Harbourkitchen and Bar - Sydney

"harbourkitchen&bar, Park Hyatt Sydney's stylish Tony Chi designed restaurant takes in a spectacular view that is unmistakably Sydney where lapping water can be heard through the floor to ceiling folding glass windows. The clean open design allows you to watch food being prepared by Alessandro Pavoni and his team, offering a seasonal menu of modern Australian cuisine with Mediterranean inspired flavours. Call 9256 1660 to reserve your table and receive free valet parking at lunch Monday to Friday." This is what the Park Hyatt spiel says on its' web site AND I couldn't agree more!
Day or night it is a superb venue looking across the harbour to the Sydney opera house and the gardens of Government House. Yachts, small boats and ferries are constantly passing by giving diners an ever changing scene.
The food is more than passable but a bit expensive by most standards and even more so with a 10% surcharge on Sundays
We started with a chicken fettuccini with plenty of chicken liver, cooked rare, chicken pieces and a pleasing white sauce ($28) and a quail saltimbocca which was hard and dry and rather than being wrapped in prosciuto rested on a scrap of prosciutto, tho it was hard to find ($22). The miniature gnochi with this dish were superb
The spit roast baby chicken (baby chicken hmm) was a considerable improvement ($34) and the tenderloin really good ($38). A good serve of Chat potatoes ($9) was followed by a lovely Lychee pannacotta ($18) of excellent texture and consistancy, however the delicate lychee flavour was overwhelmed by the mango accompaniment. An additional, requested, scoop of ice cream was served at no charge! Wow
Service was outstanding. Black garbed waiters with white shirts under black vests and white aprons were always close by but not in your face.

One irrition was that the entree plates were to large for the knives and forks which tended to slide into the plate resulting in sticky cutlery
There is a decent wine list. Strangely the French Mont Redon Cotes du Rhone at only $12 / glass was an excellent quaffing lunch time wine whilst the heavier Willow Creek Cab/Sav ($15) might have been better at night.
Add a $17 surcharge and it all came to a little over $200 before the gratuity which is a lot for a casual Sunday lunch but I loved the total experience.
You could buy a hamburger and walk along the quay but it would not be the same.
No way
Score: 14.25/20