Sydney Common is the new restaurant at the Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park on the first floor of the hotel. Gone is the seafood buffet and in its place is an enormous restaurant with some famous names in the kitchen. So what is this new restaurant like? And you'll never guess what course should not be skipped under any circumstances!
You get the impression that Sydney Commons is ambitious. It seems keen to buck the trend in Australia where hotels have well how do I put it...nice, safe but not the most exciting food. To do this they've enlisted the help of Chef Jamie Robertson who has worked at London restaurant The Capital and Ester. He was mentored and advised by Sepia's Martin Benn.
Gone is the seafood buffet and is its place is a smart restaurant. The classic Art Deco style bar is still there but the open kitchen sits on one side with the wood fired grill. To the side of the main kitchen is the cool kitchen. There's also a display of fresh herbs that is maintained for them by Greenspace. This sweeping restaurant seats 90 people plus 80 at the bar and 16 in the private dining room.
There are tables with views of the park as well as banquettes. The menu is broken up into several sections and I need a bit of time to decide what to order as there's a lot that sounds tempting. From reading up about Sydney Common and knowing about the Sepia influence I did expect more of a Japanese influence but it's as much Italian and European.
We start with cocktails: a Sakura for me made with Toji Junmai Ginjo, strawberry, Massenez fraise des Bois (wild strawberry), Paradise Lychee liqueur and lime with a layer of dried rose petals which is small but perfectly formed and delightful. Mr NQN's choice is The Montecristo that comes in a whisky decanter and is made with Bulleit rye, Remy Martin VSOP, cacao infused Antica formula and Pedro Ximinez and is as dark and stong as mine is light and fruity.
I love crispy rice topped with tuna and this yellowtfin tuna is paired with fermented chilli for a flavour bomb. The crispy rice could be crispier, it's really just crispy on the edges and if it was crispier this would be a must order.
Although they don't make the charcuterie here I am drawn to it because it isn't just shaved and put on a plate, it is paired with other ingredients. On the base of the plate is all of the gloriously jammy insides of a ripe fig and on top is the kurobuta prosciutto that is delicious with veins of streaky fat through it. There's also a very light touch of white sesame oil and a sprinkling of sumac. Make sure to get some of the bread from Baker Bleu ($3.50 per wedge) to mop up the remains of the luscious fig. The bread has a nice dark, thick crust and soft, spongey centre with smoked salt topped butter.
When they set the guanciale down, my brow furrows. It is supposed to come with radish and goats cheese but here it's just draped over a fig. And don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly ripe fig but nothing is ever mentioned about it changing on the menu when we ordered it. Also it is very similar to the prosciutto dish above so I would have liked to have tried another charcuterie instead. When we enquire, our waiter seems a bit flummoxed by it and then drifts away muttering something about asking the chef about it but nothing is ever said about it again.
The rest of the courses come out together as requested and the agnolotti is parcels of house-made ricotta and mortadella pasta with peas, roasted chicken stock, sage brown butter, parmesan, lemon and fried sage and a thin handkerchief slice of mortadella underneath. It is a nice dish although the brown butter flavour isn't very apparent in comparison to the chicken stock. I wish I had taken the waiter's advice and gone for the mushroom quadretti that looks like a work of art.
The woodfire chicken can come either as a half serve or a whole one in a copper pan. The chicken is brined overnight and then dried to crisp up the skin before being roasted over Ironbark wood and finished with a dusting of spice mix. Then it is cut up into pieces so that it can easily be shared. In the centre is a panzanella sauce made with toasted sourdough bread marinated in tomato, garlic and olive oil that is cooked down and then blitzed with butter. Around the outside is chicken jus. The chicken is tender and the flavours are robust in this and we love the panzanella sauce that comes with it.
Beef tongue is usually one of my favourite cuts but this smoked beef tongue with green shallots and Sichuan pepper does need some seasoning and also has a touch of bitterness to it. It's a bit chewier than I've had too and needs a bit more time on the grill.
There are smaller, simpler side dishes but there's also a section of vegetables that are a bit more elaborate. And I tend to choose items based on elements that I really want to try. I love romano beans but I really wanted to try the paprika egg sauce which is a creamy smoked paprika spiked sauce enriched with creamy egg yolk and buckwheat tea. This coats the perfectly stacked and very crisp chargrilled Romano beans well and these are brushed in smoked olive oil and smoked salt.
Then it's time for dessert and if I can give you some advice, it's this: do not miss dessert here under any circumstances. The dessert chef at Sydney Common is Aarti Dewan. The milk pudding is a must order but our waiter recommends the passion fruit and orange custard made with white chocolate on a disc of shortbread. He pours the passion fruit and orange sauce on top at the table. The texture of this custard is ambrosial. It is so creamy and silky but balanced with that tangy, fruity sauce enriched with white chocolate (admittedly I have a major bias towards passion fruit in dessert). Also make sure to eat this one first as it is tangier than the milk pudding.
And then comes the oven steamed goat's milk pudding made with fresh goats milk infused with lapsang souchong tea. The texture of this is gloriously soft and creamy. I take a spoon to the pudding and take a scoop out some of the wobbly dessert and pick up a trail of the viscous Japanese black sugar caramel. I'm not one to finish a whole dessert but I would with this as it's sweet but not overly so with the smoked tea giving this a nice balance. If that is Mr NQN didn't scoop up the rest of this in four satisfied spoonfuls.
So tell me Dear Reader, how do you choose what you will eat? Is it based on the main ingredient or a component that you want to try? And how often do you skip dessert?
Sydney Common
Level 1, Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park, 161 Elizabeth Street Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000
Phone: 02 9286 6787
Dinner 5:30pm - 10pm Wednesday - Saturday
https://www.sydneycommon.com.au/
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