The best dinners in Sydney always start with a ferry ride across the harbour, and being seated at a table by the window at Sails on Lavender Bay is almost like being on another one.

T'was ever thus. The inaugural Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide praised its spectacular views of harbour, bridge and opera house in 1984. "If you get a waterside table you'll hear water lapping, and the distant screams of children from Luna Park just across the bay."

Now 40 years old, Sails is one of the true stayers of the Sydney dining scene, currently run by industry stalwarts Greg Anderson and Patricia Nunes. A recent facelift and window enlargement, and the departure of highly rated chef Nathan Darling after seven years, makes it time for an update, just in case we're all making Christmas and summer dining plans.

Or in case we're about to get married – Sails is very big on fairytale wedding receptions.

New chef Jim Wilson is back in Oz after a couple of years with Arnaud Bignon at the two Michelin-starred Greenhouse in London. His menu has a contemporary French air, with leanings towards seafood; so rock oysters come with spiced plum vinegar and Eastern king prawns with confit lemon and sea purslane. They also come relatively slowly, however.

A first course of tender Kurobuta pork belly ($29) has been infused with ginger over 12 hours of slow cooking, corralled into an oblong of strata'd meat, fat and skin, and served on a pool of pork jus, crowned with pickled green tomatoes and beach succulents. It's good eating, if a little salty.

Wilson's take on that other Sydney staple, seared scallops ($30), is more a composition than a reinvention, the fat, burnished Canadian scallops standing in a pool of lovely chicken jus around a grilled baby cos and wafts of prosciutto.

I find the flavour balance a little weird in a dish of pink snapper ($44), presented as three crisp-skinned fingers of fish that form a triangular sea wall framing a green poured-on pool of lemongrass sauce. The fish are meticulously topped with under-cooked brussels sprouts and naked pipis, and there's an antiseptic, air-freshener thing going on with the lemongrass that isn't doing anything else any favours.

The wine list is sufficiently ship-shape, with its antipodean mix of fresh, food-friendly varietals, including a soft, supple 2013 Soho Road pinot noir from the Banks Road Bellarine winery ($86). It's made for the roasted duck ($43), two large cuts of pinkish breast on a dark beetroot and duck jus compatibly teamed with diced and baby beetroots and lightly pickled mulberries.

Desserts are wedding-pretty, and a sweet little rhubarb tart ($19) is topped with a quenelle of rich, white chocolate cream and finished with luminous, amoebic maple syrup gel blobs that don't seem to know what to do with themselves.

There's a special thrill in getting here before sunset and watching the light change under and over the widest steel-arch bridge in the world.

But – my goodness – a bill of $320 for two. That's not exactly harbourside robbery, because Sails fulfils many of its obligations and expectations, but it's worth a pause when one of the most thrilling aspects about dining is the aspect.

THE LOWDOWN

Best bit: Sydney at sunset
Worst bit: The small back room feels like an afterthought

Terry Durack is chief restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and senior reviewer for the Good Food Guide. This rating is based on the Good Food Guide scoring system.