Archived Posts for December 2012

Sepia

Sepia is a pretty solid mod oz fine dining joint (is mod oz still a phrase people use?). It’s housed at the bottom of the building that PricewaterhouseCoopers is in on Sussex St. The last time my dining companion and I were in that building together was literally 10 years ago, when we were uni students, participating in a consulting competition (which our team ended up winning). I had also interviewed for PwC’s IT consulting arm in that same year, and they had a horrible group interview round – a rather torrid experience (which I did not end up winning). Ten years later, and my friend is now married with a baby, both of whom were also at the dinner.

Sepia is a pleasant, brightly lit restaurant. As unusual as it may have been to take along a baby to a restaurant like this, the waitstaff took it all in stride and we ended up with a bench seat where he could sleep through the whole meal.

Due to some misinformation about when our parking lot was due to close, we asked them to squeeze the ten or so courses into 2 hours. To their credit, they managed to do this without batting an eyelid, maintaining a good, even pace. I’m guessing the meal would normally extend to 3-4 hours. Apart from that, service ranged from clinical to incomprehensible – the people they chose to announce the dishes were not native English speakers (to put it kindly).

The food was solid, in a way you would expect from this type of restaurant, but not especially memorable. The only things I remember were the initial dishes being great (sashimi), then kind of petering out towards the end (a bland scroll of squid; a bowl full of foam), and a terrific dessert (sorbet with a chocolate “soil”).

A nice meal, and a great atmosphere and opportunity to catch up with old friends, but going once is probably enough.

$165pp for the tasting menu (not including drinks). Sepia has 3 hats from the 2013 SMH GFG.

  5:13am  •  Food  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Spice Temple

Spice Temple is another of Neil Perry’s restaurants. You enter through a big door, on which they’ve mounted a huge television screen showing a billowing curtain. You then travel down a stairwell into a bar area. The eating area is to the right and is unlit, except for a lamp hanging over each table that illuminates food like a spotlight. You need to squint through the murkiness when you talk with your dinner companions. This is a place for intimate meals, rather than large groups.

“It’s Chinese food, but as long as you don’t think it’s Chinese food, it’s pretty good,” was how Spice Temple was described to me. It’s a pretty good description. Doing a fine dining take on Chinese food is a somewhat risky endeavor. The cuisine and its fans don’t often lend themselves well to pomp and circumstance. While you can get the occasional expensive dish, price is often no indication of quality, and the service and décor of a restaurant is relatively uniform regardless of where you’re eating – the focus is on the food. Spice Temple puts a bit of a spin on traditional Chinese dishes, and it does it quite well. It’s just pricey for Chinese food.

The plate of pickled cucumbers was pretty addictive, and the tea smoked duck was tasty. They also did a different spin on the ol’ sweet and sour pork – but it was still ultimately sweet and sour pork. The standout for me was the lychee granita dessert (but then again, it’s not hard to impress me if anything has lychee in it).

About $200 for a party of 3 (3 courses, shared dishes, not including drinks). Spice Temple has 2 hats from the 2013 SMH GFG.

  5:05am  •  Food  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

On the long-term to do list…

OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo.

  11:57am  •  Science & Technology  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  •