Tetsuya’s Restaurant – Sydney, Australia 3

June 13, 2010

www.tetsuyas.com

My visit to Tetsuya’s Restaurant was long over due. I dunno why I had waited 4 million light years to book myself in…..but that’s just how it had been.

Another ‘change of decade’ birthday swung around and husbies and I thought to ourselves “where should we go?”, or rather “where should we EAT to celebrate?” As we’d been living in London I spoke to friend, J, (who’s totallllllly on the ball and well in the know), and asked her what was the place of the mo. She reminded me that I still hadn’t been to Tets (as she calls it….and him….) and said that clearly that was to be my birthday dinner destination…..

Dinner @ Tets was to be our first night out since Jnr had come along and so we were both super excited! As mentioned above, not only was a trip here for tea soooooo long overdue (again adding to the x-citement factor) but I had just heard soooooooooooooooooooo much about it that I was almost bursting with anticipation to get there!

Tets was booked for the night of my ACTUAL birthday, so after a day filled with cakes and heaps of other yummy thangs, you’d think I wouldn’t be hungry enough for it, but fear not, I was. I was actually born with an amazing ability to pretty much NEVER be full……hang on a second, that’s actually a curse now I think about it…..

HHHannnnnnyway, the evening rolled around and husbies was to meet me there, he would go direct from work. So, Mum pops over to babysit, I slap on some sort of outfit (all I remember now is that I was wearing fabulous black ankle boots, the rest is a blur), I jump in my car and am off……being in the city, you’re probably thinking to yourself  “why drive when you’ll bawl your eyes out for 1000 years trying to find a car space?” But valet parking was available – so, hoorah for convenience!)

Upon arrival I am greeted by 3 pleasant gentlemen, one of whom offers to take my coat. I give it to him and tell them the name that my reservation has been booked under. I am then led to the bar where husbies is waiting, we have a quick drink and are then taken to our table.

Our table is in a room overlooking a Japanese garden. At the time I assumed this was the one and only dining room but I was to learn later that there were a few rooms, one upstairs, one private and perhaps others?! In any case, our room had a lovely feel to it, simply decorated and as I said, overlooking a gorgeous JG. There were about 10 tables in the room, most set for 2, a couple set for 4 and one larger one set for about 6, I think.

Ok – lets stop here. I think now’s the time for me to say that I really have delayed writing this post for WAYYYYYYY too long. I, (like pretty much every other human ALIVE in 2010), have been SOOOOO busy trying to keep on top of “normal” life, that PHOODIE has just fallen by the wayside and seriously been neglected for too too toooooo long. On top of this post I have about 3 billion new amazing recipes, 4 other restaurant reviews, about 12 book reviews and goodness knows what other crazy food ideas/concepts etc to write about and I feel like I am so out of practice I can barely whip 2 words together…… Perhaps the best thing to do is bullet my ideas down….. I know it’s not as “flowy” to read but I fear at this stage it’s bullets or nothing….IF I DO NOT FINISH THIS REVIEW TODAY I NEVERRRRRRR WILLLLLLLLLLLLL!

Environment:

Cool garden outlook but pretty “ordinary” main dining room/space.

Very simple which I guess is good because I had come there to focus on the food, not on the space that I was going to consume it in, although atmosphere is important when looking at “the overall dining experience” and let’s just say, the room here (minus the garden) created a pretty ‘vanilla’ atmosphere.

Apart from us, as i said, there were about 4 other couples and 2 other tables of 4. One of those two other tables of 4 was a group of girls in their early 20’s, dressed to the nine’s and seemingly having a chilled dinner out for no reason in particular, in actual fact they seemed to be a little tired and bored for young gals in their prime i.e. there wasn’t much convo happening at their table and when they did speak it seemed to be in whispers – didn’t bother me in the slightest, in fact worked well for me ’cause I don’t go out for romantic dinner with husbies to hear loud rowdy ladies getting schloshed on a girls night out… which is whyyyyyyyyy THE OTHER TABLE OF 4 PRETTY MUCH RUINED MY NIGHT. OK. Let’s just all calm down. Let’s try, for once, NOT to exaggerate. THE OTHER TABLE OF 4 DID NOT RUIN MY NIGHT But……..they definitely had an impact on how I viewed the evening, and my Tets experience, overall.

They were LOUD. They were DRUNK. They were INAPPROPRIATELY DRESSED (thongs, shorts, t-shirts). They BOTHERED me. Literally all night, 1/2 a metre from my face one of the four of them was slurring words and chewing loudly whilst hollering at the wait staff for one thing or another. Horrible horrible people to dine with. Let me just say, I am not making this judgment from a high and mighty, holier than thou, place, as many a time have I been loud, and possibly inappropriately dressed! (Hopefully not at the same time!) But when the shoe is on the other foot I can now see how this affects the people around you and I vow to never be like that in such a setting again!

Food:

Overall the food was delicious. The presentation was simple and elegant, the flavours were all clever combinations, and the produce was the best and freshest available. Those facts aside, I truly must say, I was not BBBBBBLLLOWN AWAY by anything in particular i.e. none of the courses stood out to me as ‘a reason to recommend this joint to my mates’ or an ‘oh my goodness I have never seen/tasted/experienced anything like that before’ (y’know, butterflies, Royal Hospital Road – style……Asia De Cuba – style). In actual fact, I would, and will go as far as to say, I was a little………disappointed. (Argh, gasp, vomity, vom vom, guilt-central.) Now was I disappointed because my expectations were sooooooooooooooo high that they were unreachable or was it because being ‘really good’ is just not good enough anymore??….. I dunno…..and it still upsets me to write this down, but it’s the truth.

I will do a quick fly through of what we ate, as I said, it was definitely Haym (Amazing = Haymazing = Haym) but is Haym good enough to RAAAAVE about!?…..

Warm Chestnut Soup – delish, delish , tears, tears…. probably my favourite course of the evening

Sashimi of Kingfish with Black bean and Orange – HEXCELLENT, really yumbo combo’s but I love Kingfish sashimi 24/7 so…..

New Zealand Scampi Tails with Curd and Scampi Jus – Nice. (Oh how I dislike that word!)

Confit Petuna Ocean Trout with Konbu, Celery and Apple – Tets’ signature…..yummy, actually bloody delicious, but expected more!? Don’t ask me how or what, I just did…

Grilled Fillet of Barramundi with Braised Wood Ear and Chestnut Mushrooms – clean, crisp flavours, simple but good.

Braised Ox Tail with Sea Cucumber and Yuzu – not my favourite, but fine.

Twice -cooked De-boned Spatchcock with Truffle and Barley Risotto – really rather fabulous, but not extraordinary.

Grass-fed Tasmanian Angus Beef with Swiss Browns and Porcini – lovely lovely.

Pear Sorbet with Bread and Butter Pudding – probably my second fave, or third, after the sashimi and the soup.

Cannellini Beans with Mascarpone and Soy Caramel – I would go as far as to say this is one of the most hhhhhhhhhorrendous things I have eaten –  EVER. In actual fact this is possibly a reason I would tell someone to go there, someone I didn’t like too much….and I would insist on them requesting that the kitchen do a double portion of this and remove the Chestnut soup off their order! Husbies and I took our first mouthful at the same time, looked at each other and just BURSTTTTTTTTTT out laughing – soy caramel spouting out of our nostrils and mouths! We laughed so hard and we both knew why. I asked him if he thought this course was a joke and he was laughing so hard he couldn’t answer. Honestly, this dish was just not on in any way shape or form!!

Chocolate Pave with Cream Cheese Ice Cream and Cinnamon Twigs – tasty, standard, choc/cin combo – yummy and cute but NOT spectacular.

Coffee and Macarons – there were about 4 flavours of Macs, I tasted each one and it wasn’t a matter of which one was my favourite, but rather, which one could I eat in it’s entirety – they were all pretty awful :( (ohhhh I really don’t like being this negative but I must just be honest…..)

Service

The service, I must say, was excellent. Professional but down-to-earth. Friendly, but not tooooooo buddy buddy. It was good.

In Summary:

Look – overall……It must be said……that I did feel a little let down at the end of the night…..

I expected to be blown away – I wasn’t.

I expected to not be able to choose my favourite course – I could, easily.

I expected to sleep like a baby – I didn’t, I had a headache from the screamers at table 7.

Would I go again? No, not in the near future. I mean yes, if someone invited us to a dinner there or friends from overseas reallllllllllllly wanted to try it out, I’d go back, I wouldn’t NOT GO BACK, but it is absolutely not atop the list of “must return here” ‘s. In some ways though, I almost feel like such a harsh review makes this place deserve a second chance. a chance that involves NO drunken shouters and NO Cannellini beans.

AFTERTHOUGHT…… In all my negativity above, I FORGOT TO MENTION THE TRUFFLE BUTTERRRRRRRRRR – HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS?!!?!? I ate it with a teaspoon (ah, you were meant to spread it on the bread!) – it was ABSOLUTELY DELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLICIOSO!!! Honestly, no joke, a reason alone to go back there! :) hehehehehe…….

Print Friendly

3 comments

1 Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella { 08.19.10 at 12:22 pm }

Tetsuya’s is one of those must visit restaurants isn’t it! Can’t wait to read more about it! :)

2 Jennifer { 09.01.10 at 5:42 am }

My partner thought he would take me there for our anniversary last week…he called on the Tuesday for a Saturday night! Darling man!

I hear corkage is something like $35pp/bottle…I’d have to buy a cleanskin to be able to drink there (and then curl up and die of mortification and experience the shrivelling of tastebuds)

NB and I are now planning for a Wednesday night in about 8 weeks! Will enjoy hearing your experience!

3 phoodie { 09.02.10 at 4:01 am }

Jennifer – I have been SO lazy with my blog recently…..well lazy isn’t really the word to use, perhaps “busy” is being kinder to myself…..but seeings that people DO actually come here makes me feel like I owe it to them to live out my promises i.e actually DO this Tets review! Thanks for the inspiration! :)

leave a comment