Quay
Chef Peter Gilmore’s restaurant Quay is known for its extraordinary culinary experience, balancing sophisticated flavours with precision technique.
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Upper Level, Overseas Passenger Terminal, The Rocks, Sydney
(02) 9251 5600
If you could choose to be in the mind of a chef in Australia, Peter Gilmore’s would have to be the top pick.
His meticulous menu is a narrative inspired by nature and is an extraordinary culinary experience, balancing sophisticated flavours with precision technique.
Then there’s that view, the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the sparkling Sydney Harbour, alongside a first class experience from wait staff who expertly guide diners through the meal, embodying Gilmore’s message through considered description, careful wine matching and importantly, a sense of play.
The 10-course tasting menu is a symphony of flavour. A palate enlivening snack kicks off the meal, a sweet oyster cream encased by a crisp seaweed tart shell, and then it’s straight into the first course of a meal that truly delights.
Marron and flowers is an edible artwork, the marron tail served on a thick dollop of shellfish cream and yuzu jel. The delicate edible flower petals cloaking the marron are not just for decoration; the sweet pea flavour is extraordinary with the bright Japanese citrus and rich umami-laden cream.
Tweezers on standby for course two — a bowl of petite hand-harvested seafood; glistening jewels of raw scallop, clams and lightly poached young octopus seasoned with soy, palm heart and seaweed.
It’s a delicate dish that showcases Gilmore’s ethos; enhance the ingredients, but don’t overpower them. His exploration of ocean flavours continues with smoked eel crowned with a curious wafer of sea cucumber crackling and pearlescent young walnuts.
Next, a table centrepiece arrives to add a little theatre — Gilmore’s prized Peruvian purple corn in its husk, which the chef masterfully transforms into a dish of creamy purple polenta and oxtail jus.
Gilmore uses rich meats sparingly, but a smoked pig jowl, served with black lipped abalone and slivers of earthy shiitake mushroom, lives up to expectation.
An ethereal bowl of aerated white chocolate masquerading as white coral arrives, served with a sweet feijoa ice cream. Finally, the whimsically named dessert ‘Moo’ finishes the meal on a memorable high.
The dessert, plated to look like a cow-hide, is a thick lick of Jersey milk cream, Jersey milk ice cream, dulce de leche made from cooked-down Jersey milk, prune jam and chocolate tuille.
This is a triumphant degustation that showcases the best of Australian ingredients, and it’s the ingredients themselves that are the Quay to unlocking the mind of one of our best.
● Executive chef: Peter Gilmore
● Sommelier: Shanteh Wong
● Price: $$$$$
● Hours: Lunch (Fri-Sun: 12-1.30; Dinner daily 6-9pm)
● Instagram: @quayrestaurant