Monday, December 12, 2005

Glass

Introduction: Like well known speakers Luke Mangans new restaurant at the refurbished Sydney Hilton probably needs no introduction
Ambience: Set in an immense room with wooden floors and a ceiling so high it's almost out of sight it has a wall of wine, which must be at least twice the size of the feature wall at the Botanic in Melbourne, and an impressively large open kitchen. It was a surprise, which seems to be a Sydney thing, that the linen table cloths were covered with paper

Service: Luke Mangan greeted us, and presumably everyone else, on entry and led us to our table. Our waiter was efficient, well informed, courteous and personable.

Food: We had an entree of Salad of Yabbies, orange jelly, feta and campari dressing which was quite tasty and delicate without being exquisite was a good starter. The crab bisque, sauteed prawns and pickled mushrooms had a very strong flavour but still needed to be boiled down to a thicker consistancy. The chicken liver parfait with pickles and toasted brioche was very rich and creamy. Best to share between two or even three people.

For main courses I had the barbequed T bone on kipfler potatoes which was on special and was tasty but tough. The roast duck breast, caramelised peach with vanilla and pomme puree suffered the same problem and two slices of breast at $37.50 seemed a little ungenerous. The chargrilled spiced prawns cucumber and fennel salad were large very fresh and good texture but they also would not satisfy a hungry patron.
We had a selection of desserts for the table of which the standout was the Creme Brulee. The summer pudding bomb Alaska with berry compot was also very good
There is a six course degustation menu for $100 or $145 with matching wines
Price: Our 3 course meal with wine came out at about $85 per head
Comment: It is odd that the menu haeadings all all in French although by and large the rest of the menu is in plain English. The outstanding feature of this restaurant is the setting and not the food
Score: 15.5/20

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