squishies 25 November 2008 Dessert, Modern Australian 9 Comments  Print This Post  Email This Post

Quality is the quay

When we first booked for Quay’s Hats Off Dinner, I was pretty excited. My co-worker, Jackie, knowing how much I love food, asked me what I had planned for Good Food Month. I enthusiastically listed the Sugar Hits and Let’s Do Lunches we were going to, finishing off with the Hats Off Dinner at Quay. Her eyes fairly popped out of her head at the list… right until I mentioned Quay. Jackie made a face and mildly said, “I think Quay isn’t as good as what everyone else thinks.” How could it not!? I was aghast, especially since it is a hatted restaurant (and I’m quite sure for a good reason too). With some slight trepidation, but still feeling hopeful that it will be good, we hit Quay.

Turning up for our 6.30pm booking, we were ushered to a table next to the window – giving us a gorgeous view of the sunset bathing the Sydney Opera House in a brilliant orange glow; behind our table was a partial view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Pretty sunset view from our table

After ordering sparkling and still water for the table (plus a cocktail and 3 whiskeys), we were served warm, crunchy-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside toasted dinner rolls, which we lavished with butter (so yummy). And so our “Seven Courses from Seven Years” degustation began.

Salad of Spring Vegetables, Herbs and Flowers, Goats Curd Cigar, Lemon Jam, Green Almonds (from year 2004)

The dish tasted really fresh and crisp and I really liked the goats curd cigar. It seemed like an unusual dish to me and I wondered if the flowers and the more floral-like (almost decorative-looking) greens were edible. I ended up eating them anyway and they were quite strongly flavoured (in a good way) despite its diminutive size. What I don’t normally eat is raw onion, but I was quite sure they’re there to enhance or compliment the dish, so I ate them. It did not go well – I felt kind of woozy by the end of the dish and the feeling persisted through the dinner, which I thought was more than bizarre.

Hand-Picked Mud Crab, Zucchini Flowers, Salted Cucumber, Tomato Sorbet (from year 2003)

A number of us quite liked the mud crab stuffed inside a zucchini flower (and I really liked how it was presented), which was complimented by a creamy sauce and salty cucumbers. However, the tomato sorbet did not go down well with the majority of the table, citing that it was just too weird. I initially didn’t like it either, but my love for tomatoes won through and I ended up quite liking the odd taste of the sorbet (it was kind of like watered down tomato juice).

Shaved Baby Squid Poached in Ginger Oil, Congee, Black Moss, Roasted Squid Consomme (from year 2005)

Having quite a terrible discrimination against ginger and anything that has ginger in it, I wasn’t prepared to like this dish. I was pleasantly surprised that the ginger oil worked very well in the congee and the squid. In fact, this was one of the more tasty dishes of the night and I was vaguely sorry to see it all gone rather too quickly.

Slow Poached Quail Breast, Baby Radishes, Garlic, Truffle Infused Milk Custard, Oloroso, Pea Flowers, Milk Skin (from year 2006)

The quail breasts were so succulent and tender – it was praised by one of our party to be one of the best tasting quail he has had the pleasure to consume. I’ve had quail before, but not quite like this: almost rare and served with delicious sides (minus the onion, which I studiously avoided).

Crisp Confit of Pork Belly, Seared Sea Scallop, Chinese Mushrooms, Jelly Fish and Sesame (from year 2002)

While the pork belly was scrumptiously fatty and the scallop was nice and kind of juicy, I felt that there wasn’t anything to really tie the two flavours together – maybe it’s not supposed to ? I’m not sure. I was a little disappointed with the amount of jellyfish (scarcely there), but the mushrooms made up for it with is deliciousness. Inevitably, Ram and I compared the scallops to Selah’s scallops and Quay surprisingly was outdone (I think I need to stop raving on about these scallops).

Poached Fillet of Pure Bred Wagyu Beef, Baby Spinach, Morels, Tasmanian Wasabi Butter (from year 2007)

The wagyu beef went really well with the baby spinach, morel (which Wikipedia tells me is a fungi), and I really enjoyed mopping up the entire thing up with the wasabi butter – creamy yet punchy.

Vegetarian option to the Wagyu Beef. Lentils Risotto

Ram reported this dish to be scrumptious – I had a tiny spoonful of it and indeed it was. Wish I remember what was in it though.

White Nectarine Snow Egg (from year 2008)

The name of this dessert bemused me a bit – while I understood all the words, they didn’t quite make sense together. I think I understood it once the dish was presented in front of us and I had cracked it opened. It was marvellously put together: from the sweet, crispy outer shell and soft meringue to the refreshingly, lightly sweet-flavoured crushed ice, all sitting on top of a yummy creamy base.

Seven Texture Chocolate Cake

This is Quay’s signature dessert… well, kind of. It’s the Eight Texture Chocolate Cake that’s the signature dessert, but for some reason they left off the chocolate ganache on top. It wasn’t overwhelmingly rich and it was quite nice. However, I personally found the White Nectarine Snow Egg to be much more satisfying in terms of taste and texture.

Quay is gorgeously situated by the harbour and has very attentive wait staff. Even though not all combinations were a hit with everyone (including myself), I found the food to be wonderfully creative and (seemingly) very fresh.

This post wraps up our Good Food Month coverage (finally) – next year will prove interesting to see what will be offered.

Quay
Overseas Passenger Terminal
The Rocks, Sydney 2000
Ph: (02) 9251 5600
Fax: (02) 9251 5609
Web: http://www.quay.com.au/