Big things are due for Sepia

I have a habit of always returning to the same places to eat even though there are so many other places to dine at. When you’re begging for a pay rise but also struggling to figure out what you want to do in your career, keeping an eye on your wallet when satisfying your stomach is a tough ask. It also doesn’t help that over the years I have developed a finer appreciation for good food, hence the start of this blog. Sure the food has to taste good, but there is also a sense of enjoyment when marvelling the aesthetic brilliance of food. It seems Sepia is one of those restaurants which delivers on both fronts.

Sepia is located on the Northern end of Sussex St which does not attract a huge proportion of the CBD crowd on a Friday night, but judging by the packed house this evening it seems one of Sydney’s best kept dining secrets won’t be a secret for too much longer. There is a nice relaxed ambience when walking into Sepia despite the huge crowd as we were seated promptly by our Waiter. You know your evening is off to a good start when the waiter is happy as well.

Before dining here I did a bit of research and was amazed at the pedigree of the Chefs who worked here. Martin Benn was the Executive Chef at Tetsuya’s and Daniel Puskas was the Head Chef of Oscillate Widly. Surely we were in for a treat ?

Degustation menu

We opt for the degustation for the four of us this evening, it’s often the best way to get a feel of all the dishes on offer. At $130 per person ($190 w/ wine), it’s at the ideal price point for a degustation in Sydney for me. Minh opts for the matching wines with her meal, I end up regretting not doing the same as it seems all the wines were a perfect match and balance with the food on tonights menu. The Sommelier was also superb, his name escapes me (might have been Rodney) but he was very helpful and knew all the wines like the back of his hand.

Amuse Bouche

After starting off the evening with warm sourdough rolls and butter, we kick off formal preceedings promptly with the amuse bouche. It is served warm and I could immediately smell the the aroma coming from the cuttlefish consommé. The addition of enoki mushrooms and finely chopped chives give a nice contrast of textures and flavour. It was quite welcoming to drink something which looked so clear and pure, with no fat in sight.

Entrée

This was one of my favourite dishes not only in taste but also in presentation. I sat there looking at it for about a minute before digging in, there is so much happening on this dish and it’s just the entree. The glistening eel (unagi) sits on a generous bed of nigirizushi (sushi rice). The eel has a subtle taste of smokeyness and it is just at the right notch which enables it to balance well with the sweet soy based sauce. The dish is flanked by a licorice powder and confit leek. I’m quite fond of the licorice powder as it adds a bit of crunch to the softness of the eel and sushi rice, as does the confit leek. One minor point to note was one of our dishes had some bones in it, though thankfully this wasn’t consistent with all four dishes.

When this next dish landed on our table, it looked a bit like a time capsule. Funnily enough, I felt like I had just gone back in time to Japan when I tasted the tartare, which is a good thing. I could tell this dish was going to be good as I saw a smile sprout from Linda’s face after only one scoop.  All the flavours amalgamated perfectly, especially the tuna tartare and wasabi jelly. The hint of wasabi is welcoming, without the usual kick associated with it and the avocado cream brings everything together.

It doesn’t look like much, but everything is not only revealed under the foam but also with the beautiful smell of the mustard butter and shellfish essence. The sweetness of the crab is offset nicely with the softness of the buckwheat risotto.

Mains

This was another absolute pearler of a dish. The flesh of the poached blue eye was firm and moist, yet quite delicate.  I’ve yet to taste a piece of fish anywhere else which has been cooked so perfectly. The salty smoked ink droplets and bacon floss were strong in texture and flavour, an ideal supporting act for the fish.  The dish is rounded off with sweet and crunchy baby fennel. Oh and of course, who doesn’t love crispy fish skin ? I like saving it until the end and eating it like a potato chip.

The picture speaks for itself, in terms of how perfect the lamb was cooked. The mushroom infusion is also a highlight here, the smell of the mushrooms was good enough for me to enjoy it on it’s own. My lamb was a tad overseasoned with salt but the braised daikon brought the balance of flavours back to square one, as did the thin pieces of jerusalem artichoke sitting on the bottom of the lamb.

You can’t really see it here, but all the mushrooms are submerged at the bottom.

The alternate vegetarian dish was suzuki mulloway with a hint of butter. I didn’t get to try this dish, but it kept our resident vegequarian happy whilst we were telling her how awesome the lamb tasted, oops.

The meat was once again cooked to perfection, with a pink and tender center and a slightly charred exterior. My knife carved through the venison with minimal effort, that in it’s own was a good indication of how well it was cooked. I found the lemon puree a tad bitter on it’s own, but when eaten with the venison and caper and celery jus the flavours all started to make sense. The caramalised witlof is also a nice addition, I found myself liking it more with each bite, when I expected it to be bitter.

Mushrooms was the name of the game tonight with shimeji mushrooms making their first appearance in this alternate vegetarian dish of marron tail. Teresa was considerate enough to allow me a taste of her dish, one bite, I’m hooked. The marron tail was once again perfectly cooked, ensuring the flesh was still moist. One thing I just couldn’t go pass was how sweet the flesh was. Next time, I’ll just declare myself a vegequarian just for this dish.

Pre-Dessert

So far, so good. Our meal has been great, there has been a good balance of meat and seafood, liquids and foams. With the mains, you can see a mix of modern technique with a subtle Japanese influence. So when it came time for dessert, we had great expectations.

The desserts lift the evening to another level. I’ve never had a pre-dessert which looks this good, usually it is just a palette cleanser which looks like minimal effort has been made with it to ensure that it can be churned out quickly to customers. So when I saw this creation I was in awe.

Each sandwich of dehydrated chocolate is filled with mint milk sorbet. The dehydrated chocolate tastes a bit like ovaltine lollies, does anyone remember those ? I use to eat them all the time in Primary School. Each bite of the chocolate comes with a nice crunch and is offset nicely by the mint milk sorbet. Move over after dinner mint slices, give me more of these please.

Dessert

We get a few more desserts than anticipated, but being the sweet tooths we are we just had to try everything.

I’m no Matt Preston, but I judge a good dessert not only by its taste and sweetness but also by how well it combines different textures. What you see up there is an example of what I consider the perfect dessert framework. First there is the soft olive oil based sponge which falls apart with each bite yet manages to hold it’s shape on the plate. The white bean ice-cream is incredibly soft, there are no inconsistencies in it’s texture at all. It’s as smooth as a soft serve cone but created with the flavour and technique of a restaurant worthy of a hat or two.

Now for the crunch beneath the sponge cake, enter the rice powder and something which resembles a meringue (pink, next to ice cream). With the rice powder, you can taste the slightly toasted textures, they go extremely well with the ice cream. The pink meringue-like addition is also nice, one bite and it melts in your mouth, once again the contrasting textures reign supreme.

The marshmallows are very soft, yet they have an element of elasticity. It is deliberately caramalised slightly and sits beneath a dollop of sweet and slightly tart pineapple sorbet. I quite like the mint whip, along with the coriander sprouts they add a fresh bite to the dessert as both ingredients are not something you would normally associate with desserts.

This might look like a maxibon on drugs, but it is indeed a representation of all things chocolate. Each layer contains something with chocolate, my favourite is without a doubt the praline right at the bottom. It brings together all the layers of this dish, it is the Michael Jordan, the Andrew Johns, the Zidane, the playmaker in this team of chocolate. The cocoa bubbles are also quite unique, an interesting addition to an already perfect dessert both taste wise and texturally. We had to divide the dessert into four pieces so I went gung ho with my spoon, smashing the layers and hearing each one of them scream a collective cracking noise.

While we wait for our tea and coffee (Toby’s Estate) we are surprised with a plate of chocolates. The coconut bounty reminds me of my childhood, where chocolates were dominated by the likes of bounties, caramello koalas and cadbury creme eggs.

Check out the filling, they are not tight at all with the fillings.

What more can you ask for in a chocolate ? Liquid infused mud cake is a sweet tooth’s dream come true, one piece at a time.

I was told by the waiter that all the chocolates were made by the pastry chefs of the restuarant. Upon biting into the crispy dark chocolate exterior of the tonka bean ones, the aromatic tonka beans made it’s precense known. Smooth and creamy, it smelt like freshly scraped vanilla from vanilla beans , or tonka beans rather.  Apparently tonka beans are banned in the US for use in food ? I guess we are lucky here down under.

So simple yet so much flavour. The blood oranges are the showpiece here, with the jelly being extremely soft. They almost fall apart as I pick them up with my fingers.

I paid particular attention to the shape of these macarons, they were all pretty much identical. Linda has tried to make macarons countless times, trying different recipies which not surprisingly yield different results. Whatever recipe is used here, it must be good … or the person behind it is bloody good. The macarons have a crisp outer shell and are slightly soft and chewy in the middle. I also think Sepia’s macarons are the perfect size, it allows you to have more than a couple before the taste gets too overwhelming.

Crunchy pieces of honeycomb are covered by rich milk chocolate which are not too sweet. By this stage, we are stuffed to the brim but it doesn’t stop all four of us fighting over the last pieces like school kids.

Despite being a relatively new restaurant, Sepia operates like a well oiled machine. The service was prompt, friendly and flawless. There was no pretenciousness from any of the front floor staff, they even have a good sense of humour which is lacking from some of the ‘top’ restaurants in Sydney I’ve been to. At one stage of the evening, we were so impressed by one of the plates being used that we tried to check out which brand it was while we still had food on it. One of the floor staff noticed our curiosity or perhaps our weirdness, and promptly came over to our table and gave us a quick run down of what plates were being used.

In terms of the food, I was thoroughly impressed with the combination of flavours, textures and creativity. The presentation and styling was amazing and unique. You can see the Asian influences in some of the dishes, as well as some subtle elements of European cuisine. The only minor downside was some over seasoning with salt on a few dishes and some bones in the eel dish, however this wasn’t consistent with all four diners.  But then again, in Simon Thomsen’s review in the Sydney Morning Herald he thought that one of the dishes was underseasoned, so what would I know ? The desserts on the other hand were stunning, I hope Sepia have some sort of Sugar Hit session during Sydney International Food Month because the desserts are far too good not to have the word spread out about them.

Would I come back ? Certainly. Sepia are currently open Monday – Friday but this is soon to change in September when they open on Saturdays, but offering only a 7 course Chef’s tasing menu which can change depending on produce available.

It’s only early days for them, but I’m calling it now, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are eventually awarded a Hat in the next Good Food Guide awards.

Sepia, see you again in September.

Sepia Restaurant & Wine Bar

Darling Park
Level Ground, 201 Sussex Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: (02) 9283 1990
Web : http://www.sepiarestaurant.com.au