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 
