Sepia

 


NSW premium rock oysters, served with lime and rice vinegar $5/each

Pretty disappointed with this optional dish, not because of their beautiful wine vinaigrette, but as their oysters are so inconsistent in size.  Understandable that Rock oyster is generally small, however what I got on the plate is only one in good size and the rest are tiny tiny bits.  Moreover, I paid $5 for each pieces, unbelievably overpriced.  


Oba leaf, Emporador, Sudachi

Their amuse bouche was absolutely delicious.  The tempura battered oba leaf was very light and crispy, it can maintain their crunchiness although topped with those fresh sashimi.  Great start, looking forward to their next dishes.



# Course 1, 2 and 3

 

# Course1: Sashimi of Yellow Fin tuna, steamed Japanese omelette, white soy, wasabi and sheep yoghurt

 

Funny flavour combination, with salty tuna and slightly sweet steamed omelette.  The omelette's texture for me, is more like a mousse.  It wasn't bad but not great either.



# Course 2: Carid prawns, heirloom tomato white cucumber, creme fraiche, tempura batter, Matcha tea oil

  
This dish was one of my favourite.  I tried each single items on the plate on it's own and it was yumm.  Then I spooned all small bits and pieces together from top until the bottom of the plate and have them on one go and it is like heaven in my mouth.  Great flavour and texture.  Especially those little popped of tempura batter, I totally loved them, would be great if I can have more of these little  though.

When the waiter put this butter on our table, first glance I thought it was an early pre-dessert of white chocolate sapphire.  But I was totally wrong, it is actually a ball-shaped butter. Ehmmm...  Very interesting.




# Course 3: Poached bone marrow, smoked salmon roe, bamboo, roasted onion thyme and mustard, nasturtium

 
When I heard that the next dish is bone marrow, I'm so looking forward to it as I really love bone marrow.  When the dish came in front of me, I was so exciting.  It looked nice and smelt delicious too.  Once I tasted the bone marrow, it was just melt-in-my-mouth but lack of flavour and the mustard was a little too salty on its own but gorgeous when eat them together.

# Course 4, and meat course 1 and 2

 


# Course 4: Crab rice, egg yolk, tarragon, Japanese land seaweed

Another outstanding dish that they served. Very tasty crab rice with slightly runny egg yolk goes well together then those popped Japaneses seaweed lift up this dish to the next level.



# Course 5: Wagyu rump, hatcho miso, sea urchin and wasabi butter, garlic chives, potato and kelp

The flavour of the each individual component on this plate was totally delightful.  The sea urchin wasabi butter was sensational.  I am not a fan of sea urchin but here the taste was so subtle and compliment the meat very well.  Those crunchy potato and kelp complete the dish.  However, the beautiful Wagyu piece was ruined as it was overcooked so it was quite dry and not as tender as it should be.  Otherwise, it would sit on top of my A-list.




 

# Course 6: Seared Mandagery Creek venison, boudin noir, chocolate crumb, coconut yoghurt, blackcurrant, shichimi

This dish had WOW me, the venison was perfectly cooked.  Although it sounds unusual for venison to be eaten with yoghurt and chocolate, however, taste is completely opposite.  What a surprise, everything on the plate was actually complimented the meat very well.  I like this dish alot but my husband didn't think so.




Optional dish and 2 pre-desserts

 


# Optional dessert: Saint Agur and mascarpone cheese, crystallised macadamia's, celery cress, roasted chicory granita (optional) $18

I could say that I 'hate' blue cheese, but I give this one a try as thought I never had it in dessert.  This dish had converted me, blue cheese itself was very subtle and not overpowering, instead it is a great match with macadamia and chirory granita.  




#Pre-dessert: Lemon meringue, candied lemon aspen, lemon leaf granita, fennel pollen

 Nice refreshing lemon granita to clean my palate before indulging my desserts. 



#Pre-dessert: Peach cream, raspberry and yukari

 




"Summer chocolate forest"
#Course 7: Soft chocolate, hazelnut and almond, lavender and honey cream, sour cherry sorbet, rose and violet jellies, green tea, licorice, chocolate twigs

So many things going on in this dish.  The items on this plate are all over the place.  However, to have them in one spoonful was excellent.  This is a brilliant dessert.  It is definitely finished my meal on the high knot.  Also. the dish looks pretty on the plate, totally adore it.

For saturday meal, they serve only degustation menu which not from their everyday menu.  They create special degustation menu that keep changing every week.  I found that their meals are heavily influenced by Japanese cuisine.  With 2 pre-desserts in the house, it left me extremely full by the end of our meals.  

We had an enjoyable meal with some even exceeding our expectation.  However, the whole lunch would be better if we got a different waiter to serve us.  He just lazily told us what was the dish that he brought to our table.  Very softly and very in hurry. Only few words I can catch and finally I understand more of what I had put in my mouth by the end of the meal when he handed the menu lists to us.  I overheard that our neighbour table also complained the same thing.

Pretty shameful for a three Chefs Hats restaurant which serving excellent dishes but been let down by their waiters.  Regardless with their service, they put up a fascinating delicious dishes.  I am not a small minded person, so I will definitely come back to this restaurant again, just hoping we will get a better waiter next time.

Sepia Restaurant

201 Sussex Street, Sydney

Ph: 02 9283 1990   

#Degustation menu $350 for 2 people