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Rockpool
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Restaurant
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Sydney
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Credit Cards:
All major cards
Open:
Dinner Tue - Sat
Price:
Expensive
Score (/20):
17
Reviewed By
Sue Dyson and Roger McShane
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Phone Number:
+61 2 9252 1888
Address:
107 George St, The Rocks
Sydney, New South Wales, 2000
Country:
Australia
Food Style:
Seafood
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Neil Perry flirted for about a year with Rockpool being a more accessible, restaurant, but he has now taken it back to the more formal dining experience that it was before. This review was conducted in its former phase as Rockpool (fish). We will return on our next visit to Sydney to see what the changes have meant for the dining experience. Remember, that there is a small bar at the front where cheaper meals can be enjoyed.The wine list is still extensive and interesting, the food choices are wide and you can choose both the protein and the way you would like it cooked in many cases. Even the bread is still of the same high quality (Victoire) and 30 grams of French Echire butter is placed on the table (so much better than Australian butter - why can't we do better?). The Alessi pepper grinders are still on the table.The only negative was glitches in the service. Staff seemed to do lots of 'long walks' up and down the restaurant but did not always check to see if attention was required at the tables. Towards the end of the evening they fell into that 'must clean up' mode that sees hundreds of glasses being paid more attention than the diners.That said, the food is very good and the Asian flavours are still spot-on. A crab and pork hock salad had an absolutely perfect dressing with a perfect balance of saltiness and acidity. A dish of small Tasmanian clams, Iberico ham and spaghetti had a most appealing buttery sauce. These dishes were accompanied by a wine chosen from the good range of half bottles available on the list. We chose a Jean-Max Roger Les Caillottes Sancerre which turned out to be a beautiful example of this style of wine - so far removed from the Sauvignon Blanc styles of the New World.A whole snapper steamed with black beans and chilli had a slightly sweet underlay that didn't do much for us but the fish was cooked perfectly. And a dish of slow roasted Barossa chicken was exemplary in its cooking and simple presentation. We chose a Chateauneuf-du-Pape from Font St Michelle knowing that its delicacy and suppleness would not overpower the chicken.Dessert was a lovely custard made from Muscat de Beaumes de Venise served with little cubes of jelly from the same wine and tiny cubes of pineapple. We accompanied this with a Jaboulet from the Muscat de Beaumes de Venise appellation.
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