Sydney’s Best New Restaurant
On my way to the buzzing restaurant scene and surrounding wine regions in Melbourne, Australia, I spent two days in Sydney, tasting through tons of local seafood and Asian dishes of all sorts (more on those later). There haven’t been many exciting new openings in Sydney this year—locals blame the city's taste for flashy restaurants, which are tougher to build in down times. But the economy didn’t stop chef Neil Perry from opening the Sydney location of Rockpool Bar & Grill six months ago. The $35 million restaurant, set in a former bank, has a moody Art Deco style, with soaring ceilings, gorgeous green marble columns and racks upon racks of wineglasses that glitter like chandeliers. The wine list is spectacular, thanks to Perry’s friend and business partner, David Doyle, the American owner of Quest software, who supplied part of his 60,000-bottle collection to the restaurant. (Everyone I met in Australia loved to tell me how Doyle chartered flights to have his wine—which includes some of the world’s rarest bottles—flown to Sydney.) Perry’s menu is inspired by American steak houses, with lots of simply grilled meats and well-prepared, easygoing sides, like potatoes cooked in wagyu-beef fat and mac and cheese. Perfect for letting the wine and space shine.
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