Restaurant Arras, Sydney

EDIT: Restaurant Arras has closed

It's back. The Restaurant Arras petits fours platter has always created a frisson of excitement.

Back too are newly weds Adam and Lovaine Humphrey, relocating Restaurant Arras from Walsh Bay to Clarence Street in the city, opening in the former digs of Becasse (and before that, Edna's Table).

Restaurant Arras decor

The interior has undergone a complete makeover. Gone are the Swarovski crystal chandeliers and cosy intimacy. It's brighter and lighter now, with specially upholstered Paul Smith chairs and a contemporary wall artwork developed from the same colours of the chairs. The design brief was to create a "modern grown-up restaurant" with an emphasis on acoustics, and the ability for diners to have a conversation. Arras is the first restaurant in Australia to use LED lighting throughout the premises - an expensive initial outlay but one that will provide long-term energy efficiency.


House-baked organic breads: Sushi bread and Happy Goblin beer bread

At last week's media preview dinner, an excited Adam Humphrey explained they didn't want the restaurant to be pigeon-holed as "British food" anymore. "We want to create something that's different to everything else in Sydney," he said. Only one dish from the former menu has survived the move to the new premises.

The staggering bread selection remains. Lovaine Humphrey confesses that up fourteen different breads are baked in-house everyday, served to diners in the restaurant or available for sale in the ArrasToo bakery next door (where Plan B used to be).

Sushi bread is one of the more intriguing offerings - a sourdough rolled up with nori seaweed and rolled in black and white sesame seeds.


Amuse bouche: beetroot jelly

Diners at Arras can choose from two menu options:

1. four course a la carte $120
2. degustation $140 accompanying wine $80

Tonight's media dinner runs for four courses, starting with a spectacular 1999 Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill to kick off proceedings. These are bubbles worth savouring, fresh and smooth on the palate without any lingering acidity.


Tomato and onion salad

Our first course is a tomato and onion salad, a simple yet elegant tribute with the exterior studded with baby basil leaves and the core filled with a light goats cheese mousse. A sliver of onion bread is crisp and buttery, and has been impressively constructed to resemble an onion in appearance too.


Bonito, dried tuna, courgette and aubergine

Bonito and dried tuna has strong notes of fishiness, both in the oily fish bonito and the rounds of dried tuna that remind me of Asian cuttlefish jerky. Courgette slices have a deliciously smoky char and the aubergine puree is wondrously velvety and smooth.


Roast lamb and spring greens

Meat and three veg gets a complete overhaul with our next course: roast lamb and spring greens.  Junee lamb is cooked to a reassuring pink, although it's the lamb rib that I enjoy most. The fattiness of the lamb marries well with the bed of nutty barley, and fresh peas and broad beans add colour and freshness.

It's interesting to note that the dishes appear tighter in flavours and more focused in presentation than my dinner at Arras earlier this year at Walsh Bay. Gone too are the cryptic dish names on the menu which, whilst whimsical with names like "Plate for Mr McGregor" and "Ta Jean", were more confusing than helpful when it came to ordering.


Pistachio and pineau trifle

Dessert is the pistachio and pineau trifle, deconstructed and strewn artfully across the plate with chunks of pistachio cake, slices of strawberry and curling logs of jelly dotted with cream. Pineau is a French fortified wine.


Arras petits fours

It's amazing how a giant platter of sweets turns every adult into a giggling greedy schoolkid. The slate board from the original Arras has been replaced with a custom-designed perspex tray, complete with holes to accommodate ice cream cones - tonight's ice cream is crossiant, scooped onto homemade ice cream cones.


Sweet tooth heaven

Tonight's petits fours have gone decidedly more whimsical, with a deliberate shift to the sweets of Adam and Lovaine's childhood. There are coconut ices and Jammy Dodgers and lollipops and more. It takes each waiter about 60 seconds to point out and identify every confection, by which time most diners have forgotten the ones at the start and ask for a reminder all over again.

Chocolates and candy

Crossiant ice cream, pecan fudge, strawberry Yorkshire pudding,
honeycomb, peanut brittle and chocolates

Diners get their own perspex tray to hold their wares. "Take as many as you like," we're encouraged repeatedly. A large circle in the tray the perfect spot to rest an ice cream cone, with smaller holes drilled to hold lollipops in place.

The crossiant ice cream tastes buttery, and the cone is delicately crisp. It's hard to go past the easy pleasures of honeycomb and peanut brittle, but the Yorkshire pudding is addictive too,  reminding me of a cannele with its caramelised chewiness.


Restaurant Arras head chefs and owners Lovaine and Adam Humphrey

It's a fun finish to a impressive first night's service. Builders had only left the premises 45 minutes prior to our arrival, we're told.

The more centralised location should finally open up Arras to a new market of appreciative diners. This could just well be the sweet spot for Arras and hungry Sydneysiders.

Grab Your Fork attended the media preview dinner as a guest of Arras. 




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Restaurant Arras CLOSED

204 Clarence Street, Sydney

Tel: +61 (02) 9283 1922

Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Restaurant Arras (Mar 2011 at Walsh Bay)

Steersons King Street Wharf, Sydney

Let's face it. Sydney can be a bit of a meat market. But hey, if we're talking about steak, then who's complaining? The menu at Steersons Steakhouse reads like a matchmaking site for carnivores, providing detail on the origin of each candidate, its breeding credentials, prior diet and minimum weight. Oh if only it was always this easy...


Inside Steersons at King St Wharf

We arrive at Steersons King Street Wharf to find a surprisingly swish dining room, a combination of polished floorboards, heavy linen and wooden chairs that hovers somewhere between fancy and businessmen's club. The menus are bound in cow hide that is impressively soft to the touch.

Most of the diners are men, although a few couples dot the room. The outdoor balcony offers a bit more privacy as well as twinkling views of the harbour and city skyline.


One kilo T-bone (90 day grain fed) $59.50
Nolans Private Selection, Gympie, Queensland

Does size really matter? It does when the words "kilo" and "T-Bone" sit next to each other on the menu.


One kilo T-bone medium rare

The one-kilo T-bone steak is a substantial hunk of meat, seared with grill marks and cooked to medium rare as requested. The meat is juicy and succulent but not as charred or smoky as I would have expected, given the size of the cut.

All steaks come with red wine jus (alternative sauces are an additional cost) and your choice of chips, mashed potato or baked potato. 


Chips


400g Riverina rib on bone (pasture fed) $47.50
Havericks dry aged beef (limited) (dry aged for 6-8 weeks)

We also order the 400g Riverina rib on bone, primarily as a flavour comparison of grain-fed versus pasture-fed.


Riverina rib on bone medium rare

It's hard to note a huge difference in flavour between pasture-fed and grain-fed, although the pasture-fed has a slightly firmer resistance, presumably a result of the 6-8 week dry aging process.


T-Bone debris

Is there a ladylike way to pick up a one-kilo T-bone and gnaw on the remnants? I like to think I did so. The best part is the pocket of marrow fat at the base.


Banoffee pie $14.50
Banana, coffee, caramel, mascarpone cream and chocolate with vanilla ice cream

Finding bananas on a menu these days is like encountering truffles without a surcharge. It makes our dessert order much easier to decide. Banoffee pie has always been a good friend of mine - tart shell, banana, caramel and cream? What's not to love? Especially when there are chocolate shavings on top. The scoop of vanilla ice cream is the only detraction here, incredibly sweet and cloying.



Fillet mignon or one-kilo T-bone? There's a perfect hunk out there for everyone.

Grab Your Fork and companion dined as guests of King Street Wharf.


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Steersons Steakhouse

17 Lime Street, King Street Wharf, Sydney

Tel: +61 (02) 9295 5060

Opening hours:

Lunch Monday to Sunday 12pm-3pm

Dinner Monday to Sunday 6pm-10.30pm


Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Steak - Chophouse, Sydney (1.7kg tomahawk)
Steak - Rockpool Bar and Grill, Sydney

The Abercrombie, Broadway, Chippendale (CLOSED)

EDIT: The Abercombie has closed

Is there such a thing as too much fried? Nay, I say. If it can be dipped in batter, then go ahead and deep-fry that baby.

And that's just the way the folk behind the Abercrombie Hotel feel, too. First they gave us the deep-fried Gaytime. Now they've unleashed the joys of deep-fried pizza and Twinkies to the Sydney masses.


Fries with mayo and gravy $7

We make the mistake of presuming there'll be a post-work 6pm rush at The Abercrombie, but uni students finish lectures way earlier than that, and the place is already heaving by 5.30pm on a Friday afternoon.

Minh manages to score the last booth and settle in with a round of beers, ciders and G&Ts. It doesn't take long for our first order of food to be delivered from the kitchen and we make short work of the terracotta bowl filled with crinkle cut fries and pickle slices. It comes with pots of mayonnaise and gravy, but the gravy is too thin and watery for adequate dipping.


Deep-fried pizza $9

It's the deep-fried pizza that gets our attention though. Encrusted with a gnarled and nobbly golden batter, every bite comes with a satisfying crunch. It's a simple cheese and salami pizza inside, but the base is surprisingly thin and not half as bready as you'd expect. Instead this is more like a celebration of batter, wait, make that an orgy of batter, and yes, you're likely to feel just as awkward throughout the entire experience.


Rave juice $10 during Friday happy hour 6pm-8pm (normally $13)

The Abercrombie isn't afraid to have fun with their cocktails, and rave juice is probably the quirkiest -  a mix of agwa and Red Bull served in a ziplock bag complete with glow stick at the bottom. Agwa is a herbal liquer made with Bolivian coca leaves, guarana and other herbs. It's fun but messy, especially if your ziplock bag springs a leak.

Cocktail happy hour happens every Friday night, which is also spruiked as Totally Barry, or a 'good time' in local Edinburgh slang.


Philly cheese steak sandwich and fries $17

Philly cheese steak arrives in a soft bun and smothered with melted cheese. The only inconsistency is that the beef comes as seared steak cubes, and not the tender beef slices I enjoyed on my last visit (a crucial component of a Philly cheese steak sandwich).


Double cheeseburger and fries $17

The double cheeseburger hits the spot, two beef patties slathered with mayonnaise and tomato sauce and slapped between two halves of a toasted sesame seed bun. The cheese is stringy but it's the zing of pickled gherkins that tips it from average to awesome.


Pie stack $15

The pie stack is a Scottish version of the Aussie pie floater. The pie itself is particularly impressive, with superb flaky pastry holding a huddle of tender braised beef. The rosti potato pancake on top is a little greasy, and the clapshot, a traditional Scottish dish of mashed potato and turnip, tastes more like mashed potato with shreds of carrot. I dig the mushy peas though, and the lake of gravy.


Deep-fried Twinkie $8

Only happiness can come from rainbows! You can't help but smile at the sight of the deep-fried Twinkie, draped with an archway of marshmallow fluff and covered in sprinkles. The batter is unexpectedly thin but even the rainbow can't disguise the taste of artificial cream in the middle of the sponge cake finger.


On a Friday night, however, it's mostly about the beer, and as if to prove it, all the beer taps run dry by 9.30pm. At 10.30pm the back area is cleared for a dance floor and a roving balloon man handing out poodles and swords. Totally Barry.


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The Abercrombie (CLOSED)

100 Broadway, Chippendale, Sydney

(corner of Broadway and Abercrombie Street)

Tel: +61 (02) 9280 2178

Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale
Stitch Bar, Sydney
The Dip at Goodgod, Sydney

Sepia, Sydney

It really did look like a shard of glass, sinking in on itself  as though it had buckled from the heat of an inferno. We didn't know what it was as we snapped off pieces to eat, admiring its sleek surface, its amber brilliance and the bubbles trapped within.

Salt. And vinegar. And hints of chilli that was later revealed to be sansho pepper. The edible artwork prompts conversation around the table. It had been constructed from potato starch, the first of many offerings we would enjoy from Martin Benn at Sepia Restaurant.

Oysters

Riding high from its Restaurant of the Year 2012 title and awarded three hats by the SMH Good Food Guide 2012, Sepia is known for its modern menu, focus on seafood and influences by Japanese cuisine. The restaurant pulled out all the stops for a recent dinner for local and international media, expanding its standard nine-course degustation menu to a phenomenal fourteen courses.

The salt and vinegar shard is followed by a plate of freshly shucked oysters. There is dressing on the side, but these beauties were exquisite enough on their own - and impressively shucked too, with pristine shells and nary a crack nor a splinter to be seen.

We food bloggers have been corraled down one end of the table, but the lack of menus was what concerned us more. Waitstaff explained that they preferred each course to be a surprise, and each dish would be described as it was served. Of course we ended up appropriating a menu eventually, unable to resist the compulsion to check the component of each dish against the written description as we tasted.


Sashimi of spring bonito, green apple, chive and sake oil with Tasmanian wasabi

We are easily won over by the parade of dishes, each plated with heart-stopping attention to detail. The sashimi of spring bonito is worth admiring for an extra minute or two, a plump pillow of raw fish set in a lake of vivid green chive and sake oil.  


Cold smoked Tasmanian ocean trout consomme

A lone cube of cold smoked Tasmanian ocean trout is soft and buttery, with a tinge of smoky caramelisation. The dish yields much more than would first appear -  the clear consomme is staggering with its intensity of flavour, as though a whole ocean trout had been condensed into two tablespoons of liquid.


Poached Hiramasa kingfish, smoked trout roe, daikon radish, water chestnut, Japanese fern, citrus dashi and yuzu

I love the playground of colours and textures that accompanied the poached Hiramasa kingfish. It's an adventure to dip your fork and pick out cubes of crunchy daikon, whisper thin shavings of radish, sprigs of Japanese fern and bubbles of smoked trout roe that burst in the mouth.


'Scallop sushi'


Nori-rolled scallop, avocado cream, pickled ginger gel and puffed sushi rice

Scallop sushi is another visually arresting dish, particularly when the scallop is cut open to reveal its pale vulnerability beneath the textured crust of nori 'crumbs'. It's hard not to feel the femininity of the dish, particularly with the pink pickled ginger gel mounds. The scallop itself is delicious, the sweetness of the scallop amplified by the crust of nori on the outside.

Butter poached King George whiting, chestnut mushroom and truffle jelly, confit garlic emulsion, toasted breadcrumbs and snow pea sprouts

The jellied blanket of chestnut mushroom and truffle is cut perfectly to size over the plank of butter poached King George Whiting, however it's probably one of the few dishes that seems overly complicated to me. Perhaps I'm less appreciative of aspic than I should be, but I would have been happy to enjoy the fish on its own with just a splodge or two of the confit garlic emulsion.


Roasted New Zealand scampi, shellfish custard, crystallised wakame, fennel, wild rice, licorice and shiso leaf

The sunny egg yolk that accompanies the roasted New Zealand scampi is an orb of shellfish custard that was ridiculously good. It's rich and creamy and offers a pleasing textural contrast to the fat juicy curls of sweet scampi and grains of puffed wild rice.


Roasted corn fed chicken, butter-poached WA marron tail, shellfish and yuzu emulsion, wild rocket and toasted quinoa

We move onto roasted corn fed chicken, served with a West Australian marron tail that is draped with a zingy shellfish sauce. Toasted quinoa provide nuttiness and crunch.


Char-grilled beef tenderloin, nameko mushroom, roasted garlic puree and miso mustard

The final savoury dish is the char-grilled beef tenderloin, only a small slice of fillet, but cooked to a gentle rare. The starkness of the dish feels very Japanese in its presentation, as though the beef should be allowed centre stage without unnecessary accoutrements.


Whipped Saint Agur and mascarpone, crystallised macadamia, celery cress and roasted chicory granita

Whipped Saint Agur and mascarpone is one the most surprising dishes of the evening, an intermediary between savouries and sweets that combines blue cheese with smithereens of crystallised macadamia. After dinner, David Lebowitz told me he found this course the most memorable, almost shocking the palate with the punch of blue cheese - "It was so unexpected, but in a good way!" he adds.

Hi David Lebovitz!

Lemon myrtle jelly, poached strawberries, geranium ice cream and black sesame

A squat tumbler of pink is our first dessert, a multi-layered construction of lemon myrtle jelly, poached strawberries, geranium ice cream and a tuile of black sesame. Despite its size, the dessert is light and refreshing, providing a palate cleanser for the next dessert.


'Chocolate forest'

Soft chocolate, praline and chestnut, lavender cream, blackberry sorbet, blackberry candy, green tea, licorice, chocolate twigs, crystallised fennel fronds and native fingerlimes

The chocolate forest is one of the signature desserts at Sepia, and it's easy to see why. It's a treasure hunt among the rubble of delicious detritus. Spoons are dug past fennel fronds dipped in sugar, chocolate soil, edible flowers and green tea moss. On one side is a scoop of praline chestnut cream; on the other is cream flavoured with lavender. Perched gracefully on top is a quenelle of blackberry sorbet that is enviably smooth and silky.

Japanese stones

Even though everyone had started struggling five courses ago, we still can't help getting excited over the Japanese stones. They look just like polished pebbles you might find in a rock garden, but we bite into them to find surprise liquid fillings that include a soft 72% chocolate, coconut cream custard or cherry.

The impossibly thin cocoa butter shells are made with bamboo charcoal powder and frozen using liquid nitrogen. By serving the chocolates at room temperature, the formerly frozen fillings inside resume a runny consistency.

At the base of the bowl is a bed of yuzu jelly sprinkled with crystallised feuilletine, candied violets and green tea moss.

It's fun, quirky and technically intricate, a little like Sepia itself.


Petits fours

Grab Your Fork dined at Sepia Restaurant as a guest of Destination NSW.


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Sepia Restaurant

201 Sussex Street, Sydney

Tel: +61 (02) 9283 1990

Opening hours:

Lunch Tuesday to Friday from 12 noon

Dinner Tuesday to Saturday from 6pm