I heard about this restaurant through a University friend, C. The Gowings heritage building has been transformed into Sydney’s newest boutique hotel – I have always wondered what they were going to do with this place! QT Sydney has opened and it is not your average hotel – the place is quite hip, funky and has that ‘cabaret’ feel to it, even the ‘bouncers’ downstairs are dressed in cabaret outfits.
Robert Marchetti (ex-North Bondi Italian Food and Neild Avenue) is behind this find establishment and offering diners ‘the freshest produce from Australian’s best artisan providores, prepared with cooking techniques featuring wood fired rotisseries and ovens’.
I was catching up with a couple of friends, and suggested this place. The menu VAST – couldn’t decide what I wanted to eat, duck, pork or beef! We started with warm fresh bread with pepe saya butter – yum!
We went straight to mains. I was craving beef and opt for the rib eye 100% black angus, darling downs ($48) – it was cooked to perfection, medium rare, the beef was incredibly tender and succulent, it was exactly what I wanted and needed.
About 1/3 of the table ordered the ½ crisp spiced duck served with Paris mash potatoes, steamed warrigal greens and salt bush ($44) – oh my, tender duck, crispy spicy skin and the mash incredibly creamy and delicious!
The hot spanner crab cakes with salad of hearts of palms, aioli and hot sauce ($19) were a hit!
The hand-picked spanner crab salad with avocado mousse, pickled asparagus, chervil, baby coz and black truffle dill mayonnaise ($28) was light and delicious – you can never go wrong with crab and avocado!
The steamed kinkawooka mussels with shallots, garlic, crème fraiche and sea parsley in a reisling sauce and shoe string fries ($38) were plump and moreish!
We all enjoyed the iceberg, red peppers, Ortiz anchovy, seeded mustard dressing ($10).
The fried onion rings ($7) weren’t too bad.
‘The Mother’ and I shared the Gowings classic profiteroles – filled with crème patisserie and vanilla ice cream drowned in Valrhona dark chocolate sauce ($17) – oh my! 3 decent size profiteroles, they were sinful but absolutely fantastic and the chocolate sauce was a wonderful complement.
Others had the hot German doughnuts dusted in Cinnamon and nutmeg sugar ($12). Although it was relatively huge, I had high expectations for these doughnuts and it did not live up to it. It was a little dry and wasn’t even fluffy! The profiteroles were definitely a better choice.
Service tentative, food was pretty good, it’s definitely a ‘fun’ place to go for dinner with friends. I definitely enjoyed my steak and those profiteroles were excellent!
Would like to come and try their lunch – we were curious about the 11 seeded sandwich – pastrami, corned beef, brisket, asiago cheese, sauerkraut, seeded mustard mayonnaise, house made pickle – WHAT A MOUTHFUL! I’m sure this would be fantastic! Till next time!
GA’s ratings: 7.5 / 10
49 Market Street
Sydney 2000
Ph: +61 2 8262 0062
Filed under: European, Steak, Sydney Tagged: European, Steak, Sydney
