Sepia was awarded Restaurant of the Year by the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide in 2012. It is easy to see why. From the moment you walk in through the grand glass doors it is obvious you are not in Kansas anymore, you are definitely in the land of fine dining. The decor is sleek and understated and it’s the sort of venue where men needs jackets and ladies elegant dresses… There isn’t a strict dress code, but doesn’t food always taste better when you’re well dressed? I think so. We are appropriately attired, in jacket and said elegant dress and it feels good to be here. The Handsome Entrepreneur makes a jacket look damn fine.
The wait staff is very polite and attentive and the service is certainly impressive, but you would expect no less. The menu offers a variety of options, a 4 course Summer Menu for $130, a degustation of 8 courses for $160 and then also à la carte. We opt for the 4 course. The wine list is an epic tale of grapes from near and far, and is referred to as “biblical” by one of the waiters. It is indeed a good book, and we take our time to sift through all the glorious possibilities, aided by the lovely Sommelier who is the epitome of an English gentleman: dapper and soft. I am fond of his little grape badge, politely adorning his waistcoat. It’s all in the details.
To start, we order some Sydney Rock oysters served with a lime and rice vinegar dressing. They are fresh and oceany and just as oysters should be. I find oysters at their best when they are most unadulterated.
After much poring over the wine book, the sommelier helps us reach a decision. We begin the wine journey with a half bottle of
Yves Cuilleron ‘La Petite Cote’, Viognier 2010, Condrieu. It has a mellow sweetness that hits your palate at first but then broadens out into a lengthy finish. It is a dreamboat of a wine to match the seafood we’re having… And the wine glasses are simply beautiful.
The amuse-bouche of Crystal Bay prawn has a gorgeously soft texture but is rather light in terms of flavour. The celery though does cleanse the palate, prepping it for the goodies to come.
My first course is visually stunning. The detail and artistry in this dish are incredible. Nori rolled scallop, pickled ginger, puffed sushi rice, avocado cream all take their place in the alluring dance of textures and sounds: Silk, squidge, crunch, squelch. It’s magnificent. The pickled ginger gel is just sensational.
The Cod with white cucumbers releases a seductive burst of smoky goodness against your palate. This smoke is balanced with the naive, fresh cucumbers.
I have seen the face of cod… it is beautiful.
The Handsome Entrepreneur and I were both wagging our tails for this main… Seared rolled David Blackmore wagyu beef, chestnut mushroom, roasted red onion juice, wasabi
fried potato and kombu crumb, citrus soy. As soon as the knife made contact with the meat it fell apart. It was baby-soft. With a marble score of 9, all that glorious fat has melted and created a meat that truly melts in your mouth. This was certainly the hero dish of the night.
We have now moved to red wine country and pair this heavenly meat with a Grenache from Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe ‘La Crau’, 2008, Chateauneuf-du-Pape. This red is velvety and has notes of cherry. It is medium-bodied which suits this tender wagyu as a Shiraz or Cab-Sauv would be overpowering.
We are presented with a pre-dessert of apple and blackcurrant mousse housed in a sorbet shell.
You tap it with the back of your spoon, and it breaks open like a smashed flower. The mousse is satiny and rich and is contrasted well with the chill of the sorbet.
Summer chocolate forest:
Soft chocolate, hazelnut and almond praline, rose geranium cream, sour cherry sorbet
blueberry jellies, green tea, licorice, chocolate twigs, crystallised fennel fronds. This is genius. This is beauty. This is magic. Again, the thing that resonates most about this dessert, is the sublime interplay of textures. This dessert is herbacious, floral, sweet, tart… everything. And it’s such fun to eat.
Eaux-de-Vie, Poires Williams is the poison of choice to wash down the desserts. This is a grape-based spirit infused with pear. It is indeed very peary and is strong enough to put a bit of hair on your chest. The sommelier regales us with tales of the bottle he holds in his hand, which contains an entire pear in it… How did it get in there? The bottles are in fact assembled around the pears on the trees. I had hope for some kind of pop-up pear on little strings like the ship in a bottle, but it is still impressive none the less.
Sepia is a place to take someone who is serious about food. There is just so much mind blowing detail and technique in this food that it’s not the sort of place you’d waste on someone who thinks food is just food. Food is never just food. Food is art. Food is joy. Food is challenging. Food is life, and Sepia knows this.
