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

Foveaux Restaurant, Surry Hills

Foveaux is one of the restaurant in my wish list that been sitting there for awhile, until recently we had a chance to dine in there.  I have been reading lots of reviews about this place and most of them were very positive, greatly satisfied with the food and had a good experience there.  Also, I checked that the price is pretty reasonable for a fine dining.

I was totally impressed by their minimalist decorating style and love the ambiance there too, pretty simple yet so elegant.  The place wasn't as big as I have expected but the dining room was so cozy with the lighting that was pleasantly calming and be a nice contrast against the rustic bricks wall behind it.  At first I thought, tonight gonna be a noisy one as the tables setting were quite squeezy next to each other.  But surprisingly, it didn't bother us at all, we still enjoyed the night without have to shout at each other while talking and can not really hear the other diners conversation.

We arrived there at 6pm where they just open for dinner.  We were the first customer in and got the all attention to us from waitress so the services were lightning rapid and we got the food in a flash...  But later on when the place starting to fill up, the service begin to slow down the pace, however that's what we prefer anyway as we need abit more time for our digestive system before we can take on some more...

We chose the tasting plate for tonight and it consists of 6 courses which you can choose from 2 different options in each course except for the pre-dessert.  Not a surprise!!  As you all might know we always wanna try everything on the offer, so each of us ordered differently.



Amaro Fiore $18 - cocktail with a touch of grapefruits

 

Oysters with chardonnay vinegar pearls and salmon roe (Supplementary $4 each)

I always like the idea of oysters at the beginning of the meal, it somehow tantalise my appetite for the entire dinner..  And this oyster were delectably yummy.  Vinegar dressing!!  Of course the best element to marriage with fresh raw oyster.  On top of that, the hint of chardonnay and a touch of salmon roe made it more luxu-licous.

Complimentary White Bread

We were given the 2 choices of bread: white and wholemeal bread.  The size is generally quite small and we thought we wanna go for second if they offer so.  But very very unusual from other fine dining restaurant that we've ever been, here they quickly took our bread's plate and butter away once we finished with our Amuse Bouche.  Literally, should be just around the finishing of main meal, isn't??  Or maybe after we done with the Entree, should sounds much better!!!!



Amuse Bouche

We begin our meal with some light soup (I think, it is a cucumber soup), very nice green colour soup with few drops of black olive vinaigrette and sprinkle of paprika powder to enhance the flavours.  I didn't like the soup as it got a funny taste which until now I still can't reminisce what was that taste from ???

I had only attempted half way of my soup and the lady asked whether I have finished it !!!  C'mon... though she may can tell rite away from my face that I personally don't really like this but I'm still enjoying it and in the middle of trying to liking it.  So better give me some time lady!!!!  After couple more minutes, she came back and asked the same urging question, this time I gave up and hand over the dish !!!  I mean, I know that the restaurant was still empty and she gotta find something to do but please isn't anything else that she can bother with!!!!!  By the way only that one waitress who quite rude and never smile but the rest were friendly and bubbly.

Course #1: Soused Sardines, vongole, white gazpacho, yellow capsicum butter, parsley and toast

For the first course, me and my husband failed to made it up with our mission to try everything there because the second option (Buffalo Ricotta cannoli, cucumber, tomato, olive and provencal herbs) was totally far beyond our eating radar so we don't mind at all to give that a miss.  Hehehehe!!!!   Here we are having the same dish so I can have the whole dish for myself and no need to share it with him which is absolutely good.  The Sardine was enjoyable, not too salty and not too overpowering.  The yellow capsicum butter and other items on the plate were perfectly together...  And those toast!!  OMG-SO-thin and crunchy.  Definitely a nice starter of the night we both agree.



Course #2: Smoked duck, confit duck spring roll, tamarind puree, charcoal oil, orange and watercress salad

This duck dish look simply mouth watering and tasted incredibly delicious , but sadly it wasn't my dish though.  Hiks :(  The duck was succulent and tender with the citrusy from the orange freshen the the whole dish.  But the winner from this dish is actually the Confit Duck Spring Roll, very crisp in the outside without any greasiness and juicy chunk of duck meat inside.  Wish that spring roll comes in bigger size, we certainly need more of them.



Course #2: Caramelised venison tongue, nham pla prawns, crispy pork skin, cauliflower cream, cashew, shiso and mint

Just because my hubby doesn't eat tongue so leave me with no other choice but to have this dish, otherwise would definitely love to have that duck dish.  The food beautifully presented on the black serving dish to give a good contrast in colour and touch of sumptuous appearance.  It appears to be very much like a fusion dish, but I found that each elements have a strong flavour on each own but those cauliflower cream helped blending them together.  However, I still prefer to have it on its own in each spoonful so I can thoroughly enjoy their genuine taste.  The tongue itself was chewy but not tough and the prawns was burst out with sharp Nham Pla flavour.  But where is my crispy pork skin?????


Course #3: Roast king salmon, zucchini puree,cuttle fish, green olive jelly, coriander and popped skin

Roasted Salmon served on the lake of Zucchini puree and topped with green olive jelly, sliced coriander and crispy fish skin.  The only thing I could remember about this dish was the freshness from the soft salmon flesh and that crispy fish skin just shattered apart in a bite.


Course #3: Herb baked leather jacket, celeriac puree, braised veal tail, shitake mushrooms and spring onion

When I read the second option for the third course on the menu is said 'Leather Jacket'!!!  What the heck is that!!  Sounds very creepy to us!!  I like leather jacket ..  only for keeping my body warm and look cool for the bikie but eating it???  Ehmmmmm ...  Should think twice..  I then asked the waiters and she said it's a type of fish called Leatherjacket fish.  Ohhhh I seeee .. Now, I got it!!!  We thought way too far.

From the appearance, this dish looks irrelevantly messy, they got the sauce and puree everywhere.  But once I tasted it, I gotta take back my word.  All the parties on the dish helps each other to shine.  Great teamwork !!  Nothing so special about the fish, besides well seasoned, the flesh itself is just like the texture of the snapper...  but those veal tails were absolutely wonderful and make me want more.  It has a tendon like texture, very tender and love the spices that they braised with.


Course #4: Braised brisket, sirloin, pea puree, paysanne jus and wasabi cream

The braised Brisked and Sirloin were served on the river of Pea Puree and Paysanne Jus then finishing off with the wasabi cream on top.  The meat were perfectly grilled and wasabi cream matched very well with the sweet juicy meat.  I found that their dish always come with way too abundant sauces, which was good to keep the meat wet and tastier, although it looks very unappealing and confusing.

Course #4: Wakame roasted lamb rump, squid ink, salt and pepper tofu, miso puree and fennel



I've never been a big fan of lamb but still wanna give it a try with this lamb dish once again.  Unfortunately, this dish failed to change my hatred mind about lamb as they smelled and tasted very gamey.  Probably it really a nice dish for a lamb lover since the meat cooked perfectly and still bloody pink as you can see from the photo and seems like all items on the dish lifted up the dish to the next level.  And those miso puree and salt pepper tofu brought us to enjoy the Asian flavour.  I was wonder about the squid ink!!! Meaningless, only to give a nice contrast colour into it!!!

Course #5: Spiced roasted pears, milk sorbe and brown bread crumbs

This is definitely the highlight of the night...  I love the balanced of texture here and awesome flavours.  It sounds like a simple dessert but mind you !!!!  Those brown bread crumbs was incredibly tasty and sweet.  Just can't get enough of this tiny pre-dessert that we got.  Really looking forward what's we will get for the next dessert.



Course #6: Thyme parfait, lemon curd, roasted blueberries, macadamia nut and dried lemon sponge

Another brilliant dish for tonight!!  Nice texture and flavours combination between the tanginess from soft lemon sponge and curd with the crunchiness from toffee coated macadamia and blueberries.  It's a very merry dish in my mouth.
 

Course #6: Chocolate mousse, orange sponge, orange curd ice cream, chocolate soil and brazil nut

Those elements on the plate are totally different in flavour, the mousse was very bitter to nearly zero sugar, taste like 90% dark chocolate, Orange Ice Cream was sweet, refreshing and so fruity ...  For the orange sponge was actually tasted more like plain white egg sponge, it was tasteless and too eggy.  However, when I put all the elements on the plate together in one mouthful, its more like Christmas in the mouth, very heavenly blended together.

We felt pretty full by the end of our meal but this Ginger Sponge in their Ala Carte dessert menu catched my eyes since I read the menu earlier.  So we just went extra miles and go for one more dessert. ...

Additional Dessert: Ginger sponge, carrot marmalade, cream cheese ice cream and walnut powder



The ginger sponge itself was so moist and goes extremely well with those sweet carrot marmalade and cream cheese ice cream, but that walnut powder was pretty bland and almost no taste at all.

The funny thing is at the end of our meal when the waitress clearing our table.  She poke us  "You guys done it very well ."

Petit Fours

 

Earl Gray Tea



Tonight's dining is nothing short of magic.  It was absolutely eye-opener and blew our mind away.  Just a little bit let down by one of the waitress but it s just one of those day maybe.  We were quite surprise by the fact that the price here was very competitive and not religiously expensive like the others big names out there.  Pleassse don't let me mention the names.  The 6 courses tasting menu costs $85.  Pretty good isn't !!!!

If you are looking for the great dine out which not going to damage your wallet.  Please give this Foveaux a go.  You'll love it I assure you :)  Octie Appetie...

Foveaux

1/65-67 Foveaux Street  

Surry Hills NSW 2010

Ph: (02) 9211 0664

Tetsuya's

Tetsuya's is not just another fine dining in the expensive fancy restaurant but more like enjoying the top-quality and sophisticated work of culinary masterpiece.  All of their dishes were highly presented to perfection and visually appealing.  In my opinion, they keep their dishes simple yet delicate and subtle in away with clean taste and super duper fresh produces.  The thing I love from them beside the deadly yummy food was their outstanding service.  Friendly and accommodating.. that's for sure and surprisingly they seems like always know the right timing and be there whenever you need them without make you feel that you have been watching. Truly world-class dining restaurant!!!

The first show of the night was already made the special place in my heart.  Seriously guys, who would've thought that just a simple butter could turn out to be our hot topic until the entire meal!!!!  This butter was really special and delightful as it got the expensive truffle mixed in it.  At first, we thought that wouldn't it abit too much for the full pot of  just a BUTTER!!!!  It took my love of butter only from the first moment it landed on my tongue.  That's instant!!!!  Yeah... Maybe you guys would think that I'm a little bit crazy with just a  regular butter but trust me you will know what I'm talking about when you dig into it.  The butter texture was so light and the truffles added the flavour to the ordinary butter.  We finished it all with just each bread of us.  When we asked for another bread and the waiter saw that our pot of butter was totally cleaned up, he was smiling and offered us with another full pot of truffle butter.  Bit embarrassed, really!!!!

Complimentary Sourdough Bread

They have 2 different kinds of warm complimentary breads, normal sourdough and Italian whitebread.  For me, Italian Whitebread is abit too crusty and hard on the outside, so I still prefer my sourdough much better.

Potato soup in a fine dining restaurant, how could that be!!!!  That's the first impression of mine when I heard the first menu would be.  You know what!!  I withdrew my words back, this is simply a magical soup.  Honestly, I can have the whole big bowl of this.  Potato Soup with Coddled Quail Egg & Avruga  is a simple dish yet elegant with a quail egg hidden underneath and topped with avruga caviar that enhance the taste of this light creamy soup. 

Pacific Oysters with Rice Vinegar & Ginger .  This is an optional dish.  But who wanna miss a thing from Tetsuya's.  When the waiter offered us with this dish, we straight away nodding our head and went like: Yup.. We take them!!!  It cost $9 for the two of them which undeniably became my favourite dish of the night.  The tangy ginger-y dressing was just a perfect complimented for the extremely fresh and juicy oysters.

Next dish is Savoury Custard with Sea Urchin.  The Egg custard was sensational and silky smooth with a tiny bit of sea urchin on top and a tiny dotted of wasabi.  Luckily, it was abit of sea urchin as I don't like the taste and smell of it but only myself personally though, on the other hand my hubby loves them so I passed it on to him.  Both are a happy chappy now!!!!

How could those custard can be so smooooth and no airy bubbles at all, riddle me that???  I tried so many ways to cook a perfect egg custard but still far far from that perfection.

Sashimi of Kingfish with Blackbean & Orange.  This dish is a well marriage between the ultra fresh raw Kingfish that has been infused with soy, mirin and a hint of blackbean and orange sauce plus the chopped spring onions, chilli and coriander on top brought them to the next level.  All ingredients work very well in harmony to create this special dish.

Now, here comes the renowned dish of Tetsuya's.  Confit Petuna Ocean Trout with Shaved Fennel & Unpasteurised Ocean Trout Caviar is the dish where clearly shown their idea about elegant simplicity into the plate and skillfully presented.  The flesh is remarkably fresh and the spices on top was freaking tasty even it was a little too salty for my preference but doesn't matter really!!!!!!  And the crunchiness from fennel just nicely balanced the texture of the dish.  Really perfect combination for both taste and texture.  Actually, the spices reminding me of the seasoning from the popular Indonesian instant noodle called Mi Goreng, if anyone ever tried it before!!  Don't get me wrong, it was a good thing though..  I always tip tiny bit of those Mi Goreng seasoning when I'm making one.  Tetsuya's signature dish ...  What a truly magnificent dish...

It probably would be the least favourable dish for the night.  The beancurd itself was smooth and quite tasty but I couldn't deliberately taste any foie grass in there.  Steamed Queensland Spanner Crab with Bean Curd, Foie Gras & Junsai was not that bad but nothing spectacular as well.  It's just an 'ok' dish, but still we did finish it all.

After eating all the light and fresh seafood dishes now it's time for the meat and poultry dishes.  Starting with Braised Veal Shank with Broad Beans & Smoked Bone Marrow.  OMG!!!  This veal was merely melts in my mouth and you don't need any knife to cut them, only using your forks and they just fell apart..  It's that tender!!!  I still found it is hard to believe what I just had was a veal.

Another brilliant dish for tonight, Breast of Quail with Paleta Iberico& Garlic Puree is the dish where the flavours from each elements really balance and not overpowering each others.  The crispness from the brown rice puffs complimented the succulent and juicy quail breast and those Iberico just gave a saltiness touch on the dish.  Nicely done.

Cape Grim Beef Fillet with Wasabi & Braised Mustard Seeds was a superb closing for the savoury dish this evening.  The meat itself is perfectly cooked, unbelievably tender and soft, and the wasabi and mustard puree on the side have been an excellent compliments to the dish but I found that those mustard seeds were unnecessary to be there as it always got stuck in between my teeth.

Let's get ready for the desserts.  Bit sad though cos it means is getting close to the end of my dream-come-true dining that I've been waiting for more than half year.  All the savoury dishes were really awesome, some had been wowed me.  Do you think the dessert would leave the unforgettable memory for me??  We better find out!!!!

My friends told me earlier that the dinner would take at least 4 hours, hence we had booked the restaurant at 8pm, so I was kinda worried that I will fall asleep in the middle of dining..  By the time the dessert started to come out, it was nearly midnight, but we were still exciting like a toddler just got a new toy.  At the end, we actually wanna stay abit longer, however hesitation came from nowhere has struck me as everyone start leaving the restaurant.

Hay Infused Ice Cream with Sorrel Granita.  Our first dessert was so refreshing and cool, the bitterness from hay flavoured Ice cream balanced off the sweetness from the granita. Strange taste, is like eating a grass flavoured ice cream but they still were heavenly paired together.

Bread & Butter Pudding here, wasn't just the mediocre bread pudding..  They got that milk-y and sweet custard like normal bread pudding but that brulee was sooo delightful and the sounds of that crackling surface....  Oh boy!!!!  Sorry that I forgot to take a photo of the inside look.  Loves that wonderful flavour and texture of the pudding.

 Chocolate Pavé with Cream Cheese Ice Cream & Cinnamon Twigs.  I'm soooo jealous of my hubby, he got this dish but I got the birthday chocolate fondant instead.  Had a chance to pinched only a spoonful of it and when I look again after taking a few shots of my cake, they're just vanished.  It was that gooood, I can see from the way he rushed into it.  The pave was smooth and so heavenly intense and rich, for the ice cream is lack of cream cheese flavour as I didn't even notice until I read the menu that it was a cream cheese flavour.

Chocolate Fondant with Hazelnut & Praline was my last dish for the night.  Bit disappointed in away, I mean...  appreciate of their effort to celebrate my birthday and of course I always loves chocolate fondant.  But dining in Tetsuya's, I didn't expect to get this pretty ordinary cake that I actually could get in somewhere else.  Tough, I was impressed with those gooey chocolate just oozed out from the middle.  Anyway, still enjoyable and very dib but that soft and luscious chocolate pave still lingering on my head....

Tea time with some petit fours of Chestnut and Expresso macaroons.. They look very alike even the waiters got confused distingush them at first.


Expresso and Chestnut Macaroons Petite Four

One of my ultimate fine dining experience at all time.  The food were really enjoyable and delicious even some of the dishes may not have the 'wow' factor but none of them actually let me down.  The chef is clearly shown what he wants to tell through their dishes, I can taste the flavour of each single element but nothing overpowering each other.  Eleven-course dishes for $210, compared to what you'll experience and remember is absolutely worthed to try at least once in a life time.  Definitely, I would love to return again but it will hurt my wallet so badly.  Hmmm... but never say never, someday when we are wealthy enuf.  Hahahaha....

For those who wanna drive to the restaurant, they provide a personalised valet parking at the cost of $20.

Oopss..  Forget to mention that we had a great chance to meet with the master "Tetsuya Wakuda" himself while he was visiting the other dinners right next to our table.  What a fluke!!!!  He just looks exactly the same from what I've seen in TV, calm and humble. What a wonderful night and most memorable dining for me. Pheww... Ticked off my bucked list!!! Next.....

Octie Appetie guys.....

Tetsuya's

529 Kent Street

Sydney NSW 2001

Ph:   02 92672900

Fax: 02 92627099

Opening Hours:

Lunch:  Sat from 12 pm

Dinner: Tue to Fri from 6pm

             Sat from 6.30pm