Minh 21 October 2009 Let's Do Lunch, Lunch, SIFF - Sydney International Food Festival 11 Comments  Print This Post  Email This Post

While this month’s Let’s Do Lunch offerings are more than enticing, being situated just outside of the CBD means that the majority of these lunches are simply just too far away for me. Scanning through the list of restaurants I narrowed my list down to restaurants in the immediate vicinity and settled on Sean’s Kitchen and their “7 Deadly Sins”, or as I like to call it, “Heart Attack on a platter”.

From the SIFF website the exact description of lunch was, ‘Mixed grill of black pudding, duck-fat-fried bread, quail egg, wagyu sausage, bacon, duck hash and devilled kidneys’. I think my eyes must have been shining at this point as one co-worker immediately backed out of lunch saying she’d like to maintain a manageable cholesterol level, while another jumped to the challenge.

Sean's Kitchen Mixed Grill

Sean’s Kitchen is situated on the 2nd floor of the Star City Casino complex, despite being rather turned around we made it to the restaurant with time to spare. The restaurant splits itself multiple sections with the Patio Bar & Lounge and the open kitchen, at midday the Patio Bar was empty and we promptly found ourselves seated at the Open Kitchen with a view overlooking the Ocean Shelf.

It seems a cardinal rule almost than Casinos are windowless and Star City Casino is no exception to this rule, to balance out the darkness the restaurant and table settings were gently lit up with down lights focused on each table. For once I fore-went the bread shot and instead marvelled over the adorable cow images plastered over the butter.

There may have been gasps of awe as our platters were brought out. Call me paranoid but I will swear that our waiter paused for a moment before announcing, ’7 Deadly Sins’ and actually laughed as he put down the platters. Never before have I seen a dish so aptly named and couldn’t help but stare at the platter in confusion, noticing this the waiter advised that we attack the dish from left to right. To the kitchen’s credit, they didn’t even try to pretend that there was anything healthy about the platter with not even a hint of green visible.

Devilled liver & duck fat-fried bread

Although the menu stated Devilled Kidneys, on the day our waiter instead announced that liver was on the platter. Having only ever tried extremely well done liver it was a bit of a surprise to slice open the liver and see the pink center, I thought this was a great decision as the change in texture cut down on the overwhelming taste that liver can have. Co-worker A declares herself a liver convert after tasting this rendition, having being an unrepentant liver hater all her life. The fat-fried bread has indeed been fried to a crisp and resembles an extremely large crouton and is perfect once dipped into the sauce which the liver is sitting.

Bacon, wagyu sausage & black pudding

Bacon, sausage and pudding? At this point I feel like I’m eating the most decadent breakfast on earth! The bacon is wantonly thick and seared only very lightly, and the sausage while prepared perfectly is probably the least exciting component on the platter. The black pudding, or blood pudding as it is also known is amazingly rich and is easily the heaviest component on the platter. With a texture similar to pate I have to resist the templatation to order a slice of bread to smear the black pudding all over.

Duck hash & quail eggs

There’s no sign of a reprise as I reach the end of the platter and realise that the seemingly innocent potatoes have been tossed with duck meat! Throw all this into a mini-saucepan along with 2 sunny-side up quail eggs and you have a very whimsical conclusion to a platter which is definitely not for the light hearted.

The perfect bite!

After making my way down the platter once I decide to rebel against the waiters advice and I start experimenting with the various components to try out all the different combos. My perfect bite – quail egg on top of duck fat-fried bread with a chunk of bacon and sliver of black pudding! With all the various components I can’t really see a pattern behind the the original left-right order as the tastes or texture don’t seem to lead into the next part of the dish.

Brown Brothers wine

Of course, all of the Let’s Do Lunches are served with a choice of Brown Brothers wine or Coopers Pale Ale, being only midday I decided on the wine and found that it paired well with the heaviness of all the meat, and had a rich taste that cut through all the fat. Of course, I don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to wine!

With all the lush surroundings of the restaurant it’s relatively easy to forget that you’re actually seated just above Sydney’s largest casino, a quick glance past the impressive alcohol ladden wall reveals a glimpse of the  multitude of slot machines.

For $35 I have little to complain about, despite the fact that Sean’s Kitchen has only one choice available for their Let’s Do Lunch I’m glad that they’ve gone a little bit out of the box and are prepared to offer something so radically different to your everyday lunch.

Sean’s Kitchen Let’s do Lunch is part of the 2009 Sydney International Food Festival and is available weekdays all throughout October. Check out our SIFF category to see what else the es&t team have been trying all throughout October.

Sean’s Kitchen
StarCity Casino, Level 1, 80 Pyrmont Street
Pyrmont, NSW 2009
Ph: (02) 9657 8767
Web: http://www.seanskitchen.com.au/