Elevated Dining: Infinity at Sydney Tower

Infinity at Sydney Tower is a revolving restaurant in the heart of Sydney's CBD. It has taken over where 360 Bar and Dining has left off and offers a darkly seductive date night space with jewel tones, leather banquettes and brass finishings. The restaurant has French chef Guillaume Grittere at the helm since March 2021 with menus offering 3 and 4 courses or a tasting menu. Come along as we have dinner there on a Saturday night!

"Where do we go?" asks Mr NQN. We've left our car keys with the valet and are looking at each other trying to ascertain where to go from the car park of Westfield Sydney, a place that I always find confusing at best. We finally figure it out: we get off at the fourth floor and then walk around the designer's gallery to a check in desk. Staff confirm our reservation and call upstairs to ascertain whether our table is ready and then hand us a card with our name and booking on it. Then we wait for the lift that whizzes us all the way upstairs to the 81st floor to Infinity restaurant. There is another floor above that that is for the bar and the buffet.

The elevator ride is smooth as silk and we wonder if we are actually moving. When we alight at the 81st floor they show us to our table where the lights of Sydney's CBD twinkle from below. The best time to get there is of course sunset. But just a tip: if you do want to park downstairs then it is $35 if you arrive before 6pm or $15 if you arrive after. We're held up by traffic and by the time that we go through the security check it was 6:15pm and there was just enough time to watch the very end of the sunset (this is all a moot point now that we're in daylight savings). Infinity's Head Chef is Guillaume Grittere who was born and raised in Nice on the French Riviera and who also worked at the other revolving restaurant O Bar and Dining in Australia Square.

There are two sections to dine at Infinity. There are tables right by the window and there are booths set back at a higher levels. The room rotates constantly and it will take 75 minutes to complete the circuit. Looking around us the crowd skews young and it's mostly dressed up couples. It has a bit of a restaurant on Valentine's Day feel as everyone seems to be on a date (although there are no proposals this evening that we saw). And a hot tip for a first date: if you're stuck for conversation you can always play a guessing game of "spot the Sydney landmark". Mr NQN bombarded me with questions on this before I beseeched him to stop.

Service is deferential and friendly and we set about our task of choosing what to order. Three courses is $150 per person and there are some choices for an added supplement mostly made up of steaks. There is also a vegan tasting menu on offer too. I order a Bermuda Collins made with Lyre’s London Dry, Lyre’s Italian orange, Fever-Tree elderflower tonic and pineapple juice that is nicely balanced while Mr NQN opts for the Mont Blanc Martini with Archie Rose ‘True Cut’ Vodka, Chambord, fresh pineapple and spice syrup.

We order half a dozen oysters made up of half of their regular oysters with cucumber, aged sherry vinegar, finger lime, dill oil and the other half with pineapple and coconut foam. They're both delicious but I particularly love the finger lime and dill oil ones that really bring out the sparkly brineyness of the oyster with a sweet pop.

There is a choice of 4 hot and 4 cold entrees but we gravitated towards the hot ones. The pork belly is apparently the restaurant's most popular dish. The crispy skinned pork belly is from Byron Bay and served in a cucumber wrapped celeriac remoulade and green apple package flavoured with yuzu kosho. The freshness of it goes perfectly with the unctuous meat - the prize final bites being that other worldly crispy skin that shatters satisfyingly.

We decided to try the marron which is displayed beautifully split in half and grilled on charcoals with half a charred lemon and a blanketing of orange and citrus soy butter. The marron is so tender and luscious - take the time to get every last piece out of the crevices and save some of that bread for mopping up all of that delicious butter.

Our two choices for mains arrive and it's a dry aged roast Hawkesbury duck breast in two slices. The duck is dry aged for 5 days and is beautifully cooked and paired well with the sweet and bitter accompaniments like carrot purée, roasted Brussel sprouts, pickled radicchio, cavolo nero crisps, black vinegar and a fantastic grape duck jus.

There are four choices for steaks ranging from a 200g tenderloin to a 800g T bone for two but we ordered the grass fed rib eye steak. The steaks don't come with a side so these are ordered separately so ordering a steak here does incur an extra cost that is not insignificant. The steaks are grilled on a lava rock on a gas burner. and it is good, cooked medium rare as requested and the steak really benefits from the house mustard and green horseradish crème fraîche but I would have loved some chunky fries, mash or even a small green salad to go with it. If I were to come again I think I'd stick to the main menu rather than choosing the steak supplement.

There are potatoes on the menu but these are baked potatoes rather than super crispy ones so we order the charred broccolini on a swirl of scarlet almond romesco sauce and grated pecorino cheese on top.

When it comes to dessert I am a pastry gal and when I saw mille feuille on the menu it was a no brainer. This has layers of puff pastry filled with chocolate and hazelnut ganache and coffee pastry cream paired with a Valrhona Manjari 64% chocolate ice cream and dehydrated mandarin segments. There are also roasted hazelnuts to add crunch.

The other dessert is the most eye-catching. The basil meringue is served piped inside a half moon sable biscuit or cookie sandwich decorated with edible flowers. To the side is a frozen limoncello sabayon on cookie crumbs. The meringue has a hint of lemon and basil and is silky smooth and fluffy textured and this is a fresh, sweet and refreshing dessert.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever go on date nights? Have you ever been to the Sydney Tower restaurant?

NQN and Mr NQN were guests of Infinity at Sydney Tower but all opinions remain her own.

Infinity

108 Market St, Sydney NSW 2000

Lunch: Thursday to Sunday: 12:00 – 15:30. Last entry at 14:00.

Dinner: Monday to Sunday: 17:30 – 23:00. Last entry at 21:00

Phone: 1300 391 808

https://infinitysydneytower.com.au/