Which is how we end up in Sepia! The SMH Good Food Guide has awarded this CBD eatery Sydney's Restaurant of the Year three times - in its' 2012, 2014 and 2015 editions. Helmed by Chef Martin Benn, Sepia's cuisine is normally classified as contemporary, but as we'll see it has really strong Japanese influences.
(In the interest of full disclosure, Quay was actually our first choice because of the gorgeous Sydney Harbour views ... but they are fully booked months in advance)
Dining area is nice and sleek (if a little dim when the sun goes down), service is good - staff know the ingredients and dishes by heart and are courteous and friendly without being overbearing. We choose the multi-course degustation and start off the gastronomical journey with the amuse-bouche - Sake-cured Marron with Sushi Rice - which serves as a declaration of Chef Martin's strong leanings towards Japanese cuisine. This is a lot like sushi, actually - warm cured Marron flesh sitting on a bed of rice-vinegar'ed short-grain rice. A tad bit too much rice vinegar, perhaps - when it comes to sushi we prefer our rice flavoured a little on the sweet side.
If you're wondering what Marron is - it's a species of crayfish that seems to really be only used extensively in Australia, and tastes somewhat like a larger, firmer langoustine.
Anyways, the first course proper is the Sashimi of Yellow Fin tuna with Jamon Iberico cream, radish, apple and wasabi, and pork crackling. It's sashimi, exquisitely presented fine-dining style. The accompanying ingredients work remarkably, particularly the crisp and flavour imparted by the crumbed pork crackling. In dishes like these the main ingredient can sometimes get lost but here it's balanced perfectly such that the yellow fin tuna sashimi remains the star of the show.
Moving on then to the House made chèvre (french for goat cheese) with rhubarb, beetroot, rye and Linaria flowers. The goat cheese forms the base of the dish followed by layers of beetroot gelee and beetroot soil. This was the weakest dish of the night for me - partially because I don't like beetroot, but mainly because the darling and I found the soil a little hard. Some of the soil crumble would get stuck on our teeth (like undercooked rice) and it just wasn't a pleasant experience. Objectively however the flavour balance between the savoury/sweet beetroot and slightly yoghurty goat cheese was excellent.
The first of the hot courses is Butter poached spanner crab on housemade silken tofu with chrysanthemum and kabu cream, fried garlic and tatsoi (a kind of spinach mustard leaf). The tofu was light and silky-smooth; the spanner crab sweet and delicate; everything flavoured wonderfully.
More Western Australian Marron - this time with kombu butter, candied lemon aspen and native sea vegetables. Dishes like these are why I like travelling and eating so much - it's like a pilgrimage to a country to partake of the ingredients that country has to offer. You can never get the same experience back home in Singapore because well ... we're a city-state with no land and have to import everything. The Marron here is cooked wonderfully as well, and the accompanying umami from the kombu-ish seaweed and other vegetables is great.
We're a little amused that the breads are served in the middle of the degustation (instead of before the meal starts like in practically every other restaurant). The milk bun here was delicious served warm - but it being a dense bread we didn't dare ask for seconds.
My favorite dish of the night by far: Charcoal grilled David Blackmore wagyu karubi (short rib) with Japanese pickles, miso mustard and ice plant. These chunks of heavenly beef are the best I've ever eaten - even better than Japan's iconic Kobe Beef (we had A5 sirloin and tenderloin a couple of years ago). Juicy, beefy, awesome. Anyone who thinks non-Japanese Wagyu can't match up to Japanese Wagyu should take a serious shot at Blackmore's beef.
Next up - Seared Mandagery Creek venison with sansho pepper, roasted Japanese pumpkin and Saikyo miso Jerusalem artichoke. The lean, gamey venison wasn't anything special to me (although it was cooked well) - but I really enjoyed the pumpkin purée and leaf-shaped pumpkin crisps. I don't recall there being any artichokes anywhere on the plate though ...
The darling doesn't eat venison so she got some Scampi with Sheep Yoghurt layered with thinly-sliced apple crisps. I've always wondered how Chefs deal with dietary / special ingredient requests, particularly with 'fixed' menus. Do they already pre-decide a list of "If a guest doesn't want X dish we will give him/her Y instead" or do they make it up on the fly?
The savoury food tour concluded, we move on to the palate-cleansing pre-dessert: Rose Flower Ice Cream with Elder flower snow and Flower Petal Granita. Despite the rather haphazard presentation we really liked the light, flowery, refreshing flavour notes from the shaved ice and ice cream.
Of course, no dinner at Sepia would be complete without trying their Spring chocolate forest - having made an appearance on this year's Masterchef. The ingredients change a little based on season - the Spring version has Soft chocolate, hazelnut and almond praline, lavender and honey cream, blackberry sorbet, caramel and shiso vinegar jellies, green tea, licorice, chocolate twigs and crystallised fennel fronds. That's one hell of an ingredient list! I like this dessert - a lot - and the darling excitedly proclaims this her favorite plate of the night.
Food of these stratospheric heights doesn't come cheap - this degustation menu was AUD 190 per person - but eaten sparingly on special occasions I think it's good value for money. Overall we thoroughly enjoyed the night - nice ambience, good service and great food. The only thing missing is a killer view - add that and this would perhaps be the perfect restaurant!
Sepia is in the heart of the Sydney CBD on Sussex Street, and is open for dinner on Tuesdays-Sundays (lunch on Friday and Saturday only). Reservations highly recommended. Non-halal.
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