Restaurant review: Cirrus

With its ‘relaxed harbourside seafood’ pitch, Cirrus punches straight at my emotional solar plexus.

Seamless: space, light, proximity to water, subline seafood... it’s a tour de force. Picture: Jane Dempster

Hoardings. Hi-vis. Scissor lifts. You can almost smell the drying paint as Barangaroo emerges shiny and new. You can’t gamble here, yet, but whoever Team Packer installs in its House of Mammon will have a hard time competing with the early adopters. Well, one anyway.

With its “relaxed harbourside seafood” pitch, Cirrus punches straight at my emotional solar plexus. I was always likely to enjoy something new from Nick Hildebrandt and Brent Savage, known (for their CBD restaurant) as the Bentley Boys. With Savage on food and Hildebrandt running interesting wine in his effortless, informative manner, why wouldn’t it be solid? Yet sometimes, the sum just equals so much more than the parts.

The bulkhead-like corner space has been cleverly filled with a forest of suspended timber poles, along with Alvin the clinker-built 1950s ski boat, suspended from the ceiling. The sense of space and light, the quirky mismatched furnishings and the proximity to the water fit the culinary brief. Throw in the growing maturity of this duo and the team around them, the attention to detail that comes from having opened and sustained four different restaurants concurrently, and what you get is a seamless, stimulating experience.

At Cirrus, Savage seems to have found a way to make familiar things taste and feel fresh again. Everything here is delicious. Try the strawberry clams and pippies, and shellfish takes on a new dimension, swishing around in slightly acidic buttermilk with compressed cucumber, fresh sorrel and purslane and the fermented flavours of Japanese yuzukoshu spice sprinkled over. Sweet, fresh, fleshy, juicy, light and utterly sublime.

And the velvety smoked ocean trout parfait – the flavour profound yet subtle – with a golden fish bone gelee on top, roe, fennel pollen, a dill and basil froth of a green sauce and lovely sourdough toasts. Both are musts. Ditto split and roasted tiger prawns in the shell served in a jumble of saltbush fried with pickled chilli on a puddle of fenugreek “milk” more like a custard. Alive and vibrant.

Fillets of flounder get a gentle, crisp char and a garnish of slippery pickled mushroom, charred leaves of banana shallot, brown sauce and oyster cream on the side. The delicate flesh is enhanced by the artful Cirrus approach. Very different is the robust, firm-fleshed whole dusky flathead (pictured), the “fish” in their fish and (exceptional) chips. They pull the spine and most of the skeleton out of the fish before frying it with a quinoa crust: charred lemon halves, tartare sauce, and one of Australia’s best fish has been done enormous justice. Let Hildebrandt choose a glass to go with it.

I imagine the beef and duck dishes are wonderful, but Cirrus’s nautical raison d’etre is compelling; I can’t wait to explore this menu further.

The dessert selection of three is as powerful as it is brief. One is a superb vermouth custard layered with a blackberry compote and yoghurt sorbet; another jumbles wafers of almond meringue, freeze-dried mandarin, passionfruit cream and wattleseed.

The whole experience is a tour de force. For Hildebrandt and Savage, Cirrus is their Bridge Over Troubled Waters, their Sticky Fingers – the zenith of a great creative partnership. Savage’s latest foray – the virtuosity it demonstrates – confirms his place as one of a handful of truly important Australian chefs. He and the easygoing Hildebrandt are made for each other and Cirrus is their newest, and maybe greatest, love child.

Whole dusky flathead, the “fish” in their fish and (exceptional) chips. Picture: Jane Dempster

AT A GLANCE

Address: 23 Barangaroo Avenue, Barangaroo, Sydney

Contact: 02 9220 0111 cirrusdining.com.au

Hours: Lunch, dinner daily

Typical prices: Starters $23; mains $38; desserts $18

Like this? try… Bentley, Sydney

Summary: The great Australian seafood restaurant

Rating: 4 ½ stars