly salty creaminess that sea urchin is well-​known for, while the yolks give it a bit more saltiness, but on the more subtle side. Abalone paired with pig jowl confit was next; the abalone was well-​prepared, albeit it not as soft as I would have expected for a ‘slow-​cooked’ dish; I did however really like the succulence of the pig jowl. The grains added a nice bit of crunchy texture to each bite, but it paired more naturally with the pig. The aforementioned crayfish was very good, in large part due to the slight heat from the XO sauce. It’s really the only dish that has much spice in it, and it was a welcome brightening to the rest of the menu. The duck was also very well-​done, with the breast meat being very juicy. However, the skin was not as crispy as I would have preferred (i.e. it was a bit chewy). The pickled cucumber was okay, but I would have just preferred the sorrel sauce on the side alone with the duck, as that added a nice leafy overtone to the duck’s flavor. Unsurprisingly, the snow egg was spectacular; this take on shaved ice, with a ball of white nectarine as the ‘egg’, was absolutely delicious and probably my favorite dish of the night. I also really liked the last dessert, a honeycomb-​based dessert served with cream that had the texture more of melted marshmallows — a very light but very sweet finish to the meal. Petit fours were 4 tiny truffles with different flavors; my favorite was the dark cocoa powder-​dusted crispy rice version.
The view is what to come for, and the rest of the meal is extremely good as well. However, relative to other superlative dining experiences I have had, it comes up a tad short due to the length of the meal and the value proposition. It’s definitely worth the experience, but make sure you have more than enough time for it…

Ok so its $ 200 – 300 a head but surely she is worth it; right? Great service including a sommelier to help you show off even more… dont bother looking for wines under $ 100.
4 courses is actually enough food. I know people complain the serving are small but they are missing the point… this is NOT an all you can eat or a family pizza restaurant. It is about the pleasure of culinary perfection. .its about enjoying eating as an art form and not for subsistence. Come for the right reason and you too will give it 5… come to get a $ 300 meal thinking about how many KFC buckets that is and you will surely go home unhappy.
Save up and treat someone. You wont regret it.

This has to be by far one of the most luxury and classiest restaurants I’ve ever been to In Sydney…

the scenery is truly amazing, with the opera house in the background
all the dishes are nicely crafted, the dish we liked the most is the snow egg

This was a restaurant on our to do list, and had been for quite a while. I’d heard a lot of hype about the restaurant, particularly, the three hats it had received over the past few years and was, therefore, expecting amazing things. I dined at Quay on a beautiful day with the view and entrance into the harbour being breath taking. We decided on the four courses option for lunch. In reflection I would say that one dish of the four courses was ‘just ok’ for both diners as they were lack lustre in flavour, however, the rest of the dishes were very good and delicious. Unfortunately, I didn’t get that ‘wow factor’ that I was expecting with the food. Also, I was disappointed that an oyster course was not offered at all in a seafood inspired menu. I felt as though the food was undersized for four courses especially the course before desert as I felt it wasn’t substantial enough in size and we left the restaurant still not completely satisfied. I would say the flavours of each dish are more on the lighter side of the palate and but still very good and flavoursome, however, they left me wanting a little more in substance and size. The deserts — chocolate cake and snow egg were amazing and the cheese course was great as well.
For the service it was good but not to the standard I was anticipating of a top level restaurant that I have previously had with other fine dine establishments. The wine was matched well with the courses. There were a lot of little things that impacted our dining experience like: the communication between staff wasn’t fluid or as attentive as it could have been, we could see dirty dishes being stacked up at the station and at times staff were ready to deliver dishes to patrons and the previous courses dishes hadn’t been cleared away. Some of our dishes were dropped without an explanation of what it was or the ingredients in it. Our dining experience wasn’t ‘bad’ by any means but it wasn’t amazing at the same time. I couldn’t help but compare Quay to Sepia, which, is on same level of stature and reputation, however, Sepia blew me away a lot more in food flavour, texture, technique and presentation also with the service received. Overall, I felt Quay didn’t live up to all the hype of a three hatted restaurant but it was still a very good special occasion dining experience.

Food was good and service was excellent. ambiance and the view was is beautiful. My favourite out of the four dishes i had was definitely the dessert

Interesting and had to do it because of the reviews and recs from fans. we did the 4 dishes for 175. I liked the menu opening to the 4 options. very cool
Ambiance ¹⁰⁄₁₀: I can’t think of one place in the world that I have had better views of anything. Romantic table with a direct view of the opera house.
Food ⁷⁄₁₀: beginnings and ends great but entrees were so-​so (at least the duck). felt very asian influenced. also felt food with drowned in sauce.
Service ⁶⁄₁₀: maybe we had the late night shift and everyone wanted to leave, but the service felt robotic. no one seemed genuinely nice or helpful (or maybe that’s the formal environment they are going for).

This has by far been the best restaurant I have been to. We have traveled a lot and ate many different things and this place really sticks out. We opted in for their four course meal which was a delight! Everything was on point with flavor. You really can’t go wrong with any food item you chose here. I’m not a fan or ordering dessert because I’m usually too full, but dessert is a must here as well!
Place is very fancy, so dress the part, make reservations a head of time, and have your credit card handy!

Completely agree with James O.
In short, I found two out of the 4 courses nothing special. There’s a word in chinese that describes exactly how I felt about these, but what it is in English ugh. Basically means I got sick of the dish half way through and… they’re really not that big.
The signature dish is wonderful though, but still wouldn’t pay $ 200 for it alone amirite! Oh and great view, perhaps that’s really what you’re paying for.
The last fine dining place I’ve been to was sepia and I couldn’t help compare them. Sepia kicks ass all the way.

It is always a challenge when reviewing a restaurant that holds itself to high esteem. Do you compare it to your favorite restaurant down the street, or your local fish and chip shop? The answer, at least for me is no. None of the food was bad; but when I’m paying over 200 AUD per person for this meal, my standards are much higher.
The atmosphere was lovely, and the presentation of the dishes was good. Yes the best dish of the 4 was the snow-​egg, what Quay is famous for. But the other three dishes showed surprising lack of ingenuity or just tasted awkward. There were a couple plates that I didn’t feel the need to complete. It was interesting to taste, but it wasn’t delicious.
Far too overpriced for what you get, I would urge other Unilocaler’s to try many of the other fine dining establishments of Sydney before they try Quay.
And a side note to Quay (if they actually read this), I would urge you to invest in better teas, or at least be familiar with the proper brewing methods. As the tea I received was over-​brewed and bitter, and I could have received a better tea from Starbucks.

Interesting and innovative food coupled with great views served with what we felt was a bit of an attitude from some of the staff on a slowish Tuesday night.
We also felt that the docked Queen Elizabeth in all her majesty contributed to the views rather than detracted from them.
Our impression was that the consistently high reviews and accolades heaped upon this venue have had an effect on all the staff and not just the talented chefs.
We were treated derisively by some of the staff while others were friendly and helpful. To summarize the service, inconsistent would probably be the most accurate descriptor.
Yes, it’s a destination restaurant in a destination location, in a destination city. Realise this and embrace it to make it special for everyone nonetheless.
There are far more interesting and worthy venues in Sydney. If you’re on Unilocal you can find them.
If you’re into box ticking by all means go, but accept the potential for disappointment as part of the journey. At a cost of around $ 700 for a table of four just for food it’s a disappointment we won’t be seeking out again.

I was taken here for my birthday. Perfect location, attentive and professional service. Highlight was none other than the snow egg, a dessert worth the visit.

I had read about the snow egg and I was concerned that it was over-​hyped but it was truly amazing!!! This has to be on my top five best desserts ever.
We went with the four course tasting and had a lovely table overlooking the bridge. Unfortunately a giant cruise ship was docked right in front of the restaurant blocking most of the window seat views. I really appreciated the table we received because the majority of the seats looked right into the ship. Be sure to book a window seat and confirm if a ship will be docked.

I came here for a very special occasion and was giddy with happiness already so my rating might be a bit off due to the happy drug effect.
The view was wonderful and the atmosphere was wonderful. The food however was interesting. Presented nicely and not the ordinary stuff you would eat (well duh it’s fine dining) but nothing really grabbed me until dessert. We decided to get two different desserts to share but noticed that the waiters kept bringing out two snow eggs to each table each time. Was there something they knew that we didn’t. Unfortunately yes they did and we regretted not ordering two snow eggs because it was absolutely divine. My rating is more for the snow egg rather than anything else. So yum… so yum…

I’m a regular at this place, I go once every 10 years.
We had our wedding reception here, which entitles you to a free meal. My father in law didn’t think that was a great deal but he only had one daughter so I felt it was fair that Keeno and I had it… Thanks again Gerry!
Keeno and I go back every now and then for anniversaries. Last one was during Vivid and this place is a perfect spot to watch the Hoprahouse go off.
The food is spectacularly good. The service is impeccable. The setting is just jaw dropping.
and yes… of course I had the Snow Egg!