James Viles Park Hyatt Sydney
Renowned chef James Viles is shaking up the dining scene at one of Sydney’s top hotels.
Syd is sitting by the bathtub, so well-behaved and companionable. Thanks to an ingenious design at Park Hyatt Sydney that connects ensuites with guestrooms via sliding panels, I can see much of that famous harbour from said tub. The view streams, as it were, beyond the balcony’s glass doors, grey-blue and gauzy with rain on a late-May morning. Opening that panel feels like drawing back a stage curtain for a theatrical reveal.
Syd is a cute little bath toy shaped like a ferry and offered to guests to take home. I keep him high and dry while I soak and watch the real boats scurry to and from Circular Quay. It’s a week-day morning peak hour and the snappy pace and constant volume is surprising. May Gibbs rises on the wake of Fred Hollows and these two “emerald class” ferries appear to nod to each other, one legend acknowledging another. There are river catamarans gliding past and sleek cruisers with the low, streamlined profiles of sports shoes.
No hotel in Sydney offers such immediacy to panoramas of the harbour and Sydney Opera House at a level that is not bird’s eye but sticky-beak front-on. Park Hyatt Sydney opened 30 years ago and had a full makeover in 2011-12, during which a fourth floor of top suites was added. It’s a low-rise miniature player in the universe of five-star hotels, which tend to consume the skyline. I’d not call it matronly but it does mind its manners.
And now the dining scene is evolving to be top-notch, especially in The Living Room, a salon space behind reception and facing the harbour. Acclaimed chef James Viles, ex-Biota Dining at Bowral, has taken up the reins as culinary director at the 155-room property and it’s a complete shake-up rather than a tweak and twist. Viles is a stickler for sourcing the best produce from trusted suppliers and is on a mission to maximise the hotel’s box-seat locale by emphasising seafood and taking a more casual approach at The Living Room, akin to, say, San Francisco’s Fishermen’s Wharf.
In this vein, how about a pull-apart malted roll in which diners can stuff chunks of spanner crab yanked from the shell and coated with an unctuous bisque tartare and macadamia oil? Or a rock lobster roll? Or potato scallops or focaccia acting as faux-blinis just begging to be heaped with sour cream and caviar? It’s down-the-hatch interactive and finger-licking yummy.
The “relaxed harbourside” concept launched last month and a board of daily specials should by now be positioned on the east-facing pedestrian promenade, a real lure for passers-by who could find the hotel intimidating. Viles lives on the central coast, fishes off the Wagstaff peninsula, and is a big fan of seafood but there are salads, snacks, a superior wagyu burger, pork katsu bun and club sandwich on a menu card that ends with such sinful prospects as pavlova with lemon myrtle cream and seasonal fruit.
On the hotel roof, with billion-dollar views, is a “flow hive” bijou beehouse. General manager Samuel Dabinett tells me its residents buzz over to the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney on pollen-seeking missions and house-made honey is a project in the wings, with plans in place for its use in cocktails and guest amenities as well as in the kitchens. The sweet life, for sure.
In the know
The new culinary concept in The Living Room by James Viles will be extended later this year to The Dining Room, where new breakfast menus have just been introduced, featuring the likes of spanner crab omelette with fresh herbs and chilli oil; sashimi tuna breakfast bowl with brown rice, sesame, avocado, ginger and soy; and enhanced selection of house-baked bread, pastries and “breakfast pies”. Staycation offers include breakfast.
Susan Kurosawa was a guest of Park Hyatt Sydney.