Hotel dining normally sends shivers up the spine (and palate) of any serious foodie. Yet times are changing; we have Gowings at QT, Mode at Four Seasons (now pop-up Tables), Zephyr at Hyatt Regency and now Silvester’s at Sydney Harbour Marriot.
What is our city coming to?
Three Bottle Man needs to be your first bar hop, the hotel has now opened up its prime Bulletin Place location. Follow the alleyway tables and chairs to the downstairs speakeasy, here everything in threes is the reverse trend. Choose your three gins; Poor Toms, Archie Rose or Hippocampus or Starward, Hellyers Road, or 23rd street Whiskey. You can opt for 3×2 choices for dinner or head to the main attraction – Silvester’s.
Here, rich wooden floors, open kitchen areas, curved lounge seating by oversized lampshades and soft furnishings alongside huge wooden attired pillars which stretch up to the ceiling 30 meters above all deliver drama and style.
The menu celebrates the origin of the name – Silvester’s was once a shop front for Silvester’s Brothers, one of Sydney’s early, but most respected Butchers and Merchants. It combines the best of old with the new.
An artisan small farming menu is the inspiration of Head Chef Raphael Szurek (Institut de Paul Bocuse, ex Ritz Carlton Guangzhou, China’s Canton Tower and Marriott Hanoi) who kicks off the fun with ‘small’ plates of Burrata kissed by slices of persimmon and grapefruit which cuts through the creamy richness. An inspired pairing as is the tuna poke – a round of yellow fin topped with half a soft poached quails egg tossed with soy, ginger and samphire.
‘Large’ moves into interesting territory with a fine-looking fillet of Cone Bay Barramundi on a bed of chorizo, mussels and pipis. Pumpkin and ricotta gnocchi whilst enjoyable is upstaged by the sides!
We all love a bit of something on the side and it’s here that sourcing shines. Plates of seasonal Grima Grother Farm veggies hog the limelight, baby beets, heirloom radishes, carrots and tunips offer more colour than VIVID Sydney. Choi Farm Mushrooms are deep, dark and delicious slow cooked in garlic butter.
Who thought hotel dining could tell such a great story of sourcing to table? All that needs to be done is pair with a Sticks Pinot Noir 2015 or a complex Chaffey Brothers ‘Dufte Punkt’ and we might just book a room and call it a night.
Silvester’s
1 Bulletin Place, Sydney
