As we walked out of Sepia after our office’s Christmas dinner, my boss and I looked at each other and said…”Great, now we better start thinking where to go next year…How are we supposed to top this next Christmas!“.
That’s right, Sepia has set the bar quite high this year with their glorious degustation.
The degustation ($190pp) on Friday and Saturday nights are different than their usual weeknight degustation, and they change each week. The food totally lived up to its reputation and our expectation. The dishes were all elegantly plated and swiftly served. There’s no wonder the Sydney Good Food Guide has awarded Sepia with the prestigious Three Chef Hats honour many years in a row.
—–HER{curio}MAJESTY SCORE SHEET—–
Visited: 19 December 2014
Food: 9/10 || Ambiance: 8/10 || Service: 8/10
What I loved: The food. The portion (generous for degustation). Bread was served mid-degustation (not at the start).
Will I come back: Yes if I want to spoil myself. Will recommend this to anyone.
Speaking of great Christmas parties, my firm has always been very generous and it has always made the inner foodie of me very excited. Here’s where we had our Christmas parties in the past few years: Bather’s Pavilion (2011), Quay (2012), Rockpool (2013). Ok, enough showing off, hehe.
Interestingly, we had actually thought about coming to Sepia years ago, but we ended up choosing other venues over it because of its location – It is directly under an office tower and, admittedly, it does not feel as fun and as glamorous as the other contestant restaurants. Let’s put it this way, as much as I enjoyed my experience at Sepia, I would not recommend taking a girl to Sepia on a first (expensive) date because Sepia is more of an anniversary dinner restaurant type; whereas Quay would be better suited for a first date.
Sydney Rock Oysters. These can be ordered in addition to the degustation and the waiter sold them pretty hard to us. Even though I usually like my oysters naked with lemon only, their dressing was fabulous! It’s refreshing and brought out the natural flavour of the oysters without overpowering them.
Smoked salmon roe, kabosu, shiitake mushroom. We all loved this. It’s a tiny bit of cracker that had a full burst of mushroom flavours.
Sashimi Yellow Fin tuna, goat milk chevrè, avocado, pink beauty radish, pork crackling. Definitely the most beautifully plated dish of the night. The crackling was very fine and the added texture worked surprisingly well with the soft tuna.
The goat cheese was rolled in the tuna, what a fine touch.
Hokkaido sea scallop, spiced tomato, horseradish, white kombu, aged feta, olive oil. This was one of my favourite dishes. Melt-in-your-mouth scallops.
Murray cod, gobo and smoked pancetta dashi, buckwheat nasturtium, matcha tea oil. Most people at our table did not particularly like this dish. We felt the crackling was too fishy and the seasoning was on the light side. I would’ve probably enjoyed this more if it had more flavours to it.
Western Australian marron smoked over charcoal, shellfish and yuzu butter native sea vegetables. Beautifully done, the yuzu butter was delicious.
Charcoal grilled David Blackmore wagyu Karubi, Japanese pickles, miso mustard ice plant. This, was no doubt my favourite savour dish of the night.
The wagyu was heavenly, amazingly tender and cooked to perfection.
A close-up of my wagyu…Yum.
I like how the bread was served after the wagyu. I would have kicked myself if I had stuffed too much bread before I even started the degustation. By the time the bread came, I was already 90% full.
The butter was in a cute little perfect sphere and was softer than it looked.
Seared Mandagery Creek Venison, Sansho pepper, roasted pumpkin, miso, artichoke. I loved the thin and crisp “leaves” on top of the venison. I couldn’t have guessed that they were roasted pumpkin! Food in an art form.
A close-up of the tender venison.
Comte, pear jelly, roasted endive, fried walnuts, plum, celery. This was the optional cheese that we ordered in addition to the degustation menu.
We only ordered one for the table to try, as most of us were already very full.
It was very strong cheese, served cold.
Citrus (Mandarin, blood orange, yuzu, dai dai, sudachi, thyme flowers). This was my favourite sweet dish! And it was not even the actual dessert, it’s a palate cleanser.
The blood orange syrup was hidden inside the chocolate-y sphere and the burst of citrus flavours indeed gave my palate a refreshing cleanse.
I would totally order it if it was a dessert by itself.
Milks (Milk chocolate, coconut yoghurt, rice milk pudding, goat milk dulce de leche sheep milk sorbet, milk cake, milk crisp, yuba).
Just when I thought we would finally be given our dessert…this “pre-dessert” was served. Everything in this bowl was made of milk, pretty ingenious.
Drum-rolls…“Summer chocolate forest” (Soft chocolate, hazelnut and almond, lavender and honey cream, blackberry sorbet blueberry and rosewater jellies, green tea, licorice, chocolate twigs, bronze fennel). I haven’t watched MasterChef in a while, but my colleague said she happened to have watched the episode where the contestants attempted this complicated dessert.
I applaud the chef’s effort in putting this together and making this so beautiful. Unfortunately, all I could think of as I was eating it was: “licorice”. I felt like I tasted more “forest” than “chocolate” in this dessert that’s supposed to be a “Chocolate Forest”.
By the way, that’s my pot of very fancy sencha.
I wanted a pot of tea to go with my dessert, but they didn’t have Earl Grey or English Breakfast of any of the ordinary stuff. They only had teas with very long names that cost $10+ a pot. Too posh.
This was the gluten-free dessert, Cannoli. I stole a bite and it tasted quite funny.
Overall, I was very impressed with the degustation at Sepia. The presentation was impeccable, the service was there and the food was abundant and very creative. It would’ve been more perfect if I actually liked the dessert, though.
{Sepia} Address: 201 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW Website: http://www.sepiarestaurant.com.au/